Best Security Cameras With Face Detection & Recognition

Disclosure: Links marked with * are Affiliate Links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases if you decide to make a purchase through these links – at no cost for you!

---

Security cameras become truly smart through modern face recognition or face detection. They can tell whether a movement is a person, a pet, or a vehicle. In this article I will explain to you exactly what face recognition and face detection is and at the end I will introduce the three best security cameras in this category. The best security cameras with face recognition or face detection currently on the market are:

• Netatmo Welcome* for indoor use
• Netatmo Presence* for outdoor use
• Canary All-in-One* for Smart Home beginners

Face recognition can even compare the person with familiar faces and then only alert when someone unknown has walked through the front door. The biggest advantage of face recognition or face detection is that you can avoid a lot of false alarms and you can set individual, personalized notification or alarm criteria.

---

Difference between Face Recognition and Face Detection

Face recognition means that the camera can associate the faces with a person. Face detection means that the camera knows that it is a face but does not know who belongs to the face.

Face recognition involves teaching the camera which face belongs to which name.

The big advantage of this is that false alarms can be minimized by face detection. You can then adjust the camera so that it only alerts you when it sees a person with a face and not every time something moves.

---

How Does Face Recognition Work and What Do I Need it for?

In order to use face recognition, you have to first teach the camera which face has which name. So you create profiles for all family members and friends. That way you know if they are at your door or going into your house.

You can either do this with a photo that you give to the camera or you can take a picture of them with the camera itself. After that the camera should not only be able to detect faces but also to associate the name with them.

The result could be for example that your camera tells you when your partner comes home or your children come back from school.

But you can also set certain alarm criteria with face recognition. For example, you can set the camera to notify you when someone enters your house whose face the camera does not know. Because this would actually be a real emergency and you could react immediatly.

---

The Best Security Cameras with Face Recognition or Face Detection

Our Favourite: Netatmo Welcome

The Netatmo Welcome Smart Security Camera* can monitor the house and, thanks to face recognition, can only send you alarms when it detects strangers. This allows it to distinguish family members, friends, acquaintances and pets from thieves.

The Netatmo Welcome is a security camera for the interior of your house and therefore has a very attractive design so that you don’t feel you are being watched.

Face Recognition

To learn the face recognition of the security camera, download the app and register the faces of the people the camera should recognize with the camera.

This data is only stored on the camera and not in the cloud. The transfer of data via the app to your smartphone is encrypted. Once you have created the profiles of known people, you can set individual events and alarms to ignore known people or even pets and only receive notifications when the camera detects someone unknown.

In my opinion this is a very big advantage compared to a normal motion sensor, because otherwise you would get a message every time something moves and then at some point you wouldn’t check your security camera because you are used to it being a false alarm. This cannot happen with the ingenious face recognition.

Especially the recognition of pets is a special feature of the Netatmo Welcome. Not many security cameras with face recognition have this feature. If you have a pet and want to install a smart security camera that can’t detect pets, facial recognition has little sense if you constantly get a message or an alarm when the pet runs through the picture.

The Learning of Faces

Face recognition is infinitely more difficult for a machine than it is for a human being. We know immediately that it is a face and can also connect this face with a person. A software doesn’t have these instincts and has to create it by sophisticated and ingenious programming to assign a face to a known person.

So it happens that the Netatmo Welcome needs a few weeks at the beginning until it can reliable assign all known faces. However, the camera learns quickly. Every time it recognizes an unknown face, you can tell it which person it is if it is already registered in the database.

The camera learns the faces bit by bit and false alarms occur less and less. Practical is also that you can see in the profile of the person a bar chart, which shows you how safely the camera already recognizes this person.

Video Quality, Memory and App

The video recordings are made with a 4 megapixel sensor at 1080p with 30 fps and a field of view of 130 degrees. The integrated infrared LEDs allow the camera to show this quality even in the dark, but of course you should make sure that the area you want to monitor is well illuminated. Because the quality is of course better the more light the camera gets. Light is particularly advantageous for face recognition.

The 130 degree field of view is more than sufficient to monitor the room or area behind the front door. If the camera is not in the corner of a room, these 130 degrees are borderline if you want to completely monitor a large room from a wall.

The camera stores the video recordings on the integrated 4 GB SD card. This storage space can be increased up to 32 GB.

The Netatmo app is compatible with Android and iOS devices and can also be used via PC. With the app you can adjust the camera to your individual needs. You can set whether an alarm or only a message should be sent for a certain movement or a certain face.

The Netatmo Welcome* also has a microphone. In addition to video recording, you can also record sounds and conversations. It is also possible to program individual alarms. For example, you could set off an alarm when the security camera hears the fire alarm. Although there are also smart fire detectors, you can also integrate an old, non-networked fire detector into your Smart Home.

Installing the Netatmo Welcome

Like most other Smart Home devices, the Netatmo Welcome is easy to install. In principle, all you have to do is download the Netatmo app and follow the instructions in it. Once the camera is connected to your WLAN, you can start testing it and registering faces.

Ideally you should connect the smart security camera with a LAN cable to your network. This ensures a stable livestream of the security camera.

Pros & Cons: Netatmo Welcome

---

For Outdoor Use: Netatmo Presence

The Netatmo Presence* can recognise faces and distinguish between people, pets and even vehicles – up to 20 metres away.

This outdoor security camera is IP66 certified, suitable for all weather conditions. Cold winters, long lasting rain showers and extreme heat in summer are no problem for the Netatmo Presence.

Smart Alarms

Just like the Netatmo Welcome indoor security camera, the Netatmo Presence can be set to alert only when certain events occur.

Since this security camera is designed for outdoor use, it is important to be able to define areas where no alarm is triggered. Otherwise you would get an alarm on your smartphone every time a car drives by or someone walks his dog.

So in the Netatmo app you can set the camera to react only to certain faces that are in front of your house. One way would be to ignore familiar faces and only notify you when someone unknown is in front of your house. In addition, the headlight could also be activated at the same time. So the unknown knows he’s being watched. So you can use the security camera not only for surveillance but also as a deterrent.

Pros & Cons: Netatmo Presence

---

Allround Genius: Canary All-in-One

The Canary All-in-One* is particularly suitable for beginners in the Smart Home area, because it is not only a security camera but also a weather station, intercom and baby monitor in one. The artificial intelligence of the camera detects unauthorized persons and alerts you via your smartphone.

Just like Netatmo’s smart security cameras, the Canary All-in-One’s facial recognition prevents false alarms. The HD video quality and the night vision mode allow faces to be reliably recognized.

Unfortunately, this security camera only unfolds its full potential with a paid subscription. Functions such as archiving videos or streaming live images are reserved for this subscription.

Smart Home Integration: Alexa and Google Assistant

Thanks to its compatibility with Alexa and Google Assistant, the camera can also be operated with voice commands. In this way, data on air quality or the presence of persons can be asked. For example, you could ask if your child has already left school and is at home.

The Canary App

The Canary App allows all Canary devices to be operated in or around the house. You will also get all notifications from the Canary camera via this app on your smartphone. Here are some useful features of the Canary App:

• Livestream: You can use the app to access the live image from the camera at any time with your smartphone.
• Video Archive: The app allows you to retrieve the recordings of the last 24 hours.
• Timeline: The app shows you which events happened at which time. You can select these individually and evaluate them via your smartphone.
• Smart notifications: You can customize the camera so that you only get notifications when the event is of interest to you.
• Geofencing: Geofencing means that the Canary App is allowed to access the location of the smartphone, allowing different events to be controlled. For example, the security camera could only record videos when everybody has left the house.
• HomeHealth: The app can notify you when temperature, humidity or air quality exceeds a certain threshold.

Video Quality and Modes

This security camera can also record in today’s usual HD quality of 1080p. In the dark, the camera automatically switches to night vision mode. The field of view is 147 degrees, which makes it possible to monitor a larger room at a wide angle.

In addition, the camera has a microphone and a built-in speaker which allows an intercom function.

Pros & Cons: Canary All-in-One

---

Final thoughts

Now you know the best security cameras with face recognition and face detection. I hope this article will help you make the right choice for your situation.

For my part, I don’t want to miss my smart security camera when I’m on vacation or business trip. So I always have a safe feeling and know who is inside or outside my house.

The best security cameras with face recognition or face detection currently available are:

• Netatmo Welcome* for indoor use
• Netatmo Presence* for outdoor use
• Canary All-in-One* for Smart Home beginners

---

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.