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Set up Private AI

In the desktop app, open Settings, Private AI (fully offline), turn it on, install the models after accepting their licences, and opt in the cameras it may look at. It analyses recordings on that computer only.

Steps

  1. Record first

    Private AI works on recordings, so set up a computer in Watch mode that records the cameras you want analysed.

  2. Turn Private AI on

    In the desktop app, Settings, Private AI (fully offline): turn it on. It's off by default.

  3. Install the models

    Choose Install for each model, read its licence and accept it. Files are checked against their SHA-256; on a computer without internet, copy them into the model's folder and choose Check files.

  4. Opt cameras in

    Switch on each camera Private AI may look at. Cameras you don't switch on are never analysed.

  5. Recognise people, if you want to

    Turn on Recognise people, then per camera. Name a person on the People page only after they know and agree; Camlane asks you to confirm.

  6. Read the day

    Open Activities for a summary per camera and per person, answer Tag this? questions, and save highlights from the Recordings player.

What it needs

  • A computer in Watch mode with recordings of the cameras you opt in.
  • Disk space for the models. They’re downloaded once from their publishers (Hugging Face for the models, GitHub for ONNX Runtime) and then work offline.
  • CPU time: Private AI keeps to a budget, 15% of one core by default, at the lowest priority, and pauses on battery on Linux.

What it does with the recordings

  1. When a one-minute recording finishes, it decodes a few pictures from it.
  2. EmbeddingGemma 2 describes a picture every 10 seconds as a list of numbers.
  3. With people turned on, YuNet finds faces and SFace turns each into a template it can match to people you named.
  4. With activities turned on, a person’s sightings are cut into stretches of up to 30 seconds and compared with activity words and with what you tagged before.

Nothing runs on the live stream, and nothing leaves the computer.

Naming people

  • Unnamed faces appear as “Unknown 1”, “Unknown 2”. Groups that turn out to be the same person merge on their own; two named people merge only when you do it.
  • To name someone, confirm that they know the camera recognises them and agree. Camlane records when you confirmed.
  • Merge or split by hand if it gets a face wrong.
  • Keep a picture of each person is off by default; without it, only face templates are stored and the People page cuts faces out of recordings while you look.
  • Choose how long sightings are kept: with their recording (default), 7, 30 or 90 days, or never deleted.

Activities and highlights

  • Turn on Suggest what people are doing in Settings → Private AI → People.
  • Add your own activity words; remove any you don’t want suggested.
  • Answer Tag this? questions with Right, Change… or Remove; answers also tag look-alike moments on that camera. Turn the questions off with Ask about what it can’t name.
  • Save highlight… in the Recordings player keeps a moment, the person seen then and your note.

Deleting

What How
One person People → Delete person: templates, pictures, name, sightings, tags and notes
Everything Private AI stored Settings → Private AI → Delete all AI data
Recordings and what was learned from them Recordings → Delete all recordings

Faces are biometric data under the GDPR, Illinois’ BIPA and India’s DPDP Act, among others. Read the Private AI section of the privacy policy before you use the people features.

Something not covered here? Email hello@camlane.live.