Connected cameras can make a nice addition to your smart home. They typically watch for motion and let you check on your place remotely with an app.
Cameras such as the pictured Lighthouse go a step beyond the ordinary Wi-Fi cam. Modern smart home cams are starting to use extra senses to be better sentries.
Complete with a 3D sensor, the $300 Lighthouse Interactive Assistant knows the difference between people, pets and objects. It even senses actions such as running. To top it all off, the Lighthouse app features an intuitive digital assistant that lets you pull up clips or set up notifications just by asking.
One of the first cameras with facial recognition, the $200 Netatmo Welcome could learn you and your family by sight and let you know if it saw strangers.
Nest has been at the forefront of smart home cams for awhile with the $200 Nest Cam. The Nest Cam IQ is taking the smarts one step further. It'll send you a unique alert when it sees a person. It can also recognize faces.
Like the original $170 Canary all-in-one, the $100 Canary View can customize alerts based on when it sees people. You won't get false notifications when it picks up footage of shadows or pets anymore.
Cherry Labs Cherry Home goes way beyond recognizing faces. The sensors map the room, and actually get to know you by your skeleton.
It learns the length of your arms and legs. Cherry Home even learns the sound of your voice and knows your position in the room. It'll use this info to determine if you've fallen or even if you're having a stroke.
The ambitious Cherry Home system will start at $900 once it's ready for launch.
Here's how Cherry Home recognizes people. Its sensors send that information to a separate processor that works through all of the data locally without needing the cloud.
Vayyar doesn't even use a traditional camera lens to keep watch over your home. Instead, the upcoming gadget from a startup of the same name will use 3D sensors and radio waves to determine the position of people in a room. It'll be able to tell if someone is sitting, standing or lying down, so it can send an alert if someone falls.
