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.

[yhap2003]

Turns out you can only get this feature if you buy the arlo pro 2. That is all the arlo pro 2 provides that’s different.

sound like a money grabber move to me. Net gear is getting greedy....

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/products/arlo-pro-2/default.aspx

[T-n-B]

We just got our Arlo Pro 2 set up and we were happy to learn that we could in fact set up zones to be able to omit unwanted motion triggers (from blowing trees, from the street, etc.) but it appears that the cameras require a constant AC connection for this work. Total bummer, as the big selling point that drew us into purchasing Arlo was its wireless mounting. We get alerted so often with a new recording every few minutes, that I'm afraid we'll miss an important alert for a video recording of something of real concern. Arlo engineers, please see what can be done to improve this capability for wireless mounts. Thanks!

[T-n-B]

Ditto the feature request, mentioned on other forums and upvoted here. Do we need to call Elon Musk to make it happen? 😉

[aparis99]

I'm disappointed in this as well. Bought the Arlo Q when it first came out, zones were there but it didn't work and Netgear said they were workin on it. Returned it.

Read more and just today bought a 4-cam Arlo Pro system. Was excited until I'm going in trying to find the zones b/c these notifications are going off non-stop. Probalby going to return this system today...

[JamesC]

aparis99,

Arlo Pro 2 has zoning capability. Take a look at the newly released Arlo Pro 2 here: Arlo Pro 2

JamesC

[MarkC]

@JamesC .....with the caveat "Available when plugged in and used indoors."..... I am a little miffed why you have not implemented this feature on the Arlo Pro tbh! However since you are here perhaps you could explain to some on this thread (as I have tried to do in the past) that you cannot have true Zone Functionality on a battery powered device as the frame constantly needs to be monitored by software/hardware to determine whether there is movement in the particular defined zones.. which of course would mean that the camera would have to be constantly streaming the image for this to work. I am still baffled why some people find this so hard to understand. Perhaps they may believe you as a you do work for Netgear.. Thanks! 🙂

[EvoluShaun]

Make this feature happen!

I am in a similar situation and considering returning my Arlo Pro. I have two choices, my phone blowing up by false positives or zoom in and lowering my chances of catching what i actually bought the cameras for.

The likelyhood of me dumping more money into a Pro 2 set up is low - please dont provide that as a solution, that is terrible customer service and very used car salesman like. There isnt that much o a difference between the Pro and the Pro 2

[jasongabler]

This is totally possible, as long the camera is plugged in.  Other than the potential battery drain, the only other issue is software.   Well, unless you consider that it would put a dent in Pro 2 sales 

jyg

[AlexJH]

I'm happy to report that the Arlo Smart featureset, currently in beta, delivers this feature.  In addition to the ability to identify persons in the frame (so that you only get notifications if a person is detected), you can also specify the motion zones -- even for battery powered cameras.

Crazy how many people responded in this thread disrespectfully in regards to this not being possible -- of course it's possible.  This feature won't _save_ you battery life, as your camera still has to monitor the whole frame -- but it's certainly possible to add all kinds of features, including facial recognition, because those algorithms run in the cloud and not on your device.

Glad this feature is making it -- though it stinks it will be an added expense.  Sounds like it's worth it though.

https://kb.arlo.com/1151101/What-is-Arlo-Smart-and-how-can-I-benefit-from-it

[MarkC]

@AlexJH are you on the Beta?

Do not believe we have heard that motion zones will be part of Arlo Smart but it is good news if they are.

If you read the original request it asked for recording to be triggered when there was motion in a particular zone, this is still NOT possible hence all the comments! What Netgear are doing with Arlo Smart gives 'similar' functionality but it is still not true Motion Zones as you are still sending ALL the footage to their servers and rely on their algorithms to work properly as opposed to the frame being analysed by the camera hardware itself! 

As I and others have mentioned in the past this is still not true Motion Zones as the footage still has to get to the Arlo servers (when ANY motion is detected) where it is analysed and the algorithms decide if you receive a notification or not. So unless the camera is powered and streaming constantly with the frame being analysed on the fly you will never have this 'true' functionality. You still have to rely on 'their' algorithms to correctly detect motion in a particular part of the frame. Unless proven otherwise I doubt I would leave the security of my home down to said algorithms. For people that are looking for this type of functionality these are really not the cameras to use. You really need powered cameras with local based processing where the camera itself only triggers recording and sends a notification etc. when it senses movement in a particular part of the frame. Not sure why some people are finding this so hard to understand.

As the original request was for the camera to only start recording when motion is detected in a certain part of the frame, again this is not possible as you yourself have even said. So what am I missing here... you are really not gaining much IMHO. The footage is hitting their severs anyway where an algorithm decides if there is motion or not in a particular part of the frame. The footage is being recorded anyway but the algorithm will decide if to notify you and/or keep the footage. OK, maybe it is just me but as it is being recorded anyway I think I would rather just be alerted to the fact and then decide myself rather than rely on a cloud based algorithm. This is where this differs completely from true motion zones as with the proper functionality the camera (or system) would not even start to record or send alerts unless it detects motion in a particular part of the frame.

What provisions are in place if there is no internet, will the algorithms run locally on our boxes to decide if to keep the footage or not! Will the siren be activated on all motion etc. Again, lose the internet and you lose the feature, something that would not happen with true motion zone functionality as it all happens locally.

Anyway, let’s see how well this all performs in the real world, my bet is it will not be that useful but fingers crossed it will.

Oh and I do not believe anyone has been 'disrespectful' (LOL) people are only pointing out how this functionality works and its limitations with battery powered cameras, which is still the case.