Each of the patterns can conform to a visual language and correspond to a camera status and/or a camera processing operation. For example, a color or a pattern of two or more different colors static or dynamic can indicate that the camera is on or off, has an active or inactive connection to a server e. g. , a server that performs image processing or that distributes video and notifications to remote users, is actively processing local information from the environment, or has received a notification or status information from another smart device in the home environment or a server. In some implementations that include a speaker, the physical feature e. g. , cuepoint detection for motion event candidates, video uploading prioritization, network connection management, etc. , and the camera 118 or 106 communicates with the server system 164 directly, without any controller device acting as an intermediary. In some implementations, the camera 118 or 106 captures the video data and sends the video data to the controller device for the necessary local video processing tasks. The controller device optionally performs the local processing tasks for multiple cameras. For example, there may be multiple cameras in one smart home environment e.