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Review - Dahua IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP Ultra AI Varifocal Bullet Camera

Arjun

Arjun

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Would be great to see more optical zoom on this one, beyond 12mm.
 
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Cj500

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@Wildcat_1 I apologize if I overlooked it, but what is the rough distance to the plates for your night LPR testing? I read that you moved to a different location and were fully zoomed in. Thanks as always for your extremely detailed reviews!

Wildcat_1 said:
Post # 3 - Reserved For AI Feature Testing & Results

3.1 AI FEATURES - INITIAL ANPR

Now I couldn’t let all of you go into the weekend without giving you a taste of what everyone’s been waiting for……ANPR / LPR. Now as I mentioned, the first test (this one) was to really push the camera to the test, I would never setup an LPR camera on purpose at this angle or height but wanted to see what it could do in a regular overview position.

The way in which this camera works and what the end result is depends on where you are sending the feed.

On Cam (SD Card recording)

If you are only using on cam (SD card) then you will get :
  • Separated video and pictures that are tagged CarDetect, assuming you are using Vehicle Detection under ANPR rule or my favorite Video Structuralization.
  • As separate files do not link to each other when recorded in cam and would have to be viewed separately.
  • Video does not have any overlay of the details of the capture, yet it does show on the web gui if watching live (the clips that pop up) and of course is burned into the picture.
You can configure the Vehicle Detection capture (in Video Structuralization) a number of ways but I configure so if it detects a plate then I end up with 3 pictures (full res wide shot with car details, plate close up and close view (vehicle and plate).

AI NVR

When using an AI NVR you get:
  • Pictures and video’s together under Vehicle Detection in its AI menu
  • Tags all plate info so you can search by it later, very cool !
  • Due to last bullet item you can then search using the AI function for attributes such as Plate No., Color, Type, Logo, Plate Color, Ornament, Calling, Seatbelt.
  • If you don't want to search by attributes then leave this completely open (ALL) and when you hit search it will pull back pic and video matches together !
  • In conjunction with an AI NVR it also allows you to build Black & White Lists for plates
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As video in cam does not overlay, lets take a first look at ANPR/LPR pics and cover AI later.

So, in this first example (with bad angle and height) at full zoom, how does the camera do…….in my opinion its VERY impressive but let me know your thoughts. I’ve obscured partial plates and faces to protect privacy. When you look at what its trying to capture from a PPI perspective, its amazing.

If you have the camera web gui up and Video Structuralization set as on-screen you get to see the results in real-time which also (in the case of the Ford) showed on screen that they were wearing seatbelts (unfortunately didn’t capture the screen grab in time).

DON’T WORRY MORE TO COME FOR ANPR/LPR AS WELL AS THE OTHER AI FEATURES

Couple of pics of vehicle capture
Each captured the plate accurately and when you look at the distance to target (70-80ft) its doing a great job based on a 2.7 to 12mm lens especially since the DORI rates this as just under 42ft (at full zoom like this) to identify and that would be a person not a plate :)

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Video Structuralization Meta Clip From Web GUI

View attachment 49641


3.3 Night ANPR / LPR - Coming SOON

NEW 11/4

Ok, I know everyone wanted to see ANPR / LPR night captures + low light. Well, here is both in the same cap :). Let me first call out some info:
  • Snow was still an issue but made it work :)
  • Cam at full zoom @ 1/500
  • Sleet coming down with splash back from road made for tricky captures
  • Still not ideal angle or height compared to my 5231 & 5241 LPR setups BUT the best I can do with this particular focal length for now as I wanted to show real-world installations rather than a simulation
  • Camera moved to other location for ANPR / LPR which is completely dark except for some IR flashback due to the location
  • NR turned off which introduced noise but with the sleet I wanted to try and combat any further loss in detail caused by NR
  • EVERY vehicle captured here resulted in a full ANPR hit
  • Editing was to obscure the plates for privacy
  • The ANPR defaulted to a lot of info when this dark (such as color etc) although plate info was accurate
  • Mix of clean and dirty plates to show what the camera is still able to do (check the E36 for example of a poor / tough situation where the cam still got a usable capture)
  • Included slo-mo’s so you can look at each live frame then the associated capture
  • Cam is applying its own processing (sharpening + enhancement) automatically to final image which although you don’t control (like you can in Face Detection), does a good job of pulling the plate out.

Enjoy !


----

As the snow kept coming down and I waited for the round 2 of the storm, I knew I couldn’t move the camera so instead got some further night shots which again, even at the bad height / angle accurately hit all ANPRs on the vehicles in these clips, EVEN WHEN IT WAS SNOWING ! It really does do an amazing job even in poor conditions.

I even gave you all some slo-mo video so you can go frame by frame. The original (non compressed for youtube) you can see much greater detail. I will be moving the camera to a more optimal, in your face location as soon as the temperature improves above 6 fahrenheit / -14 celsius.




3.4 People Detection - Attribute Testing

As I wait for the snow storm to stop so I can test more of the Night ANPR / LPR, I thought I would show you one of the other areas I committed to, testing this cam against all its stated People Attributes. Now as this was a warmer, sunnier day you can imagine what this must have looked like for others as they walked by BUT hey, wanted to test the cam. I also have another interesting twist on this test coming up which I will post as soon as I can.

So here’s how it did. It takes 2 pics under Human Detection AND if it can detect it (and you have enabled) can also grab Face Detection on top. This is why I love using Video Structuralization as it allows you to stack many AI features (definitely consider this tip !). In most case the AI did a great job except it could not detect the backpack, everything else worked.


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Wildcat_1

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Ford said:
3.000.0000000.2.R, Build Date: 2021-07-12
Click to expand...
Ford what are you trying to do (just point offlload to storage) and to what end target, NAS etc ? I can test on mine against QNAP
 
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