Motion and object detection: Blue Iris vs Deepstack vs Camera Features

[ultradianguy]

Hi -
I've recently set up Blue Iris with Deepstack for Ai, I've got 5 cameras set up - a couple cheap Amcrests and 3 Dahua/Loryta cams I've gotten here or from Empire Tech. I've read a variety of guides on set up and watched the Hook Ups videos. I've got things working more or less, though I'm sure I'm far from optimized.
However, I'm getting confused about motion detection - specifically, the better cameras seem to have some pretty sophisticated features for motion and object detection - yet the guides mostly seem to suggest using only software-based motion detection.

Is the consensus that you shouldn't try to use the camera's built-in motion detection? Or should Blue Iris be set to use Onvif triggers from the camera as well as its own? Is it better to set up zones on the camera or in BI or both?

I recognize that Deepstack is used to determine if triggers are true objects or false alarms. However, if one opens up motion detection in blue iris on the assumption that Deepstack will sort through all the alerts, then deepstack is in effect playing a role in motion detection. Otherwise, one would presumably make BI more selective.

Are there any best practices as to when it's advantageous to use the camera's capabilities on top of - or instead of - blue iris?

Thanks,
MIchael

 

[wittaj]

The hookup was your first problem LOL...

Many of have found that the camera AI is more than adequate, especially if you only want triggers on humans or vehicles. Using camera AI saves on your computer being taxed. Some go a little crazy using Deepstack and max out their CPU quickly.

Check out my posts in this thread where the camera AI was spot on during a snowstorm but Deepstack was going all night long due to the camera being triggered.

Consider how important having the little orange vehicle or person icon really is - if you have a camera with built-in AI, consider using that instead.

The best thing to do is try it both ways and see which one you like better or is more accurate...

Who uses Dahua AI capable cameras? Reliable AI for triggering events? Pro's/con's?

It has come to my attention that certain Dahua cameras come with built in AI that distinguishes between human & cars. I was unaware of this. Well, always saw the AI word used in the reviews but never really thought about it because I thought it was a Dahua NVR integration only. I am currently...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[looney2ns]

In most instances the camera's AI will do everything you need.

 

[ultradianguy]

The hookup was your first problem LOL...

Many of have found that the camera AI is more than adequate, especially if you only want triggers on humans or vehicles. Using camera AI saves on your computer being taxed. Some go a little crazy using Deepstack and max out their CPU quickly.

Check out my posts in this thread where the camera AI was spot on during a snowstorm but Deepstack was going all night long due to the camera being triggered.

Consider how important having the little orange vehicle or person icon really is - if you have a camera with built-in AI, consider using that instead.

The best thing to do is try it both ways and see which one you like better or is more accurate...

Who uses Dahua AI capable cameras? Reliable AI for triggering events? Pro's/con's?

It has come to my attention that certain Dahua cameras come with built in AI that distinguishes between human & cars. I was unaware of this. Well, always saw the AI word used in the reviews but never really thought about it because I thought it was a Dahua NVR integration only. I am currently...

ipcamtalk.com

Thanks - read that thread - very helpful.

So I've got a situation that I suspect is not uncommon.
I have a camera monitoring my driveway, which also has the road in view. I'm not interested in triggering whenever a car drives by, so I set up the motion detection zone (on camera and in blueiris) to exclude the road.

However, when someone pulls into my driveway and gets out of the car, their image will be in front of the road - so if I exclude that area, I won't detect someone standing or walking on that part of the driveway. I'm thinking I need to define a zone that includes the part of the image "below" the road and another that includes only the road, and require movement to occur in both zones - is that the right way to handle this?

This particular camera is an older Amcrest that doesn't have the more sophisticated Ai like tripwires.

 

[Swampledge]

I have a situation like you describe. I set a zone that includes my driveway, but not the road in the background. Remember that with motion detection, Blue Iris is triggering on motion, not recognizing whether that motion is a person, vehicle, animal, or piece of trash blowing in the wind. (Unless you are also using an AI like Deepstack or SenseAI or other.) So, if there is motion in the zone you specify, you will get an alert. The wheels on a car, or a walking person’s feet and legs will still provide the motion to be detected.

In these situations, you may also need to use different zones for day and night, because headlights from passing cars may be broad enough to be detected as motion in your yard. That’s why setting these systems up isn’t just plug and play. You may even get frustrated enough trying to get a non-AI camera to alert the way you want that you decide to replace it with one that is smarter. I have a few dumb Amcrest cameras that serve my needs, but I love how easily I can use IVF tripwires and intrusion zones to quickly configure the nicer cameras.

 

[ultradianguy]

You may even get frustrated enough trying to get a non-AI camera to alert the way you want that you decide to replace it with one that is smarter. I have a few dumb Amcrest cameras that serve my needs, but I love how easily I can use IVF tripwires and intrusion zones to quickly configure the nicer cameras.

Thanks, I can see that this is likely going to happen as you described. On top of that. these 2 cameras which I bought before I really had done anything with all of this, don't have POE, so I had to also use POE power splitters to pull 12V off the Cat6 , so I mounted them with the splitters in a plastic junction box, and a bunch of extra cables I fabricated to make sure they were waterproof. I can already see that between the lack of POE and lack of AI, I probably should have just dumped these.
Thanks for pointing out the night/day headlight issue - will have to watch for that.