ZoneMinder Forums

I have 5 Foscam cameras monitoring an equipment warehouse. When I have full frames set for motion detection, it detects everything fine. In an effort to cut down the number of recordings that need to be reviewed, I would like to set my zones so that motion is only detected if someone is physically taking something off a shelf, and not record when they are just walking down a row. I took one camera and created two zones for the shelves, but it is not detecting motion in those areas. I have attached a picture that shows a person doing a count in one of these areas. His body is clearly inside the zones, but it wasn't recorded. Would appreciate any pointers on how to properly set this up so it records in those zones. Zones were configured for fast, high sensitivity. Alarm check method is alarmed pixels, and I changed the min/max pixel threshold from 20/0 to 5/0. I also changed min/max alarmed area from 5/0 to 1/0.

Reads like you have the idea correct. Did you play with reference image blend on the monitor::general tab? If you're at the suggested setting of 10, lower it to 5 or less to see what this does for you.

Reference Image Blend %ge
Each analysed image in ZoneMinder is a composite of previous images and is formed by applying the current image as a certain percentage of the previous reference image. Thus, if we entered the value of 10 here, each image’s part in the reference image will diminish by a factor of 0.9 each time round. So a typical reference image will be 10% the previous image, 9% the one before that and then 8.1%, 7.2%, 6.5% and so on of the rest of the way. An image will effectively vanish around 25 images later than when it was added. This blend value is what is specified here and if higher will make slower progressing events less detectable as the reference image would change more quickly. Similarly events will be deemed to be over much sooner as the reference image adapts to the new images more quickly. In signal processing terms the higher this value the steeper the event attack and decay of the signal. It depends on your particular requirements what the appropriate value would be for you but start with 10 here and adjust it (usually down) later if necessary.

My blend percentage was previously set at 7%. What I've done differently today is go through and delete the zones and added more zones that are smaller in size. When looking down a hallway, I decided to create a near zone and a far zone. I used fast, high sensitivity with the default settings, and so far it is performing very well.