Nest Labs is adding Google’s facial recognition technology to a high-resolution home-security camera, offering a glimpse of a future in which Internet-connected computers can analyze what is happening in people’s homes.
The Nest Cam IQ, unveiled yesterday, would be Nest’s first device to draw upon the functionality that Google has been programming into its computers — for instance, to identify people in images via its widely used photo app.
Facebook deploys similar technology to automatically recognize and recommend tags of people in photographs posted on its social network.
The new camera is to cost almost US$300, while users will have to pay US$10 per month for a plan that includes facial recognition technology.
The same plan is also to include other features, such as alerts generated by particular sounds that occur out of the camera’s visual range.
The camera will only identify people who are selected through Nest’s app for iPhones and Android devices.
For instance, you could program the device to recognize a child, friend or neighbor, after which it will send you a notifications about that person being in the home. It will not try to recognize anyone who an owner has not tagged.
Even if a Nest Cam IQ video spies a burglar in a home, law enforcement officials would have to identify the suspect through their own investigation and analysis, Nest Labs said.
Facial recognition is becoming much more common on home-security cameras.
Netatmo introduced a security camera touting a similar facial recognition system in 2015. That camera sells for US$100 less than the Nest Cam IQ.
The way that the Nest and Netatmo cameras are being used does not raise serious privacy concerns, because they only verify familiar faces, not those of complete strangers, said Jennifer Lynch, who specializes in biometrics as a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital advocacy group.
However, Lynch said that privacy issues are bound to crop up as the resolution and zoom capabilities of home security cameras improve and as engineers develop more sophisticated ways to identify people even when an image is moving or only a part of a face is visible.
Storing home-security videos in remote data centers also raises security concerns about the imagery being stolen by hackers.
The privacy issues already are thorny enough that Nest decided against offering the facial recognition technology in Illinois, where state law forbids the collection and retention of an individual’s biometric information without prior notification and written permission from a person.
Nest’s monthly subscription plan includes video storage for 10 days. Video can be stored for a maximum of 30 days with an upgrade to a subscription plan costing US$30 per month.
The high-end camera supplements lower-resolution indoor and outdoor cameras that Nest will continue to sell for almost US$200. Neither of the lower-end cameras are equipped for facial recognition.
Nest can tap into Google’s expertise in artificial intelligence because both firms are owned by the same parent company, Alphabet Inc.
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