I recently installed a new Ring home security camera, which was a surprisingly fun experience – even hilarious at times. This is because it gave me a free 30-day trial of the Ring Pro plan with my purchase, and Ring Pro now features AI video descriptions for each camera you have installed.
These descriptions are usually just a sentence. It is invariably an American-sounding sentence, even for me, based in the UK. I was told "A person is walking on the sidewalk with a tumbler'. We call the sidewalk the 'pavement' here in Britain. How very quaint!
However, the AI description feature is useful, especially as it connects to phone and watch alerts, so I've been trying it.
It also, on occasion, gets the descriptions wrong. I noticed it happened especially on the camera by my front door, which has to identify action outside the house – perhaps because it tends to happen faster and be more varied?
All the Ring cameras are half-price on Amazon Prime Day
When I watched the clip of the person on the sidewalk, allegedly with the tumbler, they were in fact pushing a stroller. I zoomed in to see if they were holding a glass tumbler, but they were not.
Confused, I asked Google, 'can a stroller be called a tumbler in American English?' to be informed that, as I thought, a tumbler 'primarily refers to a drinking glass with a flat bottom and no handle or stem' - and that the only alternative noun referred to either a lock or a type of domestic pigeon. The person did not have a pigeon on their head, domestic or not. Indeed, I would imagine this could be an impediment to safely pushing a baby carriage.
Weirdly, further down it did say 'a person is walking on the sidewalk with a baby stroller' but the clip was of a bored-looking man trudging past looking at his phone! So perhaps the captions were out of sync?
They were also a bit stilted-sounding. Instead of saying 'a person is walking up the stairs', the description said 'a person is ascending the steps in the house'. Not technically incorrect, but unnecessarily formal. I don't have enough friends, so want to feel that the robot is my friend!
The pièce de résistance when it came to hilarity took place when my gorgeous husband and I were in bed, erm, doing what newlyweds do. The AI was incredibly coy about this! The bluntest it got was 'Two people are kissing on the bed.' Needless to say, we were doing a LOT more than that! It also amused me that, during the action, it described us as 'A person moving near another person on the bed'. Near?! Pretty much as near as you can get...
I do wonder if, at some stage, the AI will move from saying 'a person' to identifying the person's gender, but I guess this could be a minefield. 'A person' is probably safest. It would also be interesting to know if it could estimate the age of a person, but I guess this is all much further down the line.
Ring Pro costs £15.99 a month or £159.99 a year. I currently have Ring Multi, the lower-priced tier for more than one device, which only costs half as much.
The descriptions were entertaining though, so I wouldn't rule out upgrading for good. Maybe when the AI can correctly identify expressions of love?
