(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Following its initial venture into AI with the launch of Smart Video Search last year, Ring is now expanding its capabilities with a new feature called Video Descriptions, which has recently started its rollout.
Rather than receiving vague motion alerts like “Person detected,” Ring cameras and doorbells will now provide contextual alerts, such as: “A person with a bike has been seen,” or “A man with tools is in the kitchen.”
This feature began its beta rollout earlier this week for Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada and is compatible with all current Ring doorbells and cameras.
Utilizing generative AI, this feature goes beyond the traditional object detection methods that have been in place for years. It’s part of a larger initiative to enhance monitoring by relying more on machine intelligence.
The aim is to provide more useful alerts and minimize irrelevant notifications. If your phone buzzes with a message like “Someone is looking into a black car in the driveway,” you’re likely to check it out. But if it says, “A person is walking up the steps with a black dog,” you might not, especially if it’s your neighbor Steve and his dog. Again.
Ring’s latest AI feature provides detailed text alerts
Ring
These descriptions are meant to be concise and direct, avoiding lengthy explanations of what’s happening in the video.
According to Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who has rejoined the Amazon-owned brand, the AI will focus solely on the main subject that activated the motion sensor and their actions.
Siminoff noted, in a recent blog post, that Ring is also developing anomaly alerts that learn what is typical for your home, only notifying you when something unusual happens, like someone hanging out in the garden at 3 AM, or your dog suddenly redecorating the living room.
Moreover, there’s a possibility of consolidating multiple motion triggers into a single alert, which could help alleviate the barrage of notifications triggered when someone walks around the side of your house, activating every camera in succession.
Other companies like Arlo and Wyze are also harnessing AI to reduce notification noise in security camera alerts. Arlo features Event Captions, while Wyze introduced Descriptive Alerts earlier this year. Brands like Eufy and Swann have similarly integrated AI into their security camera systems.
Currently, there is no facial recognition included in Ring’s latest AI functionalities, which means the descriptions will remain relatively general for now. However, it’s easy to envision a future where this technology collaborates with Alexa+ to implement advanced routines, such as locking a door when a stranger approaches or turning on the garage light when it recognizes your child arriving home on their bike.
To explore this feature, you will need to subscribe to the $19.99/month Ring Home Premium plan—just activate it through the Ring app.
We anticipate more features are on the way in the upcoming months, but keep in mind this is still a beta version, so some initial hiccups may occur.
