Owners of Ring cameras and doorbells just got access to a new AI-powered feature called Video Descriptions. Intended to provide a detailed description of the events recorded around your home, Video Descriptions can help you determine whether or not an activity is urgent or ordinary by sending you a concise notification about it.
In a statement released about the feature, Ring’s inventor, Jamie Siminoff said the company is “seizing on the potential of gen AI to shift more of the work of home security to Ring’s AI.” Video Descriptions is the first step in that direction, by helping users quickly determine how important a motion event is with a glance. It will be rolling out first in beta to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
The feature can be enabled through the Ring app and will work with all currently available Ring cameras and doorbells. Once active, it will begin sending users notifications of text descriptions of the motions and activities it picks up, in real time. For example, it can provide helpful information like “two people are peering into a white car in the driveway” or my favorite example, “a dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug.”
Video Descriptions uses real intelligence to limit the notifications to only the main subject of the motion and their action, which keeps the alerts short and to the point. At the same time, Ring is adding custom anomaly alerts which learn the routines of your household and can send you a notification when something is out of the ordinary for your property.
Siminoff said the company is thinking about how to build Ring today as if they were starting with AI as the foundation, and they are just starting to scratch the surface of AI. They see unlimited potential for using it in new experiences they can invent for their customers. “The team and I look forward to introducing new impactful features to all our products, making them better and better, and helping us deliver on our mission to help protect our neighborhoods and communities.”