I have been using the Netatmo “Welcome” camera.
I wish there was some direct SmartThings support for it.
Instead, I’ve been leveraging IFTTT as the middleman.
What I like most about it, is the facial recognition features.
It allows me to create custom events based on individual people being seen (or, based on “unknown face” being seen.)
It also has “motion sensor” functionality.
Recently, it added some sort of “audio/alarm” notification, too!
e.g. If/when it hears something LOUD/STEAD (like a smoke alarm,) it will send you an email/text/alert.
(Unfortunately, it thought that the vacuum cleaner was an “alarm,” too.) <-- That’s how I learned about this new “feature.”
The facial recognition has allowed us to create things that say things (via SmartThings and Sonos/Samsung smart-app) “Welcome home, princess.” or “Welcome home, Joe.” or “Good morning, Jane” and such.
I haven’t tied to “view” the Netatmo camera via ST, however. At the moment, I just open THEIR “app” if/when I need to actually see/review an event.
I also like that I can see/view it via any browser/PC, too (not just the smartphone app.)
CONS:
1.) Can’t “blackout” areas of the screen image (yet.)
e.g. if the edge of your camera’s viewing angle can see into your bedroom, then it’s indeed going to see/capture that.
My issue: The edge of the camera can see the big-screen TV in the living room. So, it keeps seeing actors, and trying to add them as “new faces.” I had to literally tape a business card to the side of the camera, to put “blinders” on it.
In reality, I’d still like the camera to RECORD that area of the room. I just don’t want it to perform facial-recognition in that area of the image-scape. (e.g. I want the ability to “mask” areas out of facial recognition.) But, I’m sure some people would respectively want to “mask-out” some of what gets recorded, too! (bedrooms, door lock combinations, kids bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.)
2.,) No “then” events for IFTTT.
I would like to be able to tell the camera to turn on, or off – based on “then” events (such as smart things triggers.)
e.g. turn the camera ON when we leave the house.
Turn the camera OFF after 10pm.
Turn the camera ON if there is motion from ANY of our indoor sensors, when our ST status/mode = “away.”
PROS:
I LOVE that we don’t have to pay any monthly service fees, or cloud-storage fees, etc.
WISHES:
I wish we could map the storage location to a network drive or NAS device or cloud server of our own. (I assume that will be some sort of “future/feature release?”)
Brownie Points: If there’s a way to indeed save these into some decent file structure, so we can access/manage them via our Plex server, too. That way, we can more-easily see them on ANY device, ANYWHERE!