How to 'weed' out false motion alerts

[NotSoSimple 0]

I notice I only get alerts that are actual alarm worthy 10% of the time. How do you guys weed through them?

 

Only way I could think of was the FWD the alerts to another mailbox and check it periodically. That kind of defeats the purpose of an instantaneous alert.

[cglaeser 0]

Use PIR motion sensors like a Crow or Optex.

 

Best,

Christopher

[thewireguys 3]

Use video analytic or motion detectors.

 

Motion detection on non-analytic based DVR/NVRs record ALL motion not just the motion you want

[NotSoSimple 0]

Anything cheaper for the home user?

[cglaeser 0]

I use several Optex PIR models, including the relatively low cost series and the much more expensive long range Redwall series (about $700). These units work extremely well. They don't false alarm, and they don't miss an intruder. They work in all weather, including driving rain and total darkness. I've read good reviews on the Crow Daredevil, but I've not used them myself.

 

When one of my Optex sensors starts chiming at 3 am, I get up to monitor my cameras and call the police. I have 10 arrests and counting.

 

Best,

Christopher

[cglaeser 0]

Anything cheaper for the home user?

 

Is a Crow Daredevil in your budget?

 

Best,

Christopher

[NotoriousBRK 0]

How big of an area are you looking to cover, and what generally happens in that area?

 

Outdoor PIRs can be serviceable in some locations where you are trying to cover a relatively small patch (like a standard residential 24'x30' driveway) that doesn't get much random activity.

 

Trying to cover a commercial parking lot, a large yard area, places with lots of nocturnal animal activity and so forth are frequently a giant headache with PIRs and other non-intelligent systems and you'll need to step up to more advanced analytics.

[mike_va 0]

VitaminD (analytics) and lately a rule that sends picture alerts to my cell phone in the 1-4AM range. For whatever reason that is when people are out up to no good, perhaps coincides with bar time but have not verified.

[buellwinkle 0]

You can get Bosch motion detectors that work pretty well for $20-40 and hook up to the alarm inputs on your camera and then set events to trigger off the alarm input instead of video motion detect. Analytics software like VitaminD would be great, but they do consume a huge amount of CPU power to do this, so make sure you have an adequate sized supercomputer

 

Mike, how many cameras do you have on a VitaminD PC and what's the PC configuration. I always like the thought of using VitaminD, just wasn't sure my i3 PC I currently use can handle six 1-2MP cameras.

[Digiscan 0]

When one of my Optex sensors starts chiming at 3 am, I get up to monitor my cameras and call the police. I have 10 arrests and counting.

 

Best,

Christopher

" title="Applause" />

[mike_va 0]

You can get Bosch motion detectors that work pretty well for $20-40 and hook up to the alarm inputs on your camera and then set events to trigger off the alarm input instead of video motion detect. Analytics software like VitaminD would be great, but they do consume a huge amount of CPU power to do this, so make sure you have an adequate sized supercomputer

 

Mike, how many cameras do you have on a VitaminD PC and what's the PC configuration. I always like the thought of using VitaminD, just wasn't sure my i3 PC I currently use can handle six 1-2MP cameras.

Yeah, it takes some processing power but just buy a computer that can handle it.

 

I have had up to 16 cameras (8 of them 1.3-3MP) running on an i7 does not even come close to using it all. Really an amazing computer. You also need to make sure to have a 1G NIC as the streams are all MJPEG. Don't know about an i3, i7 is not all that much more. My understanding talking to them is that the cores help. I think the i7 is also much nicer than the Athlon quad core I used to use.

 

Above about 8 or 10 cameras will hang momentarily doing a refresh. The issue is HD writes! Took me quite a while to narrow it down to this. This can be SOLVED.

 

It writes everything to the C:/ drive for crunching, then moves items of interest to the same or another drive if you have one. If you are trying to do it all to one drive it is just too much, recording and bringing events back.

 

The trick is using a SSD for the main drive. I have it set up with an Intel SSD for C:/, and 1TB black. With that I can get over a month of storage. 5 yr warranty on the Intel.

 

Same computer is also running 12 channels Axis camera station (separate bank of HD's), and 8 channels Milestone...

 

The i7 is really amazing, and it does all that at around 100W...

 

Someday I'm going to spend some time and do a post on VitaminD, it is much more useful than all the other VMS I've tried in terms of letting you know what is going on.

 

A normal VMS is nice for going back on surrounding events, or pulling a 3MP shot etc. ACS is pretty cool in terms of the amount of integration you can do (and it is rock solid stable), and Axis cameras are great in terms of multiple streams etc.

 

The other option for VitaminD with lower end processors is crunching a CIF stream, and using something else for the constant VMS. This other method takes much less processing power.

 

One final comment, using Axis cameras above 1.3MP is also possible with VitaminD. I have a post out there somewhere on how to do this.

[buellwinkle 0]

Don't know if you tried, but how responsive are they to adding support for new cameras? For example, if I had a Dahua and asked them to help support it, will they ignore me or help?

 

An i7 certainly is a powerful processor. Maybe I can upgrade the i3 to an i5 or i7 on the same motherboard, just never looked into it. Don't know what is going on with SSD but the prices dropped dramatically with 128GB SSD's for about $68 at Newegg now and buy.com has a Sandisk 240GB SSD for $154 today.

[NotSoSimple 0]

Picking up a Bosch at that price would be awesome, but unfortunately my camera does not have alarm inputs. Not running a true NVR either. Just my home file server.

[Sawbones 0]

You need actual sensors, like the aforementioned Optex or Crows. Video motion-detection sucks.

 

Dedicated sensors are MUCH more reliable for alerts.

[buellwinkle 0]

He doesnt have alarm inputs in his camera, so he is out of luck. Best bet is get a PC and use analytic software like from VitaminD that distinguishes human form.

[NotSoSimple 0]

Will analytics be able to help on a far away image?

 

 

I really only want to track motion at the gate and no more. Anything above the gate line will catch passing traffic and people walking, which I don't care. In my yard I could care less, and it would get tripped by my dog/kid/wife coming and going.

[mike_va 0]

Somewhat, the bars will make it a little harder perhaps if you are concerned about people outside the gate. Just set up a rule. For absolutely no misses (both night and day, the latter being easier) you may have too wide an area.

[mike_va 0]

Don't know if you tried, but how responsive are they to adding support for new cameras? For example, if I had a Dahua and asked them to help support it, will they ignore me or help?

I've always gotten a quick response, but have not asked them about cameras they do not support.

 

In some cases I've found cameras that work that are not listed, and they have a few links to mjpeg listings on their site. Usually you can get the string from the camera manufacturer (e.g. Axis Panasonic whatever). You could try it on their demo SW which is free. Have not played around much with non mjpeg on VitaminD.

[NotSoSimple 0]

How about this idea:

 

Picking up another arduino, a PIR motion sensor. Mount in a weather proof box. Mount on driveway. From there I should be able to have BlueIris trigger an alert from the arduino input, correct?