Smart detection person/people changed recently

[caryh]

Recently,  our Arlo Pro 3 camera (existing install for 3 years) person/people detect has been constantly falsely detecting a person on motion.  We have notification only when a person is detected so this can get annoying.  The camera position/settings hasn't been changed and my neighbors tarp over the car has been there forever and I can't recall getting the false notification until about a week ago.

Has the algorithm changed and is there any way to automatically send a report with the videos to improve the AI training?

Photo for reference:

[jguerdat]

AI training won't help since the detection is based on the PIR (passive IR) sensors used in the cameras.

I'd bet what's happening is that the sun's IR is being reflected from that tarp. The sun's angle changes over time so may not be an issue at other times of the day or months. Reduce motion detection as much as possible while still getting the detections needed should help.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

AI training won't help since the detection is based on the PIR (passive IR) sensors used in the cameras.

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I believe that @caryh's  issue isn't the triggering - it is that the recording is being improperly classified as "person".

Hard to say why that is happening, but I suspect the fence post in the bottom right of the field of view.  Try creating an activity zone that excludes the bottom and right edge, and see if that helps.  Or (similarly) try zooming and panning the video a bit, so those areas are outside the field of view.

[caryh]

Thanks for the replies.  It definitely is on the server side that is doing the smart detection of the motion.  I'll try modifying the activity zones but doubt that will be having any effect because I'm fairly sure the activity zones are strictly used for detecting if there is *any* motion in the activity zone areas.  That is actually another gripe I have about the smart detections functionality.  My carport (different camera), explicitly only sends notifications on smart people detection and has a very restrictive activity zone that excludes the sidewalk because that is well-trafficked.  Unfortunately, if a squirrel or something moves in the activity zone while a person is on the sidewalk (outside the activity zone), I get a person smart notification.  My guess is the non-activity zones are not masked out prior to the smart detection and the activity zones and are only used to detect if any motion happened at all.

[StephenB]

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@caryh wrote:

 My guess is the non-activity zones are not masked out prior to the smart detection and the activity zones and are only used to detect if any motion happened at all.

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Not something that I've tested - but it certainly could be the case (and actually could be the right thing to do, since someone could move quickly through the zone and still be in the field of view).

So maybe try zooming the video a bit instead, so you can pan the video to remove those areas from the field of view.

The basic idea here is that something in the field of view is confusing the AI, and your options depend on exactly what that something is.

[caryh]

It definitely thinks the blue tarp is the "person".  The preview I get with the notification has the box around the whole tarp.  As mentioned in the original response, the camera view, tarp and lighting really haven't changed in years and this issue only started happening a couple of weeks ago.

[StephenB]

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@caryh wrote:

It definitely thinks the blue tarp is the "person".  The preview I get with the notification has the box around the whole tarp.  As mentioned in the original response, the camera view, tarp and lighting really haven't changed in years and this issue only started happening a couple of weeks ago.

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I'm sure they do re-train the AI periodically.  Though the details of the folds, etc on the tarp might also matter if the tarp is only rarely moved.  If it is easy to try another camera angle, it might work around the problem.

You can contribute some recordings to Arlo using the "Donate Video" control.  Whether that will help or not is anyone's guess.

[caryh]

Thanks.  I'll definitely donate the videos.