Introducing Camio Chips: Blending Natural Language with Interactive Search | by Carter Maslan | Camio

Introducing Camio Chips: Blending Natural Language with Interactive Search

Carter Maslan
4 min read
· Aug 12, 2025

The latest large multimodal models make it possible to search video in plain language — just say what you’re looking for and see results instantly. But people still want the clarity of seeing options and refining searches without guesswork.

Camio Chips bridges that gap by turning your freeform queries into clickable, interactive elements — combining the speed of natural language with the guided discoverability of structured controls, all in one seamless interface.

Camio Chips turns key parts of your natural language query into interactive UI elements you can adjust instantly — bringing structured control to freeform search.

The Search Dilemma: Flexibility vs. Discoverability

If you’ve ever hunted through hours of video, you know the problem. Click-based search tools — dropdown menus, dialogs, and filters — are browsable, but they’re complex and offer only the choices someone thought to include. Natural language search, on the other hand, can ask for anything, but can feel uncertain — especially when you’re trying to refine a tricky query involving multiple cameras, time ranges, or types of activity.

We started asking: why not have both?

Camio Chips: The Best of Both Worlds

Camio Chips grew out of the idea that natural language and interactive controls could work together, not compete. Type a query like:

“someone messing around with ethernet cables Server Room 5am to 8am"

…and Camio turns key phrases into clickable, colored “chips” you can adjust on the fly.

Instead of starting over, you can swap the camera, change the date range, or select a different zone — all without losing the rest of your search.

Each chip supports edit in-place and interactive selection of values.

It’s like your search is alive — ready to be poked, prodded, and fine-tuned without making you retype everything.

Camio Chips

The Power of Interactive Refinement

Let’s say you start with:

“someone messing around with ethernet cables Server Room August 11 to 13”

With traditional search, modifying this query to check different cameras or time periods means starting over. With Camio Chips, you can refine and reuse phrases of your query:

  1. Click “Server Room” → pick “Main Entry” or “Service Exit” instantly
  2. Click the time chip → adjust the date/time range in seconds
  3. Double-click any chip → edit in-place directly
  4. Drag chips to save them → build a personal library of useful search phrases

Over time, your saved chips become a toolkit you can pull from in seconds.

Saved chips become a palette of query phrases that expedite investigations.

Why This Matters: Time-to-Result

In investigations, speed isn’t just convenience — it’s critical. Every second spent navigating menus is time you could spend acting on what you’ve found. Camio Chips lets you refine searches in seconds, turning a good lead into actionable evidence before the moment passes.

Smart Context Awareness

Camio understands time naturally — whether you say “8am to 10am yesterday” or “last 30 minutes,” it interprets and applies the range instantly as a Camio Chip, no extra clicks required.

The interface adapts to what you meant, so you spend more time analyzing and less time fiddling with filters.

Simplicity of Natural Language

Point-and-Click Precision

A New Interaction Paradigm

For forensic analysts, this means faster investigations, more accurate results, and confidence in what you’re seeing.

Ready to cut your investigation time in half? Camio Chips are included with your existing Camio subscription. Try your next search and watch your words become tools that work as fast as you think.

Camio Chips combines the freedom of natural language with the guidance of clickable controls — so you can find exactly what you need, faster.