Motion detection question

[JimS_99 0]

I have a GeoVision 1248 system. No problems, does exactly what I want it to do. My question concerns motion detection. I posted this question in the GeoVision subforum also, not really sure where it belongs - sorry for the double post.

 

The main reason for installing video security camera's is to monitor my 2 vehicles when I'm not home, other camera's are installed around the house but are secondary to the car camera. One car sits in my driveway and is app 30' from the camera, the 2nd car is directly in line with the driveway but across the street at app 66'. I installed the car monitoring camera under the eaves directly in line with both vehicles, this is app 16' high. This camera location gives great video of both cars.

 

The problem is that the motion detection works fine for the first vehicle at 30', but for the 2nd vehicle at 66' I can do handstands next to the car and the motion detection doesn't trigger. It will pick up a car going past, but not smaller objects like people. It picks me up when I'm parking the car across the street, but if I sit in the car for a few seconds then exit the car, it doesn't detect any motion until I walk to app 40' from the camera.

 

The camera I'm using at this location is a Nuvico NVCC-HW3895IR36N-A. GeoVision software version is 8.1. The GV motion sensitivity slider is set to 9.6, any higher and it gives lots of falsing.

 

I have the camera image centered and focused at 40'. I focused the camera @ 40' using a video test pattern. I'm very happy with the video quality. Is this about the limit of motion detection for people sized objects? Is motion detection determined by the camera or the software? Would a the best solution be to use 2 camera's, each camera centered and focused on each vehicle?

 

Hope someone can answer this as I've had a lot of vandalism problems with my vehicle across the street. Not being able to detect human movement next to this vehicle is not good.

[rory 0]

If you walk sideways, does it pick you up?

How dark is the area where you are walking?

9.6 should pick you up even at that distance.

if your clothing is dark, then maybe not.

 

Video Motion Detection is not the best thing ..

Better always is hardware based motion detection like Motion Detectors or Beams.

 

Basically, without knowing how their Motion Detection actually works behind the scenes, normally it will use blocks and the sensitivity level to determine when there is motion. If they use 16x16 blocks then at 60+' from the camera a person would probably be too small to cross the block and cause motion detection. Thats where the Iview PC DVR was nice, it allowed you to change the block size for the grid, in the Motion Setup.

 

How i do motion in my program is it looks for changes in the previous image, and the new one, regular intervals. It bases the sensitivity on the blocks also, so if I use a 32x32 grid it would much more sensitive than a 24x24 grid, and more motion events are triggered, as it picks up smaller objects (which includes light changes, leaves, etc); this is not related to the sensitivity level. However my program is web based, and stands a much greater chance of false alarms due to the rise in pixelization. I am also still working on improving the motion detection.

 

Dont know if this info helps but i tried ..

 

Rory

[JimS_99 0]

Thanks for the reply Rory!

 

If you walk sideways, does it pick you up? Seems the same either sideways walking or straight on.

 

How dark is the area where you are walking? Well lit, no shadows or light obstructions during the day, night is another story, absolutely no light other than the IR.

 

The camera motion does not detect a lady who walks her dog past my car several times a day. The motion detection will detect vehicles going past my car on the street.

 

What I'm going to do is zoom in as best I can onto the car at 66' and see if the motion sensitivity improves. The vehicle in my driveway is behind an IR motion detection array that sounds a siren, so I'm not too worried about this vehicle. Although I do want video of both vehicles at some point in time.

 

You mention motion detection in your program? What program are you refering to??

[rory 0]

an updated version of the one in my signature, its something ive been working on over the past few weeks, but wont be released for a while yet. Its only remote video though, not the local side.

[cctv_down_under 0]

I beleive you can now set multiple areas with different sensitivities now in Geo

[VJD 0]

Have you tried the Advanced Motion Detection Settings?

[Scruit 0]

I'm not a professional, just a home user.

 

 

If the vehicle is far enough away that visual motion detection does not work, then could it possibly provide any useable video?

 

If it was my car and it was that far away I'd go with a zoom lens just for quality of the video, and then as a side effect you should find that detecting motion shouldn't be problem.

 

I have some cameras that are designed for an overall view of a large area so I can tell of someone is there - but the video would be useless at identifying who it is. I have other cameras that will let me see if people in some areas are people I know or not, but still not close enough to put on a wanted poster. Finally I have very close up cameras at a couple of key points that provide video images good enough to put on the TV news.

 

 

What I'm getting at is you have to understand that a long range camera showing a wide area is not going to provide you with any probative information in case of vandalism.

[Metal Shaper Man 0]

I totally agree with Scruit. However, I would add that lighting the areas both near and far is important as well.