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Problem Solved
Amazon’s Ring cameras will soon feature “Search Party,” an AI tool to help find lost dogs by networking with neighbors’ cameras.The new Search Party feature is designed with privacy in mind, only sharing potential dog sightings and disbanding the network once the pet is found.
Here’s one task most people would be ecstatic about having AI take over: finding our lost dogs.
Amid the avalanche of new hardware on display at Amazon’s New York City reveal this week is a cool new AI software feature for Ring camera owners: Search Party for dogs.
It works like this: When the dog sneaks out – which folks probably will learn from their Ring app in the first place – owners can send up a digital flare asking neighbors to add their outside Ring cameras to the Fido-finding effort. Neighbors can opt into the search or not.
If your neighbors do opt in, their cameras will organize as a one-time, impromptu network with one job: to find your lost dog. If the AI spots a dog that looks like yours on a neighbor’s camera, the camera owner will have the option to send you a snapshot and video clip. And once the dog is found, the Search Party network disbands.
With enough area Ring cameras to join in, Search Party has the potential to be more effective than the old-school alternative of stapling lost-dog announcements to light poles.
And at a time of so much handwringing over what AI might do to our privacy and our livelihoods, it could also emerge as that rare, shining example of an AI technology with clear benefits and no obvious downside.
To be sure, Search Party checks every privacy gotcha I could come up with. The only thing neighbors’ cameras will share are pictures and clips of dogs that could be yours. No one else can see anything else. And when the Search Party’s over, the neighbors’ Ring cameras stop sharing anything.
The new Ring feature will start rolling out in November. Cats will follow later. Because, you know, cats.
In addition to Search Party, here are a few highlights from the Amazon event:
Alexa Home Theater
Amazon introduced impressively full-sounding smart speakers, the compact Echo Dot Max ($99.99) and the beefier Echo Studio ($219.99). Very nice – and, with Alexa+, pretty smart.Scatter four or five of the new smart speakers around the living room, plug in a Fire TV stick (the new 4K Select will set you back $39.99), and they’ll work together to set up an impressively lifelike surround-sound system.
New Amazon devices
What’s new with Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle has been the country’s best-selling reader almost from the moment it was introduced in 2007. Now, the company is focused on transforming the platform into a first-rate writer.
The new KindleScribe-series (starting at $429.99) is about as close to pencil-on-paper as I’ve come across. It’s got an 11-inch display, and it’s only 5.4mm thick – even thinner than the just-released Apple iPhone Air. The latency on writing with the included pen is just 12ms, faster than the blink of the eye. The backlight ($499.99) and color ($629.99) versions will be available later this year. The base, no-backlight option is slated to ship early next year.
Kindle Scribe at Amazon
What else is new from Amazon?
Amazon also unveiled a bevy of innovative and budget-friendly cameras from Ring and Blink, including the ultra-clear Ring Retinal 4K Vision lineup and the entry-level Indoor Cam Plus. Blink unveiled the unique dual-camera Blink Arc ($99.99) that stitches together two streams into a 180-degree view.
The new countertop Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 sport a more intuitive design than earlier models. And Fire TV sticks have a new operating system and intelligent hardware to power Alexa+.
Shop Amazon devices
That should solve a big problem common across many living-room platforms: finding what you want to watch out of a sea of options. Alexa+ will even be able to search across streaming options beyond Amazon Prime, including Netflix, ESPN, Sling and YouTube.
You might even call it Search Party for TV.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.
Mike Feibus is president and principal analyst of FeibusTech, a Scottsdale, Arizona, market research and consulting firm. Reach him at mikef@feibustech.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeFeibus.