Axis Camera Optimization App (UI Me) Tested

A new Axis camera app (ACAP) called UI Me has been released, offering a number of interesting features including optimization wizards and cybersecurity checks.

This comes from the same developer who released the Axis Daybreak App that automatically adjusts day/night schedules based on local sunrise and sunset times changing throughout the year.

We tested UI Me to understand how it works and what impacts it could have for Axis users as well as to Axis competitors. Inside this note, we share those results.

Overview Video

In this short video, we show how UI Me works and demonstrate its key features:

The application is installed similar to other ACAP apps via the camera's web interface, shown below.

Once installed, users may access the UI Me UI by clicking its settings or by going to a specific URL, e.g.:

http://<IP_ADDRESS>/local/uime/

Video Configuration Wizards

The video wizards shows snapshots of different levels of settings, allowing the user to pick the ones that look best.

UI Me includes two video wizards that show the user different levels of each setting side by side, letting the user click the one they think looks best. Instead of changing levels one by one and looking at the live video to see how the quality has changed, these wizards do that automatically, making it much simpler and quicker to compare levels.

The appearance wizard (below) adjusts:

• Rotation (including corridor mode)
• Brightness
• Contrast
• Saturation
• White balance

The Exposure Wizard adjusts:

• Exposure Value: Fine tunes exposure toward light/dark, but does not adjust shutter speed)
• WDR: Turns Dynamic Contrast, Forensic Capture, and other Axis WDR variants on or off.

Cybersecurity Checklist

The app also provides a quick way to check status of and remedy common cyber security issues, following the Axis Hardening Guide recommendations. In the "Hardening" section, users may see at a glance whether services such as FTP, SSH, or NTP are enabled/disabled, confirm user accounts and passwords are set, and more, shown below.

Firmware Update Checker

The Hardening Guide section also automatically checks whether the camera is using latest firmware, and if not, provides a link to the latest version available for the camera.

Limitations of UI Me

The main limitation of UI Me is that it works on only one camera at a time. Being able to run the Hardening wizard on multiple devices would especially speed operations.

Secondly, users must be careful when running image optimizations, since changes made during one light level/condition may degrade video at other times of the day. For example, adjusting exposure at night may lead to overexposure during the day, or contrast may change significantly depending on weather at the time (overcast, rainy, sunny, etc.).

Finally, UI Me is not officially supported by Axis and it is a hobby project for the developer. Users installing the app should expect no support on UI Me other than commenting on the ACAP Share site.