Nest Labs announced Wednesday the Nest Cam IQ indoor security camera, offering imaging and features to serve up actionable information – like knowing whether a child arrived home safely, or that there’s a stranger in the home – so users can spend more time living life, and less time managing security.
Nest Cam IQ is smart enough to differentiate between a person and cat and can alert accordingly – with no subscription required. When it detects a person, it can send a person alert to phone and will automatically zoom in on and track the person in the frame so that users can get better information about who they are and what they’re doing. With a Nest Aware subscription, users can even get personalized alerts based on who is in the house (e.g. the name of a family member, the dog sitter or a stranger).
The Nest Cam IQ customer experience starts with a foundation of hardware and software with high-quality video. A combination of premium hardware, advanced software, and a great app experience. Nest Cam IQ uses a 4K image sensor (8 megapixels), 12x digital zoom and enhance, and high dynamic range (HDR) imaging to make sure you won’t miss key details. With two 940 nm infrared LEDs, Night Vision illuminates the scene, even when it’s dark – and without a red glow. Nest Cam IQ’s speakers are seven times more powerful than the original Nest Cam and an advanced three-microphone array also delivers noise suppression and echo cancellation for a clearer audio.
Nest Cam IQ features a clean white polycarbonate design with a patented swivel mount for flexibility of placement and quick, simple setup. Nest Cam IQ encrypts video on-device before streaming and storing video content, using 128-bit AES with TLS/SSL secure connection. With two-step verification, users can select an optional extra layer of security for Nest account, and with automatic over-the-air updates, camera can be automatically updated against the latest threats.
Instead of showing what’s happening, Nest Cam IQ is smart enough to differentiate between a person and cat and can alert accordingly – with no subscription required. When it detects a person, it can send a person alert to phone and will automatically zoom in on and track the person in the frame so that the user can get better information about who they are and what they’re doing.
“When designing Nest Cam IQ, we focused on what we’ve learned from our customers, which is that people don’t want more information, they want insights,” said Matt Rogers, Nest co-founder and chief product officer. “So we combined intelligence with excellent image and sound quality to deliver the insights customers need, at the right time. These insights can range from telling you the kids are home from school to sending an alert if an unfamiliar person is in the living room.”
Having a security camera doesn’t matter if the user is not watching the video stream at the right time, so Nest Cam IQ comes with intelligence out-of-the-box. When Nest Cam IQ identifies that there’s a person within the camera’s field of vision – rather than a pet or a shadow on the wall – it can send a special alert with a curated zoomed-in photo. Person alerts is only available on previous Nest Cam models with a Nest Aware subscription. When customers check the app to see what’s happening, they’ll see a high-definition picture-in-picture experience, including a full 130-degree view of the room, and a close-up tracking view of the person in the home, so that details of a face is visible, as well as the overall context of the room.
With Nest Cam IQ, person alerts are an initial layer of alerts. If a customer subscribes to Nest Aware, the camera will get an extra layer of intelligence, and continuous cloud video storage. Face recognition learning technology is used to identify, categorize and teach Nest Cam IQ to differentiate between family members and strangers. Alerts can refer to people by name if you identify familiar faces within the Nest app.
The intelligent audio alerts will notify about things that the camera can’t see, including a person talking or dog barking. These new alerts will also be made available to existing Nest Cam Indoor and Nest Cam Outdoor customers with a Nest Aware subscription.
With Nest Aware, customers will also benefit from existing features, including 10- or 30-day video history that you can browse in seconds using Sightline, clip and timelapse creation and sharing, and Activity Zones with automatic door detection for more precise notifications.
Nest Cam IQ is available now for pre-order in the U.S. with a suggested retail price of US$299 for one camera, and $498 for a two-pack; Nest Cam IQ will be available for pre-order in UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Republic of Ireland for €349 EU, £299 GBP. Pre-orders will be available in Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain beginning June 13. Nest Cam IQ is expected to begin shipping by the end of June; and the Nest Cam Indoor and Nest Cam Outdoor will continue to be available for $199 US, €199 EU/£159 UK online and retailers in countries around the world where Nest products are sold.
