Motion detection on only part of the view without sacrificing any of the screen

[AskMcGowan]

To explain this I am going to use a living room as an example.

The way it currently is set:

Put the camera in the corner of the room and catch the entire room - Fantastic!

Anyone walks into the view, it records - Fantastic!

Now say there is a glass on a table in the middle of the room. 

I can "crop" or "zoom in" on the table and the camera will shoot only that, so if someone touches the glass it records, but it only shows the table.

What I want: Show the entire room - BUT - only put the motion detection on the table, so the entire room is in the camera view but the recording only happens if someone is in the table view. This way I can see where the person went, who the person was, etc instead of potentially just the hand grabbing the glass.

[Tedders]

I would really like to see custom motion detection zones for the cameras.  I have a road that is very close to the front of my house and it doesn't matter where I place my cameras, the road is in the picture.  I get a lot of false positves from the cameras detecting cars that go by on the road.  I have worked with camera placement and sensitivity the best I can but I still get a lot of alerts.  For a camera system that heavily relies on motion detection to work this would be a very nice feature to have.  Heck, Logitech webcams have had this feature for as long as I can remember and it works great there.  Thanks!

[Therms]

I realize that the Arlo Wire Free doesn't have the zoning feature of the Arlo Q because then the battery would go dead super fast because it would have to record all of the time.

However, I believe my proposal below addresses the battery issue.

I've got a couple hundred videos spurious videos per day from traffic on my street even after many days of tweaking sensitivity.  This makes Arlo signifcantly less useful to me...so much so that I've already set up zoneminder with a regular IP camera.  I picture zoning on the Arlo Wire Free working like this:

1. Motion sensors trigger recording.
2. Video is uploaded.
3. Arlo checks video against user-selected zones and if the motion in the video is within an inclusion zone, the video is saved and notifications sent.  Otherwise the video is discarded and no notifications sent.

This system has the following benefits:

1. The camera records and uploads no more or less video than it does now so battery life stays the same.
2. The camera records and uploads no more or less video than it does now so my bandwith usage remains the same.
3. The camera records and uploads no more or less video than it does now so Netgear's bandwith usage for receiving videos remains the same.
4. Netgear has to store less video.
5. Netgear has to stream less video to users.
6. Notifications become more useful because of less false positives.

There are also these downsides:

1. Netgear uses more CPU/RAM on their servers analyzing videos.
2. Netgear has to design the UI for the any differences required between the Arlo Q's zoning UI and this proposed Arlo Wire Free zoning UI.

[JamesC]

An interesting idea. Thanks for sharing!

[Contenj]

Here are some ideas:

1) Allow for blocking out sections of the capture display to only record when motion occurs in the blocked out areas...this prevents false recordings due to cars or neighbors.

2) Allow for multiple base stations that extend the network by linking together so you can have one in the front of the house connected to the Internet and the other in the back of the house linked to that one and extending it's range.

3) Face recognition so if it recognizes the face it doesn't record.

4) Continuous recording as long as motion continues in the designated areas. No longer times out the recordings but captures all motion until it exits the frame or stops.

5) A handheld remote to disable recording on the camera it is aimed at...(special pin must be entered first - set by user) so that you can sit on your back porch without having to disable all your cameras.

6) Electronic tag on cat or dog collar which tells camera not to record - also requires a pin enabled to prevent bad guys from using it.

7) Ear piecing high decibel alarm if moved from position set that cannot be shut off quickly without removing batteries - prevents theft.

That's it for now,,I'm sure more ideas may come the more I use the system. Quite good so far! 🙂

[jazzfog]

In short:

It is absolutely necessary to be able to draw activity zones of arbitrary shape

Details:

I just got my Arlo Q, first impression - it is great.

But there is a room for improvements. For instance Activity Zones.

After installation of Arlo Q and activationg zones like this I got a motion alert... reacting on grass moved by a wind.

Reacting on plants moving by wind it is whole another story, but in my case it would be easy to solve if I just could draw the zones of arbitary shape, like this:

Thank you for reading.

Arlo users, Please support this request with your vote! (green arrow up on the left top of this post)

[RocketAngel]

If you can code it for the Q...why not the wireless product??

[danb01]

This is needed! I have mine setup for the front of my house for packages being dropped off. I have positioned the camera and zoomed in but still get motion detection outside of the zoomed in section. I also get detections from passing vehicle reflections in the windows and have to turn down the sensitivity to 80%. This then results in a delayed detection of a person entering or leaving. Often times someone can leave the area before the camera kicks on. I am left with seeing this person in the window reflections.

[thenosyt]

bump

[thenosyt]

how is this not a feature yet??? Ring has this feature in their Pro doorbell.

since these cameras run on batteries, it is critical that the cameras are not constantly being triggered to record useless things like bushes and random moving objects in their field of view. Otherwise these cameras are going to keep dying as quick as they are.

The motion detection adjustment feature is no help because either it picks up everything or it isnt sensitive enough, making the camera record too late if someone were to walk by the camera.

This would ring so much more value to the cameras. Come on Netgear, please grab a couple developers and impliment this.