Bugs! (Flying, not software)

[tcarmen]

For some reason, I get a lot of bugs (moths, etc.) flying in front of a camera that contains an IR illuminator.

The bugs cause alarms.

Can anybody give me a hint which magic setting would reduce the sensitivity for fast moving objects that take up a lot of real-estate (because they're close to the lens), but only last for a few frames?

Reference Image Blend %ge looks promising, but I can't quite figure out what kind of change (up/down/how much) would help.

I'm currently running 24FPS with a 7% RIBP.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Terry

[mitch]

Well some other settings you may want to look at:
Maximum alarmed pixels / max blob size as obviously these will cause a large quantity of the image to go alarm (maybe more than possible otherwise) so would be a good option.

Number of frames to cause an alarm (set on the source) if they only last say 3 frames on average and your events frequently have more alarm frames than that then set the min frames to 4 or 5.

24FPS is quite fast to do capture at, I would certainly try a higher RIB just because it doesn't take into account FPS. So a camera at 1 FPS will seem to have a lot more 'motion' as things have more time to move compared to the reference vs at 24FPS things expire out of the reference image 24 times faster.

[tcarmen]

Well some other settings you may want to look at:
Maximum alarmed pixels / max blob size as obviously these will cause a large quantity of the image to go alarm (maybe more than possible otherwise) so would be a good option.

Number of frames to cause an alarm (set on the source) if they only last say 3 frames on average and your events frequently have more alarm frames than that then set the min frames to 4 or 5.

24FPS is quite fast to do capture at, I would certainly try a higher RIB just because it doesn't take into account FPS. So a camera at 1 FPS will seem to have a lot more 'motion' as things have more time to move compared to the reference vs at 24FPS things expire out of the reference image 24 times faster.

Thanks!

I'll tweak the settings and see what it does tonight.

FWIW, I was watching a recording from last night and thought a King Crab fell off my roof.

It turned out to be a spider close to the lens.

Terry

[tcarmen]

Well some other settings you may want to look at:
Maximum alarmed pixels / max blob size as obviously these will cause a large quantity of the image to go alarm (maybe more than possible otherwise) so would be a good option.

Number of frames to cause an alarm (set on the source) if they only last say 3 frames on average and your events frequently have more alarm frames than that then set the min frames to 4 or 5.

24FPS is quite fast to do capture at, I would certainly try a higher RIB just because it doesn't take into account FPS. So a camera at 1 FPS will seem to have a lot more 'motion' as things have more time to move compared to the reference vs at 24FPS things expire out of the reference image 24 times faster.

I've tweaked the above settings and the problems with the bugs seem to have disappeared, however I'm getting a lot of problems with varying illumination outdoors (clouds).

I'm getting an alarm whenever a cloud passes over and the lighting changes. Any suggestions on how to reduce or eliminate these?

Thanks!

Terry

[coke]

The Chinese government spent a ton of money trying to do that for the olympics, and from what I recall, they failed.

[mitch]

Its tough to deal with rolling clouds, that and nighttime lightsources that vary can be the hardest issues to resolve. The best options I have found:
A) if it is very rapid then upping the minimum alarm frames can handle it if its acceptable
B) Create a Preclusive zone somewhere on the image that will never have legitimate motion (or rarely). This works on the fact that (hopefully) large light changes over the area will effect your preclusive zone preventing an event to fire. Sadly depending on your zone options rolling light changes can sometimes still throw it.