When Vivint Smart Home released its Doorbell Camera last year, something quite unexpected happened. Matt Eyring, chief strategy and innovation officer at Vivint Smart Home explains, “Younger children, specifically those without cellphones, were ringing our doorbell to talk to their parents.” This observation led to the development of Vivint Ping–the first indoor camera that enables two-way talk with the ability to both call in and call out so families can easily connect and communicate.
“The idea behind the product is connection rather than surveillance,” says a Vivint spokesperson. For example, a child could ping a parent to ask for help finding soccer cleats before practice, or an elderly parent could press a button on the unit to talk to a family member or caregiver. The Ping can also send an alert to your smartphone when it detects that someone has walked into the room, and 45-days’-worth of video footage can be stored in and retrieved from the cloud via Vivint’s Smart Clips service. There may very well be more in store for the Ping, as well as other devices (thermostats, smart door locks, smart light switches, security system, and more) in Vivint’s product portfolio. The company announced that it is working with Amazon to connect its products with Amazon Echo, a technology that enables Vivint users to control devices via voice commands.
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