Troubleshooting Your Tend Camera's Facial Recognition
Tend's facial recognition feature is a fantastic tool for making your security alerts smarter and more meaningful. Knowing that a family member has arrived home is very different from an alert about an unrecognised stranger. However, when the system fails to work correctly—misidentifying people or not recognising them at all—it can undermine your confidence in your security.
If you are having issues with your Tend camera's facial recognition, this guide will help you resolve them. We will cover the essential checks and adjustments, from the physical setup of your camera to the settings within the Tend Secure app.
Common Facial Recognition Problems
To get started, let's identify the specific problem you are encountering. This will help you focus on the right solutions.
- Fails to identify registered faces: People you have already saved in your "familiar faces" library are being flagged as strangers.
- Mixes up different people: The app sends an alert saying one person has arrived, but it was actually someone else.
- No notifications for recognised faces: The system seems to work, but you do not receive any alerts on your phone.
- The familiar faces library won't save: You try to add a new person, but it fails to save their profile.
- Recognition is slow or delayed: There's a long pause between someone appearing on camera and you receiving the notification.
- The feature is greyed out or unavailable: You cannot enable facial recognition in the app settings.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Fixing Tend Facial Recognition
Let's work through the troubleshooting process, starting with the most common and impactful solutions.
1. Check Your Tend Secure Subscription
For most smart camera brands, advanced features like facial recognition are tied to a paid subscription plan. This is often the first place to check if the feature has suddenly stopped working or is unavailable.
- Open the Tend Secure app.
- Navigate to your Account Settings or subscription management area.
- Verify that you have an active subscription that includes facial recognition as a feature.
- If your subscription has expired, you will need to renew it to restore the functionality.
2. Optimise Camera Positioning and Lighting
The camera cannot recognise what it cannot see clearly. The quality of the video feed is the most critical factor for accurate facial recognition.
- Angle and Height: Install your camera so that it captures faces head-on, not from a steep downward angle or from the side. The ideal height is typically around 2-2.5 metres.
- Good Lighting: Ensure the area is well-lit. Faces that are in shadow or heavily backlit (e.g., a person standing in a sunny doorway) are extremely difficult for the AI to process. Consider an external light if the area is too dark.
- Proximity: The person's face needs to be large enough in the frame. If the camera is too far away, the facial details will be too pixelated to analyse.
- Keep the Lens Clean: A dusty or smudged lens can cause a blurry image, making recognition impossible. Wipe it gently with a microfibre cloth.
3. Manage Your 'Familiar Faces' Library
A well-managed library of faces is key to the system's accuracy.
- Start Fresh: If the system is consistently making errors, it might be best to delete all existing face profiles and start again. This can clear out any corrupted or poor-quality data.
- Use High-Quality Seed Images: When you add a new person, ensure the initial photo the system uses is clear, front-facing, and well-lit.
- Correct a Few Mistakes: The system is designed to learn. When it misidentifies someone, be sure to go into the event log and correct the error. This helps to train the algorithm over time.
4. Check Your App and Notification Settings
The issue could be as simple as a misconfigured setting on your phone.
- Enable Smart Alerts: Within the Tend Secure app, go to the settings for your camera and ensure that notifications for facial recognition or "Familiar Faces" are turned on.
- Phone Permissions: Check your phone's main settings to ensure the Tend Secure app has permission to send you notifications.
- Update the App: Make sure you are running the latest version of the Tend Secure app from the App Store or Google Play. Outdated versions can contain bugs that have since been fixed.
By carefully checking your subscription, optimising your camera's view, curating your face library, and verifying your app settings, you can resolve the vast majority of issues with Tend's facial recognition.