Former Samsung subsidiary Hanwha Techwin has announced that its Wisenet-SmartCam N1 and Wisenet-SmartCam N2 are now available for purchase, eight months after launching at CES 2018. The Google Home and Amazon Echo Show-compatible cameras are on sale at Sam’s Club for the SmartCam N1 at $149.99 and at Crutchfield for the SmartCam N2 at $199.99. The former of those is available in a white casing over the black camera hardware and will remain an exclusive for that particular retailer. The SmartCam N2, on the other hand, comes in black-on-black coloration and will also be available ‘soon’ at Amazon and the Home Depot website.
Both cameras, meanwhile, are effectively identical with the exception of a single feature and the above-mentioned coloration difference. For starters, each features a 130-degree ultra-wide angle lens and footage is captured and streamed at 1080p Full HD with ‘Wide Dynamic Range.’ A proprietary Wisenet 5 chipset, meanwhile, drives advanced facial recognition and human detection to prevent false alarms caused by inanimate objects and pets. That’s all built into a stand-based frame meant for indoor use that can be surface or wall mounted. Furthermore, that chip drives lens distortion correction features and audio detection. The Wisenet-SmartCam N2 has the added ability to detect specifically for anomalous sounds – such as a baby crying, glass breaking, or any other out of the ordinary noise that could indicate something requiring the homeowner’s attention. For those situations where it might be necessary to interact with that situation at a distance full duplex two-way talk is enabled by an embedded mic with both cameras. Using a connected device via the Wisenet SmartCam+ Android application takes functionality even further, allowing the system to remember “Interested Faces” in order to track specific faces and provide alerts on unrecognized faces.
Setup is also performed via Bluetooth Low Energy-based discovery and a smart device in order to sync either camera up via dual-band Wi-Fi. Users can disarm or arm their camera as well as adjusting settings and receiving notifications via the app. If a Google Home or Amazon device is connected as well, users can use voice commands to get a daily briefing of the footage captured over the past day as well as other IoT functionality. Storage is provided via either the company’s own SmartCloud video storage service or microSD card up to 128GB, so added cost will need to be factored in for that. Subscriptions are available at the 5, 7 and 21-days levels. Those who opt to use Hanwha Techwin’s cloud-based storage option will have the added ability to filter through stored footage by recognized face.
Wisenet-SmartCam N1Wisenet-SmartCam N2
