Indoor camera notifying of a person, no person but instead a flash of light on the video feed.

[LBBBC411]

I received a person alert on the indoor Essential Camera. However, when I look at the video feed, there is no person, except for a bright flash of a light.  This happened about about 11 months ago with the doorbell camera. Except, I heard the door shut, I thought my husband had come home early. The dogs were barking, - they heard the door shut as well.  I look around, no husband, I open the door, no car in the drive, I look at the camera feed, There is a flash of light - you can hear the dogs barking and me singing as I walk towards the door.  Strange - yes? I’m sure there is a simple explanation, right? that is besides the one my family and friends like to tell, that our  house is haunted. Is there a way to confuse the camera with a flashing light to hide the presence of a person? Maybe? I hope not, I think I prefer a spirt coming by to say hi. Anyone else experience a false person alert - with a video feed that shows a flash of light? Oh, this might be an important fact. The feed starts out in color then after the bright flash it reverts to black and white. I donated the video feed from the indoor camera.  No, I didn’t make this up, yes I know, Halloween is at the end of the month, and I maybe a little crazy, but I am not delusional.  Here is a link to the doorbell feed. https://share.icloud.com/photos/07dWIuGMUpdCNLGwivdF1fDZg

[BrookeN]

I love a good ghost story. While I can not explain the door shutting, the camera could have picked up a light and set off the IR of the camera.  I tried to replicate if we had a flashlight or phone light if it would block out a person. But each time I could still see a figure of the person it would catch it on camera. I am thinking the light and notification was caused by the IR being set off. You can continue to monitor the camera and see if that behavior with the light happens again. If it does, please reach out to me and let me know and we will look into it further. For the door, your family and friends may be on to something lol. 

Here is more information regarding the night vision:

https://kb.arlo.com/1124555/How-do-I-turn-Arlo-Camera-Night-Vision-on-or-off-in-the-Arlo-Secure-App

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out and I would be more than happy to help. 

[jguerdat]

FWIW, I had lights from outdoors trigger an indoor camera last night. I could tell it was from a moving vehicle outside but that wasn't in the camera's view. Looking at my outdoor cameras' videos, I saw a utility truck drive by with floodlights illuminated shining in my windows. While not directly analogous to your situation, the indoor recording by itself didn't provide enough info to determine what triggered the recording.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

FWIW, I had lights from outdoors trigger an indoor camera last night. 

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@LBBBC411 :

With one of my cameras, vehicle lights reflecting off the house windows can trigger the sensor.  Also, I do get some recordings on other cameras where there is no motion or lighting change at all.  And the person-detection will mis-fire (saying a person is detected even when there is no person in the scene).

Is the flash about 2-3 seconds into the recording?  The Essential Indoor cameras support the Foresight feature (sometimes called pre-roll), so they will show 2-3 seconds of video before the camera triggers:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062053/How-does-the-Foresight-feature-work-on-my-Arlo-camera

Since the spotlight comes on when the camera triggers, the recording will show the spotlight turn on 3 seconds after the recording starts.  Depending on camera placement, the flash might actually be a reflection from the spotlight.