Motion is triggered outside of Activity Window

[jwden]

Here's my motion window (in purple, shown below):

And yet, it triggers motion when cars drive by my street, or when people walk by. All of that motion is well outside the activity window. Here's a screenshot of a dog wandering by (look at the corner of the driveway), and it triggered motion. The dog never came any closer. 

Seems like the motion window is being completely ignored.  Arlo support is telling me to completely remove and re-add my camera, which I'll test, but that seems like a  guess on their part? 

Anybody else having this problem? Other suggestions?

[jguerdat]

The usual suspect is due to reflected sun's IR from passing cars. The reflection may end up being detected as motion inside the zone. Reducing the motion sensitivity in your modes and rules (or in the Default Mode Settings if using the new UI that uses Feed to view recordings) should help but rotating the camera down to eliminate the street view may prove to be more useful.

[jwden]

Thank you for this suggestion. I'll lower the sensitivity. But keep in mind that this happens with animals or people walking by, not just cars. And it's 100% reproducible with every single person, cat, dog, or car. 

[jguerdat]

I'd be more inclined to rotate the camera down before changing the sensitivity unless you have a real need to see more. Even then, reducing the sensitivity would effectively work similarly to that rotation (if the object is to not record every movement eliminating those areas from view would be more effective).

[StephenB]

You might also want to double-check that audio alerts are not enabled for this camera.

[jwden]

Thanks. Audio and audio based alerts are both fully disabled. 

my new theory is the Auto HDR mode. I had it enabled. But when something enters the screen, the overall brightness can adjust, which changes the luminosity of all pixels in the frame. That change might be triggering the “motion” in the window. 

I've disabled auto HDR for now and I’ll report back here if it makes a positive impact. 

[StephenB]

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@jwden wrote:

my new theory is the Auto HDR mode. I had it enabled. But when something enters the screen, the overall brightness can adjust, which changes the luminosity of all pixels in the frame. That change might be triggering the “motion” in the window. 

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Is the camera connected to AC power?

When on battery (or solar power), motion detection only uses the passive infrared (PIR) sensor on the camera.  The video isn't used at all.

When on AC power, the camera is supposed to use the video (not sure if that is used instead of PIR, or if they are used in combination).  If that's the case, there could be a linkage to the HDR.  Though the exposure should be changed automatically when the lighting changes, whether HDR is enabled or not.

[jwden]

Thanks. This is good information.  My camera is connected to AC power. I've gotten far fewer false positives ever since I disabled Auto HDR.  But I also lowered the sensitivity, so maybe that's making a difference.  Also, there are still some obvious false triggers where people or cars go by and it triggered.