PIR & Pixel motion detection

[Monty12]

According  to the link below, Arlo Pro 6 should be able to do Pixel Based detection, but I’ve had no luck getting it to work. I purchased the Arlo charging cable and let the battery get to 100%, but still no go.

Can the Arlo Pro 6 do pixel motion detection or does the link below need to be updated?

https://kb.arlo.com/63/Does-Arlo-motion-detection-work-through-glass-or-windows

"Arlo Pro 3 and above uses frame-by-frame comparison when connected to an outdoor charger with the battery fully charged"

[ShayneS]

@Monty12 

Thank you for your patience. After consulting with our engineering team, I can confirm that the Pro 6 uses PIR (passive infrared) + pixel-based analysis together to detect motion, even when connected to AC power. Since PIR cannot detect through glass, the Pro 6 will not detect motion in this setup.

Your Indoor Pan Tilt camera works through glass because it relies solely on pixel-based detection with no PIR, a different hardware design.

We are updating the KB article to clarify this distinction. If behind-glass detection is a priority for that location, a wired indoor camera like your Pan Tilt would be the recommended option.

Thank you for the feedback.

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

According  to the link below, Arlo Pro 6 should be able to do Pixel Based detection, but I’ve had no luck getting it to work. I purchased the Arlo charging cable and let the battery get to 100%, but still no go.

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Is the camera AC powered?  (not 100% sure from your post).

[Monty12]

Yes it's connected to the Outdoor Charging Cable (VMA5700)

[Monty12]

I also have an Arlo indoor pan tilt camera, which uses pixel motion detection. I want to use the camera behind glass and when i use the Indoor pan tilt camera it detects motion, but the Pro 6 doesn't.

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

I also have an Arlo indoor pan tilt camera, which uses pixel motion detection. I want to use the camera behind glass and when i use the Indoor pan tilt camera it detects motion, but the Pro 6 doesn't.

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I'm tagging the mods - @BrookeN , @JamesC , @ShayneS - as I think this topic could use some clarification.

One aspect is that it isn't clear from the article if the Ultra cameras and the Wired Floodlight use pixel detection or not.  My recollection is that the Ultras do not.  But there is one article that includes the wired floodlight:

• https://kb.arlo.com/63/Does-Arlo-motion-detection-work-through-glass-or-windows

However, this one does not

• https://kb.arlo.com/583/How-does-Arlo-motion-detection-work

The first article talks about false positives due to reflections when working through window glass, but says nothing about missed detections.

Also, there used to be two entries in this article for cameras that used pixel detection when connected to AC power:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062617/How-far-away-can-Arlo-Cameras-and-Arlo-Video-Doorbells-detect-motion

showing a 15m range when the cameras were connected to AC power.  That has second entry has been removed - no idea why, since it is useful to know the range of the pixel detection if you are using it.

As an aside, it would be useful to have an indication somewhere on whether pixel-detection is being used or not.

As far as your own camera goes, it's not clear whether this is a firmware bug or if something else is going on.  If someone is sucessfully using the Pro 6 behind a window, it would be great if they chime in.

[Monty12]

It will be really useful if in a future firmware update an option to select what motion detection you would like to use can be added, instead of playing a guessing game. 

There could be a scenario where someone would want to have the camera connected to power to use Foresight, but not want pixel detection. But in my case i want to use Foresight and pixel detection. 

The fact that this very useful feature can be implemented very easily, yet there is no option is extremely frustrating.

[TomMac]

I've tested almost all the cameras thru glass ( except Pro6 , which I don't have )...

The only one that works reliable is the Q camera.  It has a range of over 60' ( to my roadway ) and detects every vehicle that passes along with people walking.

It has so many alerts ( which you can't turn off still ) that I set the custom alert to "fire" to stop audible alerts.

With Foresight it captures the full event. 

Only issue is the reset time ( unavoidable ) between trigger events of about 5-10 secs.

[Monty12]

I’ve tried contacting arlo “support”. Still no response if the Pro 6 can or can’t do pixel motion detection. Seems like know one in the company know how these cameras work…

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

Still no response if the Pro 6 can or can’t do pixel motion detection. 

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The KB article says it does when connected to AC power.  But I agree that more clarification is needed. 

I'm tagging the mods again in hopes one will follow up - @BrookeN , @ShayneS , @JamesC .

[ShayneS]

Hi @Monty12 

Thanks for the feedback. Per the article, it does say that it should be pixel-based when connected to AC power and at 100% charged. I'm currently inquiring with the team regarding this as well, and I'll report back as soon as possible.

In the meantime, have you tried rebooting the camera and repositioning it anywhere else? Does it miss all motion when behind glass?

Is it successfully detecting motion when it's not behind glass?

I don't see any Arlo Pro 6 devices on your account that are connected via AC power. Just wanted to verify that it was directly connected to the power cable and 100% battery when you tried this previously; and for further testing.

[Monty12]

-Yes i have rebooted it.

-Yes i have repositioned it.

-No it doesn’t detect anything when behind glass.

-Yes it detects motion when not behind glass.

-Yes it is connected to power (on my account, it’s named pro4 coz i have more then one Pro 6 cameras)

-Yes battery is at 100%

- i have motion off in my device rules atm, but don’t think that was an error. I only later deselected it since it doesn’t detect anything.

i spoke to someone yesterday and already told them all this.

[ShayneS]

@Monty12 

Thanks for the details, I will inquire with the appropriate team and report back as soon as possible.

[ShayneS]

@Monty12 

Thank you for your patience. After consulting with our engineering team, I can confirm that the Pro 6 uses PIR (passive infrared) + pixel-based analysis together to detect motion, even when connected to AC power. Since PIR cannot detect through glass, the Pro 6 will not detect motion in this setup.

Your Indoor Pan Tilt camera works through glass because it relies solely on pixel-based detection with no PIR, a different hardware design.

We are updating the KB article to clarify this distinction. If behind-glass detection is a priority for that location, a wired indoor camera like your Pan Tilt would be the recommended option.

Thank you for the feedback.

[Monty12]

Since Arlo has a lot of confusion regarding motion detection, i thought I’ll make a clear post for anyone that wants to understand this.

This is what is written on Arlo’s support:

“Pro series cameras 3 and above will use pixel based detection when connected to a power adapter”

“Pixel based motion detection technology analyzes changes in video frames to trigger motion detection alerts and recordings. The number of pixels analyzed depends on your motion sensitivity settings.”

After further clarification it seems this is incorrect. PIR does all detection triggers and then if connected to power, Actives zones are then processed locally on the camera instead of in the cloud to determent if the video should be saved or discarded.

 

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

After further clarification it seems this is incorrect. PIR does all detection triggers and then if connected to power, Actives zones are then processed locally on the camera instead of in the cloud to determent if the video should be saved or discarded.

 

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I just saw the response from @ShayneS.   I'm not reading it quite the same way - I am thinking that the camera might also use pixel motion detection to confirm the motion when the camera is triggered - even if there are no activity zones set.

Either way, the KB article needs to be revised, since as written it does imply that the cameras will trigger using pixel detection. 

[Monty12]

This article makes it sound like pixel processing is only used to confirm activity zones. No ac power, then only PIR is used to save battery and zone processing is done in the cloud. With ac, zone pixel processing can now be done locally on camera, so no need for cloud processing. Primary motion trigger is only done with PIR.

https://kb.arlo.com/000062938

“If you are subscribed to an Arlo Secure plan, you can use Activity Zones…”

”If you are not subscribed to an Arlo Secure plan, you can connect the following cameras to continuous AC power to use Activity Zones…”

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

This article makes it sound like pixel processing is only used to confirm activity zones.

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"only" is the key word that the article doesn't have.

It is possible that it confirms the entire field of view if there are no zones.  That would be consistent with using pixel processing after PIR detection.

[Monty12]

No it would not be consistent with using both PIR and pixel detection to trigger motion. If that was true then it would detect motion through glass like other Arlo cameras that use pixel detection.

either way the documentation is a mess and needs to be re-done. Coz it’s one thing that the user is confused, but another thing that Arlo support is also confused which then amplifies the users confusion. 

[StephenB]

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@Monty12 wrote:

No it would not be consistent with using both PIR and pixel detection to trigger motion. If that was true then it would detect motion through glass like other Arlo cameras that use pixel detection.

Let me try again.

• Arlo makes it clear that only PIR detection is used.
• They also make it clear that the camera processes activity zones on AC power, which means that pixel detection is used to confirm motion in that case.

What they do NOT say is what happens if there are no activity zones on AC power.  You are assuming that it only uses PIR with no confirmation. 

I am thinking it uses only PIR for detection, and but still uses pixel processing for confirmation (covering the entire field of view).  This would NOT allow detection through glass.  But it would have some value, since it eliminates false notifications.  At least my battery-operated cameras do sometimes notifiy me and record when is no visible motion in the scene.  

It would be useful to know for sure.  @ShayneS: did development give you this detail? 

[Monty12]

@StephenB  i see your point.

Thanks for trying to get this cleared up and hopefully someone can get in contact with the engineer team to confirm what is happening.