- In an announcement on its site today, Canary revealed that the new Person Detection feature is rolling out as we speak, though it may take up to two weeks for everyone to see it. It's part of the new v3.0.0 firmware update that you should be receiving soon.
It's been a bit of a bumpy road for Canary and its connected security cameras. While Rita had mostly nice things to say about the all-in-one camera in her review, the company has since done its best to annoy users (particularly those on the free tier) by changing its subscription model and then backtracking slightly. Perhaps some new features will go some way to win back the trust of its users.
'Canary Vision' is a new suite of advanced detection capabilities that will be made available to both free and paid subscribers in the coming weeks. Powered by AI and machine learning, intelligent person detection will be coming to Canary's all-in-one and Flex camera systems. As soon as they receive a notification, users will know right away if it was triggered by a human or not. There should also be fewer false positives and higher accuracy once the new tech is enabled.
Further advanced detection features are promised in future updates, too, which Canary says it will announce soon. The rollout should reach all 147 territories in which Canary sells its products sometime in the next six weeks, and there's nothing that users need to do to receive the update.
The company will show off some of Canary Vision's features at next month's CES trade show in Las Vegas, so we'll likely have fresh information on what it's capable of then. It's worth mentioning that activity notifications still won't have images with the new update, although Canary promises us that's something it's working on at the moment. It will be playing catch up with Nest and Netgear's Arlo in that respect.
According to Canary's press release, no other company is "delivering AI-powered advanced person detection with recorded video to all users, without the need of a subscription," but that's a questionable statement. As pointed out in the comments, Netatmo offers this and doesn't have any subscription fees at all.
UPDATE: 2018/02/05 1:21pm PST BY
In an announcement on its site today, Canary revealed that the new Person Detection feature is rolling out as we speak, though it may take up to two weeks for everyone to see it. It's part of the new v3.0.0 firmware update that you should be receiving soon.
There are no settings that you need to change to use the new feature, either. It will simply manifest as a yellow box in videos (if you have motion alerts enabled) that identifies where people were detected.
PRESS RELEASE
Canary Introduces Advanced Person Detection AI to All Users, a First in Smart Home Security
Intelligent Person Detection Rolling Out for Both Free and Subscription Service Users
Introduces Canary Vision, New Service Suite of Advanced Detection Capabilities
NEW YORK—December 14, 2017—Canary, the NYC-based pioneer of smart home security and intelligent video systems, is the first company delivering AI-powered advanced person detection with recorded video to all users, without the need of a subscription. Person Detection uses machine learning methodologies to accurately identify people within the video, and enables users to customize their alerts and notifications, and receive specific alerts only when people are present. Already in Beta, Person Detection will be rolling out over the next six weeks for all Canary users.
Person Detection allows users to discern what is happening at home from the moment they receive a mobile notification, letting them know if the identified activity is caused by a human or not. The introduction of Person Detection also upgrades both existing Canary all-in-one and Canary Flex units to deliver more intelligent alerts enabling faster identification, as well as delivery, of triggered events with fewer false positives and higher accuracy.
Person Detection is part of a larger suite of features powered by AI and machine learning, called Canary Vision, offering advanced detection capabilities to Canary users. Future releases and updates that introduce new detection capabilities will become part of Canary Vision, and will be announced soon.
“Using both distributed and cloud analytics, Canary is addressing the biggest need in security and monitoring – letting customers know with a high degree of confidence what has occurred in their homes and businesses,” said Adam Sager, co-founder and CEO of Canary. “Until now, mainstream companies have charged hundreds of dollars extra for specialized equipment and services. We believe that with the advancements of AI, particularly over the past 18 months, these are features that should be available for everyone. They provide our users with a better, and more informed, connection with their home and loved ones.”
No new hardware or subscription purchases will be required to access Person Detection for Canary customers. It will be available across our suite of products in each of the 147 countries we operate in. Throughout 2018, Canary will be releasing additional AI functions as the company continues to introduce new aspects of the Canary Vision feature suite, which will be demoed at CES taking place January 8-12, 2018.
Canary’s mission is to intelligently organize and provide information and insights about home and work environments to empower people to live fearless lives. Canary seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art hardware with sophisticated software to create simple, effective products that solve real problems and equip uses to take action in an emergency. By harnessing powerful computer vision and machine learning algorithms to interpret an extensive array of video and sensor data, Canary creates a richer and more immediate connection to the people and places that matter most. A daily habit for customers, who check into the app more than three times a day, Canary is available in over 10,000 retail stores across North America and Europe. Smarter Technology. Superior Design. Real Security.