Why You Can Trust CNET Gemini Comes for Google's Cameras: How the AI Could Change Home Security Forever
Google's AI is poised to create massive changes for Nest cams and how we use Google Home around the house.
Google Home is about to get some fascinating camera features that will change how home security works.
When we saw Google's Gemini demonstration, where the AI identified and explained multiple objects around the room, we knew it was only a matter of time until that technology found its way into Google Home and Nest cameras. And it's happened even sooner than we thought: Google has announced that Gemini will be coming to camera activity alerts in the Google Home app, giving Nest cameras and video doorbells a new descriptive ability.
Tapping into Gemini's object recognition and multimodal training, Google Home will be able to offer updated video camera alerts that do more than just recognize a person, animal or package. They'll provide more accurate alerts based on what Gemini recognizes is happening, from "Dog digging into garden bed" to "4 people leaving tent" to "balloons and basket on doormat."
Select an alert on this new version of Google Home and you'll see it assigned tags for future searching and a more in-depth alert where Gemini can describe details like what people are wearing and what the camera saw them do, essentially a text version of the video clip in case you don't have time to watch it right now. While the alerts don't shift over time like a live narrator, they do encapsulate a whole session of action triggered by the camera motion detection. That's way more than Google Assistant could ever do alone.
Gemini knows what your camera sees and can answer questions about it -- that could change how home monitoring works.
A new generation of AI detection
We've seen camera AI attempt to provide more details before -- notably, Furbo's pet cams attempting to give extra details about exactly what a pet is doing -- but Gemini takes it much further. Likewise, these alerts can do a lot more than just send messages about strangers or deliveries. Google's own examples show how to search Google Home's activity logs with a question about where kids left their bikes. There are also plenty of examples showing pet activity in case you want to keep tabs on what your dog is doing in the backyard while you're at work.
While Gemini is still working out the kinks, including a habit of hallucinating information, Google's AI does better with objects, able to identify visual data and explain what it sees. That means compatible Google Home cams could give you updates on nearly anything, summarizing what kids did for an afternoon home alone or letting you know who chewed up the sofa cushion. There are almost too many options, which is why we are expecting to see filter options and a greater focus on searching data.
Gemini can make alerts about all sorts of things, but that capability could also overwhelm.
What's next for Google Home?
While object detection, both free and locked behind paywalls, has become a mainstay of home security cameras, we haven't seen anything this detailed before. The applications could be endless, with Nest cams serving as pet cams, backyard nanny cams, living room monitors and anything else requested.
And like other new camera technologies, this also raises some privacy issues: The mailman may not enjoy an app that can describe in detail what he's wearing, but Gemini would be happy to do it for you. Using Gemini this way may also mean that the AI will add your home security footage to its training library, which could make some users uneasy.
As Google rolls out this Gemini functionality, we'll be sure to test it and report about its accuracy and best uses, but for now there's a lot to imagine. Google is uniquely suited to bring AI add-ons to the smart home like this, but other security companies may be eyeing trained models of their own, perhaps even from Google's B2B services. We think this trend is here to stay.
To explore more about what today's security cams are capable of, stop by our lists of the best indoor and outdoor home security cameras. You may also want to take a look at how Nest is integrating with ADT's latest security systems.