In stark contrast to your typical baby monitor The Owlet Baby Monitor Duo can monitor your baby’s heart rate and levels of oxygen. Chloe Collyer, her infant put this baby monitor to the test.
Things have changed somewhat from the walkie-talkies type baby monitors with audio in the past, however I, at times believed that it was just a matter of time before videos were almost commonplace today. It turns out that technology has advanced tenfold and I discovered this by I was presented with the Owlet baby monitors; a baby monitor with a smart sensor which can monitor the baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels, as well as sleeping patterns as well as offer HD video.
When I was planning to have the son of my own, Arlo, sleep in my room for the initial one year, I realized that while he was just several inches from me, that was not enough to stop me looking across the side of his crib and listening the tiny breaths he breathed while watching his chest move up and down as he fell asleep comfortably. If I ever wanted to be able to sleep perhaps the Owlet could be of help…
The Look
It is available in two sizes: Owlet Smart Sock and Owlet Cam are sold as separate items, however I went on an Owlet Baby Monitor Duo which comes with both and the elegant design creates it apart from the tone.The Owlet Cam is compact and the monochrome colors are perfect for any room. Instead of a separate monitor the video stream is sent via an app that you can download to your phone so that you don’t waste space with other things. To date, I’ve had the Cam sitting on it’s base. However, I’m going to put it on Arlo’s cot. You’ll be equipped with everything to do this. There are even covers for your cables, which makes it not just beautiful, but secure as it keeps loose wires away from the way.
Its Smart Sock charging base is also small and elegant and would look great at the Apple Store. The sock can dock quickly charge, but the base also will illuminate to inform you exactly what’s happening with baby. Green indicates that the readings are within considered safe zones, while red warns you to ‘check on baby’ in case any readings aren’t in line with normal ranges. The Sock is available in three colours: Original Mint, Dusty Rose and Deep Sea Green, and are available separately, should you want to switch your style.
Usability
It was extremely simple to setup. It’s as simple as downloading the application, and it walks you through an easy step-by-step process. The camera was connected immediately but I ran into difficulty connecting the sock, and so naturally went to Google to discover the answer. I didn’t need to bother because my friend beat me to it via the chat function within the Owlet application. He was then given an easy guideline for connecting the sock. In less than five minutes we were up and running. You can make use of the same login information on multiple devices, which means my spouse and I receive alerts and see his statistics, and once we’ve roped the parents in to babysitting our children, they’ll be able download and use the app , too.
It’s important to remember that for you to be able to use the camera, you need a reliable wireless connection. I have a speedy broadband connection, but there’s a corner in my house that doesn’t receive the best signal. This is where I first was able to set up the camera with the camera. It would stop working however, once I moved it only one meter the area, the feed would be instant (I observed that it had around five seconds of time delay) as well as the feed for video would be loaded fast when I launched the application. The video feed can be streamed through the app and it can be streamed continuously, which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the first few months. If you’d like to be able to utilize phones, the app can notify you whenever it detects sound and motion that I’ll be more comfortable with when I’m older.
