Home CasaVerdeSmart ,,,,, Netatmo is a French brand that has already made itself known over time for its excellent smart appliances, such as an intelligent thermostat and a smart weather station, capable of combining refined technological choices with a sober and current design. The latest addition to the French house is the Welcome camera (188 euros on Amazon), a small electronic hound that, positioned near the front door of the house, silently observes anyone who enters, increasing the sense of security even when we are out. .
Out of the box the small video camera looks like a bronze cylinder with, in the front part, a black opening where the camera resides and a small warning LED: connected to the power supply and to a wireless or wired network (with Ethernet cable) just associate it via iPhone, iPad or Android device to our profile. The association process is quite easy, the instructions on the display are simple and the only operation required to certify the ownership of the chamber is to turn it over, and then put it back in its correct position (gesture that states that we are near the chamber and we have full access).
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The sales box 
The camera is similar to Netatmo weather stations 
The connectivity ports 
Here it is, next to a Netatmo weather station
The operation lasts a few minutes after which we will be able to operate immediately: we tried the App for both iPhone and iPad, the operation on both is the same, even if on the latter the larger display certainly allows operations. more convenient, having all the panels always visible instead of pop-up like on the iPhone. The partial control is also available from Mac via web browser at https://auth.netatmo.com/it-IT/ although the functions related to the portal are, at the moment, limited compared to those of the App: there have assured that it is the intention of the developers to standardize the App and portal within a few months.
I know you
The great advantage of the small camera is the facial recognition system: not only does the camera observe the area of interest (very large among other things, with an aperture of 130 °, but it automatically creates an event with each detected movement, associating it to one of the recognized faces. At first, recognition requires a few steps: the time for Welcome to work properly is variable and depends on the lighting conditions, the number of people and (probably) also on the facial features to be recognized. it took four days for him to correctly recognize all three faces of the people within the family.
At each motion detection, the camera records the event (on microSD memory inserted in the back, an 8GB card is included in the package but it is possible to insert a larger one up to 32GB) and sends a push message to all associated devices: the message contains information on the recognition (“Alessia identified” for example) or a more suspicious “Unknown face identified”. For each event it is possible to intervene and observe the moment in which it occurred, even from the 3G / 4G network, as well as observe the live recording (with a defect of two or three seconds): it is also possible to download the videos on your device, in MP4 format.
The video recording is very good, it is a FullHD shot at 24 frames per second, with audio in Mono at 16000 Mhz in AAC format, perfect for observing the details of those who entered without our permission, but also for the camera to be able to correctly recognize all faces and behave accordingly.
Privacy
At the beginning, we admit, the camera is a bit too much … loyal to its duty, with continuous signals for every movement: in particular in our house the bathroom is close to the entrance and the wide viewing angle of the room has practice recorded every activity also related to this room, a factor more than anything else useless. After a few days, however, thanks to facial recognition we were able to tell Welcome not to warn us about events with known people, arriving at a fairly normal situation, in which the reports have become much more sparse, even if from time to time we had to repeat the association of a face (perhaps because detected in variable light conditions).
It is interesting to note that all data is stored in the SD memory, thus preserving privacy: Welcome only ensures that the last frame containing a suspicious face is uploaded to the Netatmo servers, should the camera be disconnected from the power supply. This is because it is likely that the detachment is due to an infringement: in this way it is possible to request the screen from the company and provide the authorities with important help. In any case, the camera warns in case of disconnection and subsequent connection to the power supply and the network, or lack of the SD card, always with Push messages, so that if it is a break-in, we would know it in real time.
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The initial screen of the App, from where it is possible to create the Netatmo account and then start the synchronization phase of the camera 
A screenshot of the 'Welcome App via browser: currently management via computer is limited to control and it is not possible to make face registrations, but the situation should improve soon 
The iPad App screen , much more convenient than for iPhone 
One of the initial stages of recognition: the camera identifies and records suspicious movements, which can then be managed when the user wishes 
The camera is able to calculate, again on the basis of the movements and parameters set, when the registered people are inside or outside the house 
An example screen of notifications 
The small Welcome control panel, through which we can detail the level of attention of the room and the recognition of faces in batches 
The main screen of the App, from an iPhone, from where we can observe the live broadcast or all the recorded events
Conclusions
The shape of the object, attentive to design and ideal as a piece of furniture in many living rooms or entrances, as well as in offices and obviously too much for warehouses and cellars, improves if we consider that the price range is less than 200 euros, so it represents both an optimal investment for all budgets and also an interesting gift for friends, relatives and colleagues because it combines beauty and safety.
To find a defect it seemed interesting to us the use via battery, so as to be positioned for short periods even where the power supply is not reachable: one of the designers told us that this possibility had been taken into consideration but the high workload given by facial recognition causes consumption not suitable for use without constant power. The Homekit integration (from October 2018) is a plus not to be underestimated.
Netatmo Welcome, The Homekit interface and Netatmo Welcome
Pro
Beautiful, discreet, powerful and perfectly aligned with current technologies. People recognition skills very useful in large families. Homekit integration (from October 2018)
Against
He is a little pushy in messaging at first. It is so beautiful that the yarn “clashes” a little with the cleanliness of the lines.
Retail price
Netatmo is distributed in Italy by Hinnovation. It can be found on Amazon at a price of approximately 188 Euros.
Update of 2 October 2018 : the Welcome camera as well as the sister Presence is receiving the Homekit update: the firmware update that allows its use under Homekit is being progressively released to users – the camera is now on sale for around 188 Euros on Amazon]. After the update, Siri and HomeKit will appear in the app settings, by going to “Settings> Manage my home”; from here it will be possible to choose the room where the camera is installed and fine-tune the system to be controlled with HomeKit.
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