If 2020 didn't feel dystopian enough, Ring dropped a real surprise in the middle of Amazon's September hardware event, revealing the Ring Always Home Cam, a quite literal automated drone camera to patrol your home.

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It's actually more simple than you might think - a Ring smart home camera mounted on a small drone, that you can then set loose in your home to patrol between set points and views, letting you theoretically see throughout your whole home with just the one device.

The drone will integrate nicely with existing Ring alarm systems, as you'd hope, meaning that a triggered alarm can cause it to set off for a reconnaisance mission through your home, to go look at the relevant area to check what's up. 

Much like any decent robot vacuum cleaner, the drone will be able to return to its dock under its own steam when it needs to recharge, taking things out of your hands. Ring's made it clear that when the camera is docked its sensors are all blocked, so it's only active when it's flying around. Part of that privacy design also means that the drone is apparently deliberately not silent - you'll be able to hear it as it moves around, so you know when it's watching. 

Interestingly, the drone can only progress along set paths - there'll be no option to control it directly, which Ring says is also for reasons of privacy. 

Even that is a little off-putting, and it'll certainly be interesting to see how many people end up opting for the Always Home Cam, which is expected to launch in 2021 at a price point of roughly $249.99.