Not recognizing objects at night

[joejoe]

I have a Sharx 3605 wifi camera. The trouble I'm having is it is not locating or recognizing any objects at night other than the cars driving by, which it's classifying as unknown objects. I assume this is due to their headlights, because when I turned on my kitchen lights, it located the light. I've set up various rules with no success. The basic question is if vitamin d has the capability to recognize people at night with an infrared camera , and if it does, any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

[Semper Vaporo]

I don't have any direct knowledge, but maybe some questions I have might lead you to a solution...

At night, can YOU see objects in the display of that camera (in VDV)? If you cannot see the scene, then neither can VDV. If all you can see is black then maybe the infrared LEDs in the camera are not turned on? I Googled the camera model and found the manufacturer states the LEDs are effective for up to 45 feet (that seems to be a long distance for LED illumination), but are you trying to illuminate things farther away than that?

Also, I have an infrared sensor (not video, but just a simpleton motion detector) and I tried to put it in a window that had a Plastic storm window. The plastic does not transmit infrared at all and so the sensor could "see" nothing at all. So I wonder if your camera is outside or behind a window of some sort. Possibly it is blocking the infrared?

I cannot think of anything else... maybe someone else has some idea.

[ryan]

Hi Joejoe,

These support topics might help you. If you still have further questions, let us know!
http://www.vitamindinc.com/support/ref_ ... ps_33.html
http://www.vitamindinc.com/support/ref_ ... ps_18.html

[wodin]

I have been using VDV to trigger vb.net scripts in my Homeseer home automation system. Specifically I use Foscam NetCams with IR in conjunction with VDV as occupancy detectors to turn my lights on with a 10 minute delay to turn them back off. If people motion is detected within the ten minute delay, the delayed action is removed and then reset to ten minutes.

It has been working quite well, even in a dark room with a couple of exceptions. One exception is when I’m in front of my computer, typing doesn’t produce enough motion to reset the timer, and the lights go off. Then I have to wave at the camera to get them to turn back on.

The other and most annoying problem is that there seems to be a delay of 5 to 10 seconds between the motion and VDV firing the script. I have manually fired the script from the VDV action screen and there is no delay there, so the delay must be coming from the detection algorithms within VDV itself. Is there any way to control this, or am I just going to have to live with it?

P.S. Please add me to the wishlist for a web interface and date/time stamping of saved clips.

[ryan]

Hi wodin,

In order for the tracking and recognition algorithms to do some smart filtering for things like short flashes of light there must be some buffer in the reporting. The algorithms require a number of frames to "make up their mind" so to speak about what they are seeing, similar to how we humans might mistake a coatrack for a person momentarily before we have a few seconds to fully take in the scene. We reduced this latency as far as we could without impacting accuracy sorry if it's causing you trouble but hope that explanation helps.

- ryan

[wodin]

Thanks Ryan for the explanation, I thought it has something to do with the recognition algorithms, and you have confirmed it. Kudos, BTW on that, when I first downloaded the trial version, I was amazed; this stuff is MAGIC!

I saw an article about Microsoft beginning to explore the home automation market, have you thought about exploring a liaison with them? They have been known to pay big bucks for truly innovative companies.