Scheduling snapshots... through Blue Iris

tahoegeek · Feb 17, 2018

After our church was vandalized a while back, I installed 18 (mostly Dahua) cameras around the facility. Aside from the usual hiccups that come with configuring a new system and learning how to fine-tune the Blue Iris and camera settings, things are going well. We’ve even caught other vandals in the process and used the footage to work with law enforcement to ‘bring them to justice’!

Last week I was asked by one of the admin folks if it is possible to have one of the cameras automatically capture a snapshot every Sunday at a specific time... 10:45 so they can use it to help with their headcount process. (Many churches endeavor to track metrics like attendance figures as part of their record keeping practices.)

Has anyone on this forum successfully tackled a similar challenge? At a minimun I’d like to figure a way to have the snapshot automatically downloaded to a particular folder on the server... ideally, the snapshot would automatically emailed to one or more recipients.

fenderman · Feb 17, 2018

tahoegeek said:
After our church was vandalized a while back, I installed 18 (mostly Dahua) cameras around the facility. Aside from the usual hiccups that come with configuring a new system and learning how to fine-tune the Blue Iris and camera settings, things are going well. We’ve even caught other vandals in the process and used the footage to work with law enforcement to ‘bring them to justice’!

Last week I was asked by one of the admin folks if it is possible to have one of the cameras automatically capture a snapshot every Sunday at a specific time... 10:45 so they can use it to help with their headcount process. (Many churches endeavor to track metrics like attendance figures as part of their record keeping practices.)

Has anyone on this forum successfully tackled a similar challenge? At a minimun I’d like to figure a way to have the snapshot automatically downloaded to a particular folder on the server... ideally, the snapshot would automatically emailed to one or more recipients.

camera properties, schedule, event, snapshot..

tahoegeek · Feb 17, 2018

Perfect! That works like a charm!! Many thanks...

tahoegeek · Feb 17, 2018

tahoegeek said:
After our church was vandalized a while back, I installed 18 (mostly Dahua) cameras around the facility. Aside from the usual hiccups that come with configuring a new system and learning how to fine-tune the Blue Iris and camera settings, things are going well. We’ve even caught other vandals in the process and used the footage to work with law enforcement to ‘bring them to justice’!

Last week I was asked by one of the admin folks if it is possible to have one of the cameras automatically capture a snapshot every Sunday at a specific time... 10:45 so they can use it to help with their headcount process. (Many churches endeavor to track metrics like attendance figures as part of their record keeping practices.)

Has anyone on this forum successfully tackled a similar challenge? At a minimun I’d like to figure a way to have the snapshot automatically downloaded to a particular folder on the server... ideally, the snapshot would automatically emailed to one or more recipients.

BTW, I mentioned that my church experienced some vandalism so I installed a bunch of cameras. Here's an example of someone showing up at 4 am (for unknown reasons) and trying to get inside. We have no idea why the guy is wielding a 'chuck-it' ball-throwing toy that is usually used to play with dogs!

tangent · Feb 17, 2018

tahoegeek said:
BTW, I mentioned that my church experienced some vandalism so I installed a bunch of cameras. Here's an example of someone showing up at 4 am (for unknown reasons) and trying to get inside. We have no idea why the guy is wielding a 'chuck-it' ball-throwing toy that is usually used to play with dogs!
View attachment 26740

Adjust that camera so the brightest part of the light bulb is out of frame and run most of your exterior cameras in B&W with IR at night. You should be able to get crisper faces. Generally It's also a good idea to minimize the amount of surfaces like walls, windows, doors, roofs, and such that are in you image which can mean physically and electronically rotating the camera so the image is taller than it is wide. If you leave it in color you may want to set it to shutter priority at night.

There are cameras and software that can attempt to count people. I haven't used it, but suspect it works best when cameras are installed with a particular set of constraints or certain camera models are used. You might try playing with the free version (limited to 4 cameras) of axxon next to see if it can do that.

tahoegeek · Feb 18, 2018

tangent said:
Adjust that camera so the brightest part of the light bulb is out of frame and run most of your exterior cameras in B&W with IR at night. You should be able to get crisper faces. Generally It's also a good idea to minimize the amount of surfaces like walls, windows, doors, roofs, and such that are in you image which can mean physically and electronically rotating the camera so the image is taller than it is wide. If you leave it in color you may want to set it to shutter priority at night.

There are cameras and software that can attempt to count people. I haven't used it, but suspect it works best when cameras are installed with a particular set of constraints or certain camera models are used. You might try playing with the free version (limited to 4 cameras) of axxon next to see if it can do that.

Thanks for the suggestions. If I were to reposition the camera downward to eliminate the effects of the ceiling-mounted bulb, I’ll cut off the top of the person’s head. In this case, the intruder moved past the camera and remained out of sight for approximately 1 minute. There are other (double) doors that he walked up to - they lead into the church. He was unable, apparently, to breach those doors and gain access to the church. A minute after he was captured on the camera, he reappeared with his hoodie pulled up over his head and walked past the camera as he left the premises. I plan to relocate the camera further up the walkway in the hope that I can see more of the pathway and eliminate the dead zone by the double doors this guy walked up to.

TonyR · Feb 18, 2018

tahoegeek said:
BTW, I mentioned that my church experienced some vandalism so I installed a bunch of cameras. Here's an example of someone showing up at 4 am (for unknown reasons) and trying to get inside. We have no idea why the guy is wielding a 'chuck-it' ball-throwing toy that is usually used to play with dogs!

I doubt that he was up to any good. Who's out throwing balls to his dog at 4 AM Sunday morning In the snow? It's good that you have surveillance there at the church, but a sad commentary that they would even be necessary, IMO.

tangent · Feb 18, 2018

tahoegeek said:
If I were to reposition the camera downward to eliminate the effects of the ceiling-mounted bulb, I’ll cut off the top of the person’s head.

Try angling it just a little to get the brightest part of the light out of frame.

Here's an example of a camera rotated vertically in what we often call corridor mode:
Front door ID camera IPC-HDBW4231F?
Although in this location you may like being able to see that sliver of parking lot and the light would be a bigger problem with the cam rotated unless it was mounted a little lower and on the wall.

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Scheduling snapshots... through Blue Iris

tahoegeek

Young grasshopper

fenderman

tahoegeek

Young grasshopper

tahoegeek

Young grasshopper

tangent

tahoegeek

Young grasshopper

TonyR

tangent