Are Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cameras the Future for Home and Business Security?
An AI camera is a type of surveillance camera equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enhance its functionality. These cameras are designed to intelligently analyze and interpret the visual data they capture, allowing for more advanced features compared to traditional security cameras.
The top 4 things to think about when considering installing AI security cameras:
- What’s Special About AI Cameras?
- How Do AI Cameras Work?
- What is the Cost?
- Are AI Cameras Worth the Money?
What's Special About AI Security Cameras?
These days, AI cameras seem to be a trend that many manufacturers want to get involved with because of the benefits that these cameras provide:
The biggest selling point for AI cameras is the ability to differentiate between natural elements, pets, and humans. This means that you will only be alerted when a real intruder breaks in, reducing false alarms.
Another bonus of AI cameras for home security is the facial recognition function, which means the camera will know the new faces versus the familiar ones so you can schedule alerts only when unfamiliar faces show up.
In addition, the AI camera can remember the suspicious person or burglar and immediately identify their face if that person shows up again in the future.
Some AI cameras can collect data and analyze a scene to determine what's normal for a particular situation.
If the AI camera captures an unusual event, the system will send an alert to a user's preferred notification method, saving a lot of time in reviewing large amounts of footage.
More advanced AI cameras can even identify certain movements, like moving specific objects from one place to another. This is helpful for business surveillance, like retail stores, to catch the shoplifters who usually put the small items into their pockets or purses.
For the first time ever, AI cameras make it possible to track and analyze moving objects. For example, if someone breaks into your home, the AI camera system will optically zoom in and automatically analyze the target and take a clear picture or record a video of the suspicious person.
The AI camera not only understands what it sees, but also what it hears, and takes orders from you, like Google Alexa.
You can speak directly to the AI camera and tell it what you are looking for, saving you time and trouble in finding the clips among large, recorded files.
How Do AI Cameras Work?
How could the AI camera be so intelligent, understand what's happening, and alert us when real danger is happening? It's all about the built-in sensor and hardware.
The AI camera can produce an updated 3D model of its monitoring areas. So only 3D movement like that of human and animals can trigger an alert of the AI surveillance cameras.
Together with deep machine learning, the AI camera can recognize adults, children, pets and unfamiliar faces over time, and alert you only when real danger or a specific event occurs.
To identify certain movements, the AI camera has some preset suspicious behaviors, such as picking up an item and putting it in a pocket. Generally, it will match the pose data to those predefined movements and trigger an alert intelligently when something noteworthy is detected.
What Is the Cost?
If you have searched the AI cameras options, you might find that there are not many choices today and they are priced much higher than the traditional cameras, with a price tag ranging from $300 to over $1000.
Also, most AI cameras will involve subscription fees for video storage, which will cost you an extra $10 (or more) monthly, and this could be a huge expense in the long run.
Are AI Cameras Worth the Money?
So, should you invest in an AI camera? More than likely, AI cameras will become commonplace for home and business security in the future but taking the relatively high cost and potential issues of AI cameras into consideration, it may not be the best idea to get an AI security camera system just yet.
There are still many common concerns for AI cameras, including privacy and accuracy. The AI cameras are not intelligent enough to make the right judgement every time and could confuse similar gestures or movement with malicious intent.
More Budget-Friendly & Smart Options
While we wait for the best AI cameras to become more reliable for home use, a smart home security camera might be a better option.
The traditional smart home security cameras can already cover security needs for home, like watching the real-time video feed anywhere, recording videos when motion is detected day and night, sending push notifications to your phone, and more smart features like two-way audio.
If you are not locked into the AI security camera, there are more options that can suit your various monitoring needs, such as the wireless camera, which is easy to install and the 4G camera for video surveillance without Internet.
