Hello All,
Any recommendations in combatting Motion Detection during Snowfall? Object Size is one option we have in our Axis Cameras, but wanted to see if anyone had any more creative solutions. We would like to be a cost effective as possible, meaning, not wanting to spend a ton on high end Analytics sw. Just looking to see if there is a quick and dirty solution you might use.
Thank you in advance!!
This is a huge challenge, and I suspect/hope the growth in analytics will soon make pixel-based motion detection obsolete.
The way pixel-based motion detection works, you typically have just two dials to turn. One adjusts how sensitive the pixels are. For example if you convert to grayscale you could say on the scale of 0-255, the pixels must change by at least 50.
Then you have the total number of pixels that must change before it is considered "motion". This is your "object size" except I think most of the time the total is measured on the whole image. If there is a pixel-based motion detection algorithm out there which allows you to specify that these changing pixels must be grouped together into an "object" with a defined minimum width/height and density, then that might actually defeat snow. I'm not sure if this exists, but if it does, it already rides the border between motion detection and analytics...
Since you mentioned Axis, you might look into Axis VMD 3 which is an add-on/plugin for Axis cameras to enable more intelligent edge-based motion detection.
What Axis cameras are you using? Like Joshua says, VMD 3 is likely to be an improvement, though not guaranteed. See our test of it here.
They actually have released VMD 4, which offers more improvements, but beware, VMD3/4 are not compatible with all Axis models. If it's more than a couple of years old, you may find VMD 2.1 an improvement, as well.
Also note: You may have VMS integration issues, depending on what you're using, as VMD 2/3/4 do not use the standard Axis VAPIX VMD events, but their own instead. What VMS are you using?
Joshua and Ethan, thank you very much!! The cam in question is a brand new P3224-LVE using SD Card/Companion at the moment. Its a remote location and not exactly fit for a full fledged NVR, centralized VMS solution. I should be good with VMD 4 and will give it a shot once its available for download. Thankfully, snow is not typical in this area. And by next snowfall, there may be VMD 5, ;). Last time I had a Motion issue similar to this, tall overhead trees were casting a shadow over the area of interest causing full on recording on windy, sunny days. Thanks again for your detailed feedback!
Our VMS, Crossfire, has built in motion detection for each channel. The motion detection is statistically based and was designed specifically to "see" through rain, snow and sparkly sidewalks. We may have some videos to illustrate this - if you want I can look for them.
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