Car Door Checker...

Wow, that is awfully efficient in theory. Here the mailman has to stop at every house, walk to the door and stuff his mail into a mailbox at the door. And that is when he got a lucky day without parcels. Less optimally atm his car will be stuffed with new plants and pottery for the garden. And then my wife will not be home and he has to carry it all to the backdoor deposit.
 
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In the rural areas on the narrow, curvy roads with many trees they're placed in such a way, one side or the other, so as to either allow the mail carrier's vehicle to be off the road or be more visible to other motorists, making it safer for the carrier and others.
 
For better face capture, I'm planning on putting two pinhole cams in the column on the street. One pointed each way to get face captures of everyone walking by on the sidewalk and the street. There's a VTO that records video and audio 24/7 but it's forward facing and doesn't do motion detection, IVS, face capture.

They will be mounted on the other side of the column where the X is and 1 to 1.2m (3' to 4') off the ground to deal with baseball caps and people with their head down.

IMG20230428120413.jpg

I'll hide them in some kind of enclosure and use lenses disguised as screws.

screwlens.jpg

Cameras would be Dahua IPC-HUM8441-E1-L1. Having the processor separate allows for a very small profile. These cams do face detection and my experience with Dahua face detection has been excellent. I've seen them capture a face of someone on a motorcycle traveling about 30km/h a fraction of a second after they enter the frame.

Like your door checker, most of my targets are on foot and I believe they've gotten accustomed to the poor video cameras that most people use. I'm really dialing my setup in and I think this will be a great addition.

Suspicious activity was up against last night. One guy passed in front my house four times inside of 45 minutes. Three times on the sidewalk and the last time in the middle of the street. I need to get my 20,000 lumen LED security lights up soon. Spent an hour saving the clips on my external HD and entering everything in to the speadsheet.
 
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For better face capture, I'm planning on putting two pinhole cams in the column on the street. One pointed each way to get face captures of everyone walking by on the sidewalk and the street. There's a VTO that records video and audio 24/7 but it's forward facing and doesn't do motion detection, IVS, face capture.

They will be mounted on the other side of the column where the X is and 1 to 1.2m (3' to 4') off the ground to deal with baseball caps and people with their head down.

View attachment 161308

I'll hide them in some kind of enclosure and use lenses disguised as screws.

View attachment 161319

Cameras would be Dahua IPC-HUM8441-E1-L1. Having the processor separate allows for a very small profile. These cams do face detection and my experience with Dahua face detection has been excellent. I've seen them capture a face of someone on a motorcycle traveling about 30km/h a fraction of a second after they enter the frame.

Like your door checker, most of my targets are on foot and I believe they've gotten accustomed to the poor video cameras that most people use. I'm really dialing my setup in and I think this will be a great addition.

Suspicious activity was up against last night. One guy passed in front my house four times inside of 45 minutes. Three times on the sidewalk and the last time in the middle of the street. I need to get my 20,000 lumen LED security lights up soon. Spent an hour saving the clips on my external HD and entering everything in to the speadsheet.

Interesting project. What type of enclosure you plan to use in order to accommodate the pinhole lenses in opposite directions? Are you planning to include both in a single case (back-to-back)?
 
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Interesting project. What type of enclosure you plan to use in order to accommodate the pinhole lenses in opposite directions? Are you planning to include both in a single case (back-to-back)?

The enclosure is the unknown in this equation. I'm considering something in brushed steel with the street numbers illuminated. The column is about a foot wide so I have some space to work with.

Something like the attached pics but the enclosure would have to be the width of the column to allow for the screw lenses to be installed on each side. And it wouldn't be allow to protrude from the column, it would have to be inside the envelope of said column.

The rest is fairly easy, run the cables in conduit out the back towards the house and inside where the two processor units would be located. A POE splitter to get 12v and illuminate something in the box to account for the conduit. A multiplexer so I only have to deal with one cable from the switch/NVR or even use an existing run.

Yes, I imagine the cameras would be back to back. Probably 3.6mm lenses as the factory 2.8mm lenses would be too wide and I'd like to narrow down the FOV.

Lenses would be about 4' off the ground to get people with their heads down and/or wearing hats, using umbrellas, etc.

I think the planning is more fun than the execution.
 
The enclosure is the unknown in this equation. I'm considering something in brushed steel with the street numbers illuminated. The column is about a foot wide so I have some space to work with.

Something like the attached pics but the enclosure would have to be the width of the column to allow for the screw lenses to be installed on each side. And it wouldn't be allow to protrude from the column, it would have to be inside the envelope of said column.

The rest is fairly easy, run the cables in conduit out the back towards the house and inside where the two processor units would be located. A POE splitter to get 12v and illuminate something in the box to account for the conduit. A multiplexer so I only have to deal with one cable from the switch/NVR or even use an existing run.

Yes, I imagine the cameras would be back to back. Probably 3.6mm lenses as the factory 2.8mm lenses would be too wide and I'd like to narrow down the FOV.

Lenses would be about 4' off the ground to get people with their heads down and/or wearing hats, using umbrellas, etc.

I think the planning is more fun than the execution.


Nice project. In a previous installation, I used a surface mount 4”x4” PVC weatherproof box to include two side-by-side pinhole board cameras. It was for a commercial warehouse application, but It will look funny for residential. To disguise the purpose of installing a pvc box at the main entrance, just added a round key switch in the faceplate. In your case, I like the idea of using house numbers in the front column. You may use an indirect light to illuminate the house numbers, while using the light enclosure to accommodate both cameras. Keep us posted of your progress.
26E4EA2A-58C1-4F42-ACF9-2A7279DABE85.jpeg
 
Nice project. In a previous installation, I used a surface mount 4”x4” PVC weatherproof box to include two side-by-side pinhole board cameras. It was for a commercial warehouse application, but It will look funny for residential. To disguise the purpose of installing a pvc box at the main entrance, just added a round key switch in the faceplate. In your case, I like the idea of using house numbers in the front column. You may use an indirect light to illuminate the house numbers, while using the light enclosure to accommodate both cameras. Keep us posted of your progress.
View attachment 162167

This is almost exactly what I want to do but with brushed steel. Recessed into the column. I really like you're idea of indirect light on the numbers. I have a VTO at this location (numbers and cams will go under the VTO) so I can use a POE splitter to get 12v DC for the light.

Thanks for the tips and I will definitely keep my project updated. I'm working on camouflaging a BoobieCam in the front entrance for virtually the same purpose at the pinhole cam project; 24/7 face detection of everyone who enters and leaves the property. There's been a slight change in the planned location but the new position works even better for camouflaging purposes. Hope to be done this project by the end of the week.

Oh, any chance you can share pics of the inside of the box? Interested to see how you mounted the cams.
 
This is almost exactly what I want to do but with brushed steel. Recessed into the column. I really like you're idea of indirect light on the numbers. I have a VTO at this location (numbers and cams will go under the VTO) so I can use a POE splitter to get 12v DC for the light.

Thanks for the tips and I will definitely keep my project updated. I'm working on camouflaging a BoobieCam in the front entrance for virtually the same purpose at the pinhole cam project; 24/7 face detection of everyone who enters and leaves the property. There's been a slight change in the planned location but the new position works even better for camouflaging purposes. Hope to be done this project by the end of the week.

Oh, any chance you can share pics of the inside of the box? Interested to see how you mounted the cams.

Unfortunately, I did not took photos of the project. But basically is the same approach I used on spy cams. The cameras used come in two styles, with a metal body/bracket, and a bare mounted board. In my previous warehouse installation, the camera metal bracket was “glued” to the plastic box, while drilling a small hole for the lens.848C5D34-53FA-4556-8ACB-48587E8CFA63.jpeg1E89943F-4182-4A04-BF87-4C5603F7B686.jpeg
 
Unfortunately, I did not took photos of the project. But basically is the same approach I used on spy cams. The cameras used come in two styles, with a metal body/bracket, and a bare mounted board. In my previous warehouse installation, the camera metal bracket was “glued” to the plastic box, while drilling a small hole for the lens.View attachment 162226View attachment 162227

That was very helpful! Thank you!
 
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That was very helpful! Thank you!

You’re welcome. Of course, let me know if you need additional information. If your plan is using a thin brushed metal, it will be easier than my plastic PVC box. The wider plastic, specially after drilling the small hole for the lens (drill #1), will produce a “tunel” effect in the image (plastic wall at each side). You need to create a convex cavity from inside the wall box, but be careful of not exceeding the outside wall (drill #2). If necessary, you may need to do the same to the middle hole in the bottom metal bracket. Included find a drawingA6BE511A-C7A9-4C7A-ACFD-689F67282CBE.jpeg
 
I think there is no parking on both sides down that way.

Nothing in this neighborhood makes sense.
In CA, for several years now, all the new houses only have cluster mailboxes. I am not a fan of the cluster mailboxes; they may make the USPS mailman's job easier, but thieves/crooks now just take the entire mail box.