The last twenty years has seen the complete democratization of communication and information technologies. Gizmos with functions formerly reserved for companies with hundreds of millions in their pockets can now be found on the desks of ordinary working people. High quality nanny cameras, which capture digital footage as perfect as any camcorder, are one of the technologies to make their way out of the homes of the wealthy and award-winning and into the lounges of the world. This is also the case with door and window alarms, and with the ubiquitous motion detector alarms.

Indeed, the last of these now cost about as much as a packed lunch. You'll be able to find contacts, the twin magnetic components used to make door and window alarms, for under $4 at most hardware stores. Magnetic alarm contacts form a circuit, which is broken when a door or window is opened, a disruption which in turn signals for your alarm sirens to sound and the police to come a-running. Door and window alarms are so easy to install, you might just as well take the task on as a DIY project - a little silicone and some wood glue and you'll be feeling safer in no time at all. Alternatively, most security companies will provide this most essential part of any home security surveillance system for you relatively cheaply (provided you've agreed to sign a security contract with them, of course).

Since contacts guard your doors and windows, you should consider them the first line of defense for your home security system. Next on the list should be motion detector alarms. These, too, are relatively cheap. There are a few different technologies that allow for motion detection. Ultra wideband radar (BWR) detectors emit an inaudible signal over a fixed range. If that signal bounces back sooner than expected, the BWR detector knows that something has moved across its view, and trips the alarm.

Passive infra-red (PIR) motion detector alarms have become integral to most everyday home security surveillance systems. They measure the infrared light that radiates from objects within their fields of view. When an object of one temperature, such as person, passes before an infrared source with another temperature, such as a couch, the PIR detector registers that as motion. In this instance, the term 'passive' is used to indicate that PIR detectors do not actually emit a beam of infrared light (you'd need to pay quite a bit more for that), but just passively accepts incoming infrared light.

Out of all these devices, though, the potential of nanny cameras has probably grown the most. You can use them to check your house out at any time of day, by viewing their footage on your computer or cellphone. All you need to do is install them in the relevant parts of your home (which if you're actually a new parent, are those parts of the home where your baby should be), and you'll be able to tell whether the nanny's doing her job.

There is, of course, no reason you shouldn't have your entire home security surveillance system function in this manner. All you need to do is buy up a bunch of webcams and convert them into nanny cameras by putting them in common household objects and ornaments such as clocks and book-bindings. The only requirement is that your ornaments be located within reasonable proximity of a power point. The footage these makeshift nanny cameras capture can be transmitted directly to a storage cluster online, where it will remain, safe and secure, for days or weeks - the only dependency being how much you're willing to pay for the storage space. Keep in mind that an extensive home security surveillance system might require multiple terabytes of space for just a few days worth of surveillance.

The smart way to circumvent the need for vast quantities of disk space is to have your door and window alarms and your motion detector alarms activate your home security surveillance system. Numerous brands of nanny cameras and home security cameras actually come with motion detection software or hardware pre-installed, so shop around to see what's on the market before you dive in to using software to integrate your door and window alarms with your cameras.

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