Here’s How To Use Your Roomba As A Security Camera With This Little Known Feature – SlashGear

If you have a compatible Roomba robot vacuum, you can navigate toward any location (that’s already been mapped by your device) in your space and initiate a video live stream using the machine’s built-in object-detecting camera. You can view the video feed through the mobile app, and only you can view it. The feature is turned off by default and is optional, and footage is never stored or accessed by iRobot at any time, ensuring that your privacy is sufficiently protected, according to the company.

Remote Check-In is a great and useful feature to have from a security standpoint as it allows you to quickly check for any significant changes in your home environment while you are away. Of course, the Roomba is above all else still a vacuum, so if you have a scheduled cleaning mission that’s about to take place, it will interrupt an ongoing live stream. If you want to manually start a cleaning mission, you can only do so after properly ending a check-in live stream.

For now, Remote Check-In is only available in the U.S. and only for iOS users. In addition, only j7 series robot vacuums are eligible for the upgrade, and only one j7 vacuum per iRobot account will be able to use the feature as intended. If you have more than one j7 device listed in your account, according to iRobot, “the feature will not work as expected.”