Amazon is working on a video doorbell that remembers regular callers and sends an alert when outsiders approach.
The “visitor recognition system” would also be able to flag suspicious cars and even animals whichnenter a selected area.
Amazon, which owns doorbell brand Ring, wants to use artificial intelligence to analyse faces, hair colour, height, weight and clothing.
It could also detect the make, model and colour of vehicles and identify pets, according to documents lodged with the European Patent Office.
Footage could be compared with stored images and other data such as the time of visit, to decide whether visitors are known. If an unknown guest or unusual activity triggered the system, a security alert would then be automatically sent to the owner’s phone.
A monitoring centre would also be alerted to a potential breach and could then call security guards or the police.
According to the Sunday Times, the system can check records with other doorbells.
Amazon’s patent application, System and method for visitor detection algorithm, was given approval in the US in October.
Charity Privacy International, which fights technology abuse, called it “worrying”.
Ring said it did not use facial recognition in devices and the features in the patent were not “in development or in use”.
