‘Ring’ Founder Calls for Community Action

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter

As “knock-knock” gangs and hot prowlers continue to haunt Pacific Palisades, one local inventor is arming neighbors with the technology to keep an eye on criminals on their doorstep.

“Ring” is, like all great inventions, based on a simple idea.

When someone rings your doorbell, a gadget in the bell links to your Wi-Fi network and sends a live feed to your mobile phone or computer.

You can talk to the caller, check them out and, if you are suspicious, make sure the chat is filmed. There have been issues with connectivity (it cannot perform better than your Wi-Fi speed), but local cops, such as Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore think Ring is worthwhile.

The idea was born in necessity.

Jamie Siminoff, a telecommunications engineer from Marquez Knolls, built the first prototype in 2011.

While spending many hours in his garage working on a modular gardening project, Siminoff had trouble keeping watch over his home. In response, the inventor built a wireless doorbell—affixed with a security camera—with odds and ends from around his workshop.

“It wasn’t meant to be anything except a personal tool for my workspace,” Siminoff told the Palisadian-Post. “But then my wife began telling her friends how much safer she felt while at home with our son.”

Over the course of the following three years, the chief inventor’s video doorbell evolved from the original prototype—formerly named Doorbot—into the groundbreaking product that the company is known for today.

It really took off two years ago after Virgin tycoon Richard Branson invested, making it a $60 million company overnight and allowing Ring to step up exports to nearly 100 countries.

Named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 10 Gadgets of 2014, Ring’s ingenuity lies in its placement. By housing a high definition camera at the height of a doorbell, the Ring system is able to catch a clear snapshot of a visitor’s entire face—a feature that has helped capture many criminals.   

“Ring’s positioning and parameters are what set it apart from other security systems,” Siminoff said. “The camera is activated by motion and can backlog up to five seconds before activated.”

In addition, the product’s two-way audio feature gives homeowners a direct line to communicate with whoever is near their property, thus allowing the user to always be at home, regardless of their location.

“To us, catching a criminal is only half a success,” Siminoff said. “Our product delivers presence back into the neighborhood, and what we are finding is—that when you do that—you can actually prevent crime from occurring in the first place.”

In 2015—in an attempt to study their product’s impact—Ring installed 41 of its video doorbells on homes in the Wilshire Park community of Los Angeles. After a six-month pilot study, results showed that no burglaries occurred at any of the houses installed with the product—a factor that contributed to a 55-percent drop in the area’s burglaries.

Over the next year, the company will proceed with developing new app tools that will allow users to directly share video feed with neighbors and even their local police department.

“Our current aim is to better the ‘ring of security’ around neighborhoods as a whole,” Siminoff explained. “The idea is that, by connecting with one another, entire communities can become vigilant about keeping their families and assets safe.”

Moving forward, Siminoff would like to see more Palisadian residents utilize social media sites like Facebook and Nextdoor to continue conversations about creating neighborhood watch forces.

“The criminals keep evolving so we have to keep evolving,” Siminoff said. “Ring makes its easier to create shareable ‘content,’ but in order for it to be effective, members of the community must work together.”