Nest’s ‘IQ’ AI security camera can spot intruders

Nest’s home security camera is supposed to be so smart that it can identify people it’s been introduced to.

That skill comes from facial-recognition technology made by Nest’s sibling company, Google.   

The Nest Cam IQ camera is so slick that it carries a premium price – $300 (£299) – plus a $10 (£8) monthly subscription to run the facial-recognition program and other features, such as 10-day video storage. 

Journalists who put the technology to the test found it wasn’t easy to pull the wool over this camera’s prying eyes. 

The Nest Cam IQ offers a glimpse at how deeply intelligent computers will be able to peer into our lives, especially as more home appliances become connected to the internet.

Journalists from The Associated Press set a camera up in the San Francisco bureau and identified everyone who regularly works in the office. 

They tested whether the camera would remember them and send notifications when it spotted them. 

The camera also sends alerts when it sees someone it doesn’t recognise, raising the possibility of an intruder on the premises.

That made them want to find out just how smart – and potentially creepy – this camera really is. As part of the test, a couple of journalists donned disguises.

It still recognised them wearing psychedelic garb, wolf-like head gear, an Egyptian pharaoh’s headdress and a fake moustache. 

Understandably, the camera couldn’t recognise journalists under a Frankenstein mask. 

For some reason, it was just as baffled when an editor it usually had no trouble recognising donned his cycling helmet and sunglasses in the office.

The camera will only identify people you select through Nest’s app for iPhones and Android devices (left). The Nest Cam IQ camera (right) is so slick that it carries a premium price – $300 (£299) – plus a $10 (£8) monthly subscription to run the facial-recognition program

The camera occasionally got baffled when it saw someone from a side angle, even it had previously identified that person.

It also added images of paper print-outs of people’s faces to their profiles and questioned the identity of an Albert Einstein image on one reporter’s T-shirts. 

That’s not something that the iPhone X would have recognised, as it adds depth to its recognition algorithm to understand what’s a real face and what’s not.