There are a number of features built into this package, but of course the main feature is BeyondCry, which was co-developed with Zoundream and uses AI to interpret baby cries and sort them into broad categories. He’s not going to hear a scream and translate it into something like, “I want to play with my teddy bear.” Instead, it will tell you if the cries indicate hunger, discomfort, or drowsiness.
However, to actually use this feature, you will need to create a separate account with Zooundream and agree to its dedicated privacy policy. I reviewed the features using the included free trial, but after the free trial you will need to pay for a subscription, which costs around five dollars per month.
So, does this feature work? I don’t know. Here’s the problem with crying babies. Sometimes they cry for several reasons. Sometimes crying because they are uncomfortable is solved by feeding them. Sometimes they are uncomfortable because they are hungry, and sometimes they are hungry because they are uncomfortable.
Perhaps most importantly, as a parent of a baby, you learn to understand how to soothe your baby, whether or not you know exactly why he or she is crying. And during those first crying sessions with your first baby, where you have absolutely no idea what to do, being told the baby is uncomfortable isn’t going to help. You’re just going to have to suffer and try all the different tricks you read about in the baby book.
That’s not to say it’s not an interesting gadget, but it is just that: a gadget. I found this interesting and sometimes funny, especially when a split-second noise in my six-month-old daughter’s sleep resulted in an “uncomfortable” feeling – and by the time I opened the app after seeing the notification, she was sound asleep again. But I’m definitely not going to pay for it once the free trial ends – and I suspect that if I wasn’t considering this tool for work, I might think a little more about privacy before signing up for a service that sends audio from my baby’s nursery to a random cloud service. The fact that it’s entirely optional is a good thing, because it means you can skip the service altogether if you prefer, without having to look for a completely different baby monitor.
That said, the Motorola PIP1710 Connect offers plenty of other features, although they’re all much more conventional. You get motorized horizontal and vertical pan and tilt, as well as 4x digital zoom, giving you decent flexibility for scanning the room or zooming in on your baby from further away. There’s a built-in temperature sensor with customizable threshold alarms, so you’ll be alerted if baby’s room gets too hot or too cold. Power saving mode turns off the screen and continues audio playback, and it also allows you to tap the screen to wake it, after which it will turn off after a set time.
To soothe you, the monitor can play lullabies and white noise – just what you’d expect. The parent unit’s battery life is around six hours at maximum brightness. The six-hour figure is more than many competing monitors achieve at full tilt, which is good.
