We’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of something highly important, like browsing for hairy armpit fetish pornography, and then your baby monitor shrieks out a weird wailing sound. Your wife looks at you from the kitchen sink and gives you a flick of the head as if to say, “Go upstairs to see if he’s alright. And no, I’m never growing my armpit hair.” If only you had a video baby monitor.

Summer Baby’s Quiet Sounds Video Monitor
(£84.99 from Mothercare)

Yes this is (relatively) cheap, but the camera is only black and white and the monitor is an old-fashioned CRT. Man has walked on the moon, the Berlin wall has fallen, Dr Who is on his 11^th incarnation, and we now have colour cameras and LCD screens. This is an embarrassment of a baby monitor that only a time-warped hermit should consider buying.

Safety 1st High Clarity Colour Digital Video Monitor
(£149.99 from Kiddicare)

Now this is more like it. A full colour baby monitor with a hand-held colour LCD screen receiver. The camera also has infrared LEDs that invisibly light up your baby’s nursery during the night and allow you a clear view of him straining out his midnight poo. My only gripes are that the screen is pretty tiny and you can’t hook the camera up to the Internet. Why would you want to do that? Well…

Y-Cam Knight Wireless IP Security Camera
(£154.99 from CMaC)

Be aroused. Be very aroused. This is the video monitor of your dreams. Primarily sold for CCTV applications, this is the kind of high tech dadgetary you may not have realised that you needed, but you soon will.

The Y-Cam Knight is a standalone colour camera, with infrared night vision, that connects to your home wireless network to allow you to view the camera from your laptop. Did I also mention that you can view it from your iPhone? Did I also mention that grandparents can securely log in and view it over the Internet? Did I also mention that you can move it to your hairy-armpitted Swedish au-pair’s bedroom when your baby has grown up?

Needless to say, I’ve bought one of these fine fellows from the good people at CMaC and I’ll provide a full review here shortly. (Full review now here)

This entry was posted on February 26th, 2009 by Craig Alan Williamson
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