Smart doorbell uses facial recognition to grant access to friendly faces

Chui is a smart doorbell and camera that automatically lets in homeowners' friends and family using facial recognition.

Doors are getting smarter. In the recent past, we’ve seen the DoorBot camera enable homeowners to see who’s visiting via their smartphone. Now a similar device called Chui is adding facial recognition to automatically grant entrance to friendly faces.

Installed in place of a regular doorbell, the Chui connects to the home’s wifi and features a speaker and camera that feeds through live to users’ smartphones or tablets. The system scans faces as they approach the door and matches them to the faces of homeowners’ social contacts or previous guests, delivering a notification to their device. If the face isn’t recognized, they can view the camera feed to determine who it is. Users then have the choice to speak to the visitor via the speaker, play a pre-recorded message such as ‘Do not disturb’, or automatically let the person in when Chui eventually supports integration with smart locks such as Lockitron. The video below offers a demonstration of the device:

Chui recently completed a successful Crowdtilt funding campaign, and the developers still have 49 of the first batch left for reserving, at a cost of USD 199. How else can smart technologies be integrated into the home?