Ring cameras can now recognize faces and help to find lost pets

At an event on Tuesday, Amazon unveiled a range of new AI-powered features for its latest Ring cameras and doorbells.

The features will enable Ring users to recognize visitors’ faces and find lost pets by connecting with other Ring users in the same neighborhood. Amazon also launched an Alexa+ feature that functions as a smart doorbell assistant, providing details about visitors before users answer the door.

Ring is also introducing its first 4K product line along with “Retinal Vision,” a new imaging technology designed to provide clearer video.

The most notable feature revealed at the event was “Familiar Faces,” which uses AI to identify friends and family. Users can enroll the faces of their loved ones into the device, enabling Ring to alert them when it recognizes a visitor. The AI will also alert the user when an unfamiliar person is detected, helping them to make an informed decisions quickly.

The company explained in today’s blog post that the new feature is meant to empower “customers to reduce notifications triggered by familiar people’s routine activities” and eliminate guesswork for people detection.  

“Equally important is that if someone you don’t recognize is lingering, you’ll know immediately [they’re] unfamiliar,” Ring founder Jamie Siminoff told press at the event.

Ring has faced criticism for its close ties with law enforcement and its history of poor data management. Last year, following numerous complaints, the company announced that it would no longer accommodate police requests for footage from Ring users without a warrant.

The new AI features added to Ring cameras bring tangible convenience to users' daily lives. The "Familiar Faces" function allows users to know in advance when relatives and friends are visiting, while also filtering out unnecessary notifications triggered by the daily activities of acquaintances, reducing unnecessary interruptions. Additionally, the feature for finding lost pets, by linking with other Ring users in the same community, significantly increases the probability of retrieving lost pets, addressing a major pain point for pet-owning households. Furthermore, the Alexa+ Smart Doorbell Assistant provides visitor details before opening the door, and the clearer 4K video enabled by Retinal Vision technology also significantly enhances users' experience in both security and daily use.

Although the new features of Ring cameras seem practical, we must remain vigilant about the underlying privacy and data security issues. Ring has previously been heavily criticized for its overly close ties with law enforcement agencies and poor data management. Even though it promised last year not to provide user footage to the police without a search warrant, the new AI features such as "Familiar Faces" involve the collection and recognition of large amounts of facial data. If data protection measures are inadequate, there is a high risk of facial information leakage. When users enter the facial information of relatives and friends into the device, they are essentially entrusting sensitive private data to the platform; if a data breach occurs, the consequences could be disastrous.

The new features of Ring cameras build a new bridge for mutual assistance and security collaboration at the community level. When searching for lost pets, linking with nearby Ring users breaks the limitation of individual households searching for pets alone, allowing community residents to collectively participate in pet rescue efforts and strengthening community cohesion. In terms of security, "Familiar Faces" recognition can quickly distinguish between strangers and acquaintances, and promptly alert users when unfamiliar individuals linger. This not only provides security guarantees for individual households but also helps identify potential security risks in the community earlier, contributing to the creation of a safer community environment.

The series of new AI features that Amazon has integrated into Ring cameras reflect how technological development is driving consumer security products. Features such as "Familiar Faces" recognition and Retinal Vision imaging technology are practical applications of AI and imaging technology in civilian security devices. The integration of these technologies makes Ring cameras more competitive among similar products. The launch of the 4K product line also meets users' demand for higher-definition video surveillance, helping Ring further consolidate its position in the smart security market while potentially pushing the entire industry to accelerate the pace of technological innovation.

The new features of Ring cameras have improved user autonomy to a certain extent, but there is still room for improvement in information transparency. The "Familiar Faces" function allows users to independently choose to enter the facial information of relatives and friends and decide which visitors' alerts to receive, reducing uncertainty about visits from strangers. However, key information such as the accuracy of AI recognition and the specific process of data processing remains unclear. Users cannot know the error rate of AI when distinguishing between strangers and acquaintances, nor do they understand how the platform stores and uses the collected facial data. This lack of information transparency may make users hesitant when using the features, affecting their experience.