Problem with Motion activating on no motion

[atropine 0]

Hi CCTV guys,

 

I"M having a problem with my camera and my motion activation software detecting motion when there's not really any motion there. I've uploaded a video to youtube of an example.

 

The truck turning around at the beginning is so you can establish frame rate and shutter speed. During no motion The software still sees motion ranging from 13% - 22% of the scene, with an average constant motion of around 18%. I know youtube loses video quality, but to my eye, I can see colour noise in the grass, but that's about all.

 

In the picture I"ve uploaded the green squares are where the software is detecting motion (17% motion), but in the video you can see there's not any motion. I've changed cables, and the false motion is still there.

 

The strange thing is that I never did have this problem and I was really impressed with how well the software did at not detecting false movement, such as at night with AGC UP I could set the motion activation to 99% (triggers on 1% motion) and not have false alerts. Now I can't use motion activation at all.

 

Just interested if anyone might know what the problem is, and what the software is seeing that I can't see. Only thing of interest I noticed is a slight green line going down the right side of the screen, and I wondered if that noise could be causing the problem. I don't think the green used to be there.

 

Video link here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8oNlVQnaR7w

 

PS. It is raining a little and you might be able to see that, but that has nothing to do with the false motion detecting, this problem is constant weather it's raining or not.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

I observed the clip and saw shrub/tree/branch movement throughout, (small branch/leaves in uppermost right hand corner of screen) dont know what motion detect software you are using but can you mask and re-calculate, The software I use (I prefer to use external motion devices )enable me to compare frames and then I can set the detection to start with a value of consecutive motions , the detect entered at a fixed value after positioning where I want to record or set with a a dynamic trigger. Perhaps erratic pic probs, could not see the video that well on youtube.. is this a computer card type dvr, if so did you do any recent work on the puter.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

I just saw the pic you posted, I would look for any interference on your signal input, the false reading you are getting may not be false at all you just cant see it it, could be very faint maybe a voltage issue can you swap to another cam use a short cable direct to the dvr position the cam, aim at a static point (no change) then introduce some motion and retest, see if it is still problematic

[atropine 0]

Thanks for having a look.

 

The trees, the top half of the fence, and the neighbours garage doors are all masked out, and they're the only large areas that don't have motion detected. I"M using shareware software on a computer, I haven't done anything to it lately.

 

I've used another camera and have the same problem, when I had no problems with the setup before. I think that must mean the fault is with the camera's power supply or computer/ capture card.

 

I"ll try as you suggest first though and connect a camera on a short piece of coax and make sure the problem is still there.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

Ok so it is a computer, try removing the card and re-seat it, while you are in there look a make sure all the conects are sound as well make sure nothing is interfering with the input on the card itself any contact with the frame etc...

[rory 0]

What software are you using?

[atropine 0]

It's called Active webcam. If anyone's used it, and can comment on what features more advanced professional software/hardware has over this I'd be interested to hear. I'm just a amateur home user, so wwouldn't want to spend too much on software/hardware but would be interested to know what i'm missing out on in comparison to what i'm using.

[survtech 0]

Do you live near a cemetary or an old Indian Burial Ground? You could be picking up "spirit motion".

[rory 0]

If it uses the same code that I have used in the past, then that is typical. There are some other settings that can be done to tweak it, but only in the code side of it (unless they put that in the options), and still it doesn't work great. You need larger grid boxes though, or a smaller grid (eg. 16x16), that appears to me more than 32x32 and in tests will pick up just about anything, and also, depends on the other settings as well. I would even sometimes get motion boxes showing up which were nowhere near the actual motion. The code I used basically just takes 2 jpegs and looks for differences, the previous one, and the new one. Been a year since I messed with it so cant go into details on the specifics right now.

 

Once again, not sure if it is the same "type" of code I have used, but it looks identical, except mine were red .

 

there are tons of them out there for Webcams, I used almost all of them, the code itself, until I found something that actually worked very good. I just edited it to be used with Remote Video from a GeoVision PC DVR. Never actually used it yet in my software, was just testing. I have the code here somewhere, if you are interested - it may need more work though and obviously would need customizing for your application as I edited it for mine.

 

if you only have 1 camera, try out Luxriot, their motion detection worked well last time i tested it. More here: (obviously I have tested the software you are using before, as mentioned in the following thread, but didnt seem to like it that much hence no comment!)

 

http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2021

[atropine 0]

It seems to take a picture every 1/2 second and compare the 2 images, then if motion difference is beyond the motion trigger it records. It doesn't have any intelligence , so It can't detect a person walking by a group of constantly moving bushes, instead I just have to mask out all bushes and trees.

 

I"M normally quite happy with it, until this fault that I haven't found the cause for yet. Only criticism I have of it is it's very sensitive triggering on shadows from trees or bushes. If the sun is out the shadows themselves may as well be the moving trees. Normal dynamic range and Wide dynamic range cameras trigger the motion activation it's only my Baxall Ultra wide dynamic range camera that can deliver video that Active Webcam doesn't have a problem with as far as moving shadows are concerned.

 

I"ll check out that software you suggested.

[rory 0]

Yep sounds like it does what the code I have used does, just compares the images by pixels. So if there is a change, be it light or anything, then that could be motion to the app.

[mantry 0]

I thought I would chime in on this... I am using PYSOFT ACTIVE WEBCAM also and having the same problem. I am not sure if the problem is related to the software or the capture card or a combination of both. What type of card are you using?

 

The ones that I have been trying have been 4 port cards that only have 1 chip(Bt878?) on them. The way the card handles 4 ports with only 1 chip is that it round robins looking at each camera port. So what I believe is happening is that one of the images you may get contains part of 1 frame and part of another. This normally is OK unless you are trying to do motion detection, then it thinks that you have had motion.

I have tried adjusting the parameter "Drop x of frames when...." This causes the software to ignore a certain number of frames when the card switches from 1 source to another. I would guess that there is a sweet spot to this value that could depend on CPU speed, selected frame rates, etc. but I have not had a chance to play with it much.

 

Did your problems happen when you added more than 1 camera to this card? Mine will do fine with motion as long as I only have 1 camera configured in the software.

 

I'll be posting more details/questions in a seperate thread.

 

Mark

[atropine 0]

Hi, I use a few single port video cards with this software, I've never used a multiport, because the only one I have is some cheap ebay thing with hardware video encoding that wont' work with any other software.

 

I never found out what my problem was. I delete the config file, removed the drivers to my card, uninstalled the software and removed the capture card. Then did the opposite.

 

Things began to work again. Your problem is interesting though. I hope you can work out what's going on there, and if the problem lays with the software.

 

I did try the software recommended in this thread, and it's motion activation is so much more sophisticated than this programme. But then again it lacks quite a lost of the features of active webcam also. But the basic problem I had was that it kept crashing my computer, which I've never had any software do with my BT878 chipset cards. So I never really got to trial it.