The Best Face Recognition Gadgets

Thinking about the safety of your home? The right decision. A CCTV camera will greatly simplify this task. Rapidly advancing technology has provided it with artificial intelligence. This scientific achievement will remember all the welcome guests in your home, saving their faces in the database.

Now no one can trick the camera by wearing glasses or changing their hair. The neural network defines facial features down to the smallest detail and takes into account accessories and makeup.

Now you can just find this miracle function everywhere. We are remembered by smartphones, video-eyes, home surveillance cameras. We are under the gun of cameras in law enforcement, in banks, at airports, at customs.

Such a leap in the development of this technology makes more and more people think about the security of their data, and the government is forced to find new ways to regulate this issue.

But let’s discuss which CCTV cameras will be the best option for home use. Fans of innovations enthusiastically fill their homes with various “smart” gadgets, everyone wants to shift household chores onto robots and digital assistants, to make their home as comfortable and safe as possible. Every day the wonders of technology become more accessible and more and more people can afford them. But which surveillance camera should you choose? Now let’s try to figure it out.

Optimal NEST HELLO

This camera perfectly copes with its task and unmistakably recognizes people, and is a little cheaper than its “brothers” ‒ Nest Cam IQ Indoor and Nest Cam IQ Outdoor. Besides, this particular model has combined everything that we expect from such a device.

If IQ Indoor is essentially only a surveillance camera, then Hello and IQ Outdoor Cam also include a video intercom. It is recommended to install the camera at eye level so as not to lose sight of any visitor.

Of the minuses of this model, like the entire Nest line, it is possible to note a paid subscription to Nest Aware ‒ a cloud service, without which face identification will not work. 

But even without this function, Hello remains out of the competition when choosing a video intercom. Therefore, take a closer look at this option, even if you don’t need face recognition. This camera will cost you $229.

Economical TEND SECURE LYNX

Many people put an equal sign between price and quality, but this does not apply to Tend Secure. The camera is only $60. At the same time, it works great and recognizes faces free. That is, unlike previous cameras, no subscriptions are required. As a bonus, free video storage is offered for a week.

The first time you use it, you need to create a database of potential guests. It takes a little tinkering with the settings to introduce the camera to each person, but we will forgive this slight inconvenience. Of all the budget options, Tend Secure Lynx can be considered one of the best.

Home Assistant NEST CAM IQ INDOOR

Nest Cam IQ Indoor, like Nest Hello, recognizes faces with high accuracy but requires a paid subscription. The position of the camera can be adjusted thanks to the movable hinge, now no corner of the house will be left without attention. The device will notify you when it spots a person in the field of view and takes a close-up of his face. If this is their first time meeting a guest, Nest Cam IQ Indoor will send a warning to the host. Over time, the camera learns to recognize familiar and unfamiliar people.

The manufacturer has equipped the camera with a Google Assistant speaker, which allows it to take over the responsibilities of Google’s “smart home”. You can ask your home assistant if an umbrella is useful, or which way is better to get to work, so as not to be late due to traffic jams. The cost of such a device is $299

Here are a few more options that deserve attention, but are inferior to the above in various aspects:

Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is sold for an unreasonably high price of $349. At the same time, in terms of functionality and parameters, it is identical to Nest Hello and Nest Indoor, which will not hit your pocket so hard.

Netatmo Welcome, in principle, copes with its task, but it can still be missed if you shave off your beard or put on glasses.

The Wisenet SmartCam N1 is relatively inexpensive, $150, and it identifies faces quite well. The camera also supports microSD memory cards. A good option, but Tend Secure Lynx still has a big advantage ‒ a low price for the same quality.

And here are a few models that are far from ideal:

Honeywell Smart Home Security has nothing to boast of, it can both confuse you with someone else and forget completely. It is difficult to call the stable operation of this camera.

Tend Secure Lynx Pro is no better than the Tend Secure Lynx model of the same name. Even though the Pro version is intended not only for indoor but also for the street, this did not affect the main function ‒ face detection ‒ for the better.

Such impressions of the device were left in the process of testing and checking their various parameters. As software updates and enhancements are released, specifications and performance may change.

How the cameras passed the exam

For the camera to remember you, you need to either “get acquainted” with it in person in real-time, or show your photo. Artificial intelligence is challenged not only to distinguish the image of a person from other objects but also to recognize who exactly is in front of it. A profile is created for each person individually. With its help, the neural network will determine whether it is familiar with this person. As a result, when the setup is complete, the camera will begin to notify you when someone from its memory comes into view.

This option can be configured for a specific person or all acquaintances, or only for family members. The function is convenient when, for example, you are waiting for your parents to visit, and you want to go to the door even before they ring the bell. Or let’s say you decided to throw a house party. There are the final touches in preparation, guests should come any minute, and you want to meet them on the doorstep with hugs, and not with a festive duck in your hands, which you did not have time to bring to the table.

But the main task of video surveillance is still security. Ideally, the camera should accurately distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces. Alerts can be configured so that they come when the camera sees in front of the door or directly in the house of a person who is not in the database. Then you will not be disturbed by constant signals when motion sensors are triggered.

So how do you test the camera? Just make it work actively. Usually, a database is created for verification, and then the device is given complete freedom of action. It takes a little time to let the gadget prove itself. A few days will be enough. During this time, neural networks will see faces from all sides and significantly increase their attention to detail.

Now you can arrange a skill test: has the camera confused people’s faces, has it identified a person from different angles, has it stopped recognizing when changing an image or with additional accessories. It happens that faces are not defined at all, or vice versa, a bush swaying in the wind is identified as a person. Comparing the performance of different cameras, you can make ratings and give an objective assessment of video surveillance devices.

Perspectives of the face id function

It is easy to guess that, first of all, face recognition will begin to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. It is expected that soon, people who are on the wanted list will be entered into the police databases, and if any of the surveillance cameras are found, a notification will be automatically sent with information about who, when, and where was seen. This will greatly simplify the process of tracing criminals. Now, nevertheless, cameras with identification are intended mostly for private use, that is, it is assumed that the user will add exactly familiar people to the database. And even if someone’s face arouses suspicion among artificial intelligence, no data will be sent to the police.

Maybe very soon such cameras will become an integral part of everyday life. Imagine that you no longer need the keys to the intercom, you just have to go to the door and it opens by itself, says “welcome home” and addresses you by name. The elevator remembers which floor you need to go to and takes you up. Even the car starts only when it sees its owner. Someone dreams about this and is waiting for the onset of such a future, someone is scared. But one way or another, progress does not stand still, which means that many more incredible and useful inventions await us.