They say you will recognize the house of a gadgeteer as soon as you walk through the door. This might be true, especially if the gadgeteer in talk is using a digital peephole like the one found on Hammacher Schlemmer. They call it “The Better Peephole,” but you will be able to find it on other online stores as well, under all sorts of names.

Hammacher Schlemmer has come up with a correct name, however, since there is no better peephole than a digital one. Why not get rid of the old one you are currently using, which shows people with a circular, non-realistic effect, as if you were watching them through a distorted lens. Not to mention that some old peepholes show a dark tint on everybody's skin, no matter the lighting conditions. They can be confusing, sometimes, which is why I bet you will not resist The Better Peephole.

It is a very useful solution for the door of any office that is regularly visited by different clients, or you can easily apply it on yours with help from the installation video on Hammacher Schlemmer. It has a 96-degree field of view and uses a 1.3-megapixel CMOS that you find on most webcams out there. So, instead of seeing your visitors through a fish-eye lens, you can employ The Better Peephole's 2 1/2 TFT screen.

This is also useful for the shorter family members, who don't have to pull up a chair anymore in order to look through the peephole. What they will have to be able to reach though is its on/off button. It even has zoom, to a 60-degree angle of viewing and runs on two AA batteries that will last for 1,500 viewings. The gimmick costs $129.95.


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