I Have several cameras hooked up to a computer running Blue iris. Very happy with it.
On my private road ( with trees next to it) I have 2 cameras facing each other and with blue iris I use the motion detect to send alerts via vera and vera alerts.
It works fine , unless it is a very beautifull day with lots of sun and a bit of wind. The trees and/or clouds shadow causes lots of false triggers.
For about a year now I am trying to finetune the motion detect , but it is impossible, (changing the parameters in blue iris and a mask).
Time to look into another option to check if something is approaching my house.
I would like to check if a car is approaching , people and animals. I am not interested if my trees are moving
Before I buy some devices I want to see what all the options are. What I came up myself with:
On either side of the road a beam with reflector.
PIR sensor
distance sensor
???
For option 1: That would work for people walking along my road and cars. But wild animals crossing my road wouldn’t hit the beam. Also in Winter time when on the sides there is a meter of snow , the “beam” and sensor will most likely be snowed in. I don’t think I can get this to work , especially due to the winter/snow.
Option 2) Will this also work for cars?
Option 3) Does something like this exists? , when in a specific area the distance changes? let’s say from 1 to 20 meters? I can hook a device next to my gate , “watching” the road , of something is approach , the distance will obviously change. Not sure of something like this exists.
You would be surprised to find how a very small active area works well to sense movement on your road. You say you’ve used masks, but have you masked out ALL the trees, and just left a small area on the road “active”?
These cameras sense motion by comparing one frame to the next for change. I assume a less sensitive setting would compare more than one frame etc.
At any rate, getting the mask “right” is one way to approach this.
I would also like to capture the wild animals , and the can cross all over the road, to mask out everything except a small area would not be ideal for this. All the trees are masked out , it is the shadow on the ground, not only from trees , but also clouds.
Anyone has some ideas, for using something else instead of the motion detect from the cameras?
You need multiple sensors and some conditional logic. As you pointed out, you can false triggers on one or two sensors/cameras, but by having multiple sensors and some logical conditions you can almost eliminate false alarms.
For example: Let’s say you have a long driveway from the street to your main house. You have sensors at the street end, another set 25% further up towards the house, another 50%, etc. So using some logic, a “someone is coming up the driveway” trigger wouldn’t happen unless a certain group of sensors triggered in a certain sequence within a certain time frame. You can do this using PLEG.
Another alternative is using something like the Dakota Alert driveway monitor. You can wire to an ever spring door sensor and incorporate into vera. They aren’t cheap, but seem to work pretty well. We use one at the front entrance. Ultimately our goal is to set up a perimeter monitor
@ TC1: which sensord would be best for this purpose , the “change in picture” used by blue iris isn’t working for me on the driveway.
@ tb001: I see in the specs: “Passive infrared (PIR) beam detects motion of cars, people and even large animals” so that means a sensor with PIR also works with cars …
That would mean if I just get a motion detect sensor , for example the fibaro one: [url=https://www.google.at/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=fibaro+motion+detect+]Google That would do it ? or not?
Would a simple motion detect sensor be sufficient, also to detect cars ( hooking it up offcourse with a “universal sensor” from fibaro or arduino with mysensors ? for that money worth a try.
My point is that you need a combo of sensors. You can mix and match. What makes it reliable is the logic and sequencing of the sensor triggers.
You can still keep your camera sensors, maybe add some ultrasonic, laser, or other motion type sensors at different locations along the detection path. while each one might false trip, the likelihood of them all false tripping in the exact sequence for a positive detection is highly unlikely.
I use the Dakota Alert with the base station wired to a door window sensor, they work good, I have the sensor pointed down the driveway and it never misses a car, dog , person etc. I recently added a second sensor and another door window sensor that would trigger first if we are leaving that way ignoring the one pointed down the driveway.
I will try to use a PIR sensor, lets see if that can do the job.
I have never had one of these PIR sensors , Is there a lot of difference in quality and sensitivity? Any specs I need to look at?
What I would like to try is , get one of these “loose sensors” and hook it up on a fibaro universal sensor to make it zwave.
