Press play to start listening
For most of the decade gone by, the “smart” aspect of smart camera systems resided on external hardware setups that belonged to someone else; i.e., a security firm owned the footage and any queries would be worked on behind the scenes, with the answer being sent back to the owner’s phone, usually for a monthly fee.
However, this year, a series of events (particularly the unsettling Nancy Guthrie case) has shifted that status quo, leading many to question not only what a camera can and cannot recognize but also where that backend recognition work actually takes place.
AI features, priced per month
Regardless, the cloud-first model is still very much alive and kicking, with Google’s camera line now integrated into Google Home Premium, costing subscribers $10 or $20 a month. However, popular features such as Familiar Faces still require a further, special subscription (while Gemini-powered alerts and AI summaries also sit in a similar paid bracket).
And, even though such a setup might look unusual to some, it really isn’t. This is because recognizing faces, sorting clips and answering questions about footage takes computing power, and for years the easiest place to put that power was a data center billed back to the customer.
The catch, that has now presented itself, however, is that every one of those features depends on footage leaving the house, being processed elsewhere and staying available only while the plan stays active.
The brains move into a box
With privacy concerns skyrocketing with each passing day, a growing consortium of security hardware manufacturers have been betting on the fact that buyers would much rather keep all of their cameras’ audio/video processing activities to the confines of their homes.
In this regard, this year’s iteration of CES saw Reolink preview a standalone hub built to handle local detection, search and processing, cutting out any cloud dependency entirely. Similarly, last month, smart home security giant EZVIZ used the IFA stage to pitch a local-first range that makes the cloud optional rather than mandatory, even though it continues to sell cloud storage and keeps some features online.
According the highly popular security camera and smart home brand Lorex, a highly popular its Connect V Series supports local recording without a mandatory cloud subscription, with detection features varying by model. Optional cloud backup is available, allowing owners to keep footage off-site as well as on their own equipment.
Local AI comes with homework
That being said, moving the entire aforementioned data stack in-house shifts a large chink of the responsibility onto the owner and a recorder that performs facial recognition is a far more valuable target than one that simply stores video. Consequently, firmware updates, strong unique passwords and keeping the device off the open internet matter more.
Facial recognition also raises its own questions about recording neighbors and passersby, and the rules on that vary by state and country.
Still, the shape of the market has clearly changed because just a year or two ago, AI features were mostly a reason to sign up for a plan, but now, they are increasingly being built into the hardware itself, and buyers now have a real choice between renting a camera’s intelligence by the month or owning it outright. In any case, an interesting couple of years lie ahead for the industry!
(Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki)
