Ring's new Smart Video Search dazzled me with its accuracy - here's when you get to try it

Amazon is on a roll this month -- with Prime Big Deal Days underway, tablets released last week, and now new search features for its Ring customers. Ring is adding artificial intelligence (AI) to its video history, letting users search for specific situations and surprisingly detailed moments.  

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The new Smart Video Search will let you search "UPS truck" in your video history on the Ring app and get a list of results with videos of all the UPS trucks captured in the past 30 days, queued up right when the event happened. You can get more specific, too, searching "raccoon at night in the rain" or "squirrel on the roof in the afternoon," and have the Ring app show you exactly what you mean. 

I was thoroughly impressed by the search accuracy during a demo ZDNET had with Eric Kuhn, GM at Ring Experiences and Subscriptions. I was glad to learn that this feature will launch to all Ring Home Premium subscribers on Nov. 5.

Google is launching a similar feature for its Nest Aware subscribers but has announced it would arrive "later this year," so its timeline is unclear. I also attended a demo for the Nest camera feature with AI search, but Google didn't search for such specifics as "a red truck in the rain," which Ring did with great results.

"Smart Video Search is one of Ring's most advanced AI features," said Kuhn in the announcement. "It's powered by Ring IQ -- which is a combination of Ring AI technology and in-house expertise -- and uses Visual Language Modeling to match text to images and quickly deliver results. Instead of scrolling through your video footage to figure out who ate the last of the ice cream or why the garbage cans are knocked over, you can type queries directly into your Ring app to quickly pinpoint the right moment."

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I've been granted beta testing access and Smart Video Search has worked well in my experience -- it's certainly convenient when you're looking for the exact moment something happened or need to revisit past events for security reasons. I'll have fun with it during Halloween, searching through different costumes to see how accurate the feature can be.

This new Smart Video Search feature is rolling out to select customers in public beta starting today and then to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US beginning on Nov. 5.