Is Face Recognition with EmpireTech NVR better than DoubleTake

[actran]

I have been using Double-Take to do face recognition using an Amcrest AD110 doorbell camera for the video feed.

I'm still getting some false positives with this setup even after adding many versions of my family faces.

I am curious if a NVR with onboard AI for face recognition would do a better job.
I am considering this NVR EmpireTech NVR8CH-AI 8 Channels 1U 2HDD Network Video Recorder strictly to point to 1 wifi doorbell camera for face recognition (not just face detection)

Questions:
#1: Can this NVR take the stream from a Amcrest AD110 and use it to do face recognition?

#2: Do you think the NVR will do a better job than Double-Take with Compreface model?

#3: Is there API for transferring face images + metadata from NVR to a PC?

P.S. Hoping @Mark_M will chime in since he has NVR face recognition experience.

Thank you.

 

[Mark_M]

I'm not home right now... so I'll try my best without images on the NVR.

1. The NVR's that are '-I' or '-E/I' have on board AI for facial recognition/metadata/IVS. On the '5x-I' NVRs this is 2 cameras with facial recognition. The NVR itself does the facial detection and facial recognition. So you can use a generic camera, although Amcrest is a Dahua OEM so it should work like a Dahua camera.
2. Hard to tell about doing better..... Frigate, Blue Iris, Luxriot and other VMS systems have upgradable facial recognition algorithms.
3. There is API.... I have the API document but I have no clue how to setup subscribing to a facial recognition event and getting a name back. Other VMS solutions would be much easier in that regard.

If you are buying the NVR just for facial recognition I think you will be disappointed.
Also using the NVR's other functions, like metadata/accupick and IVS is worth the NVR in my opinion.

The key takeaway:
An NVR is a ready-made solution. It's not really designed for external API stuff.
Blue Iris, Luxriot, Frigate, and other VMS solutions can be updated, featured added, scale the hardware for the performance needed, add as many HDDs as your server can support, etc.

If you're looking into the API then you are a tinkerer. I suggest building/buying a decent PC and running a VMS package of your choosing on it.
I bought this NVR because it cost the same as the two 6TB Skyhawks inside of it.... it was a steal being a demo unit from a security company.

 

[actran]

Thanks for chiming in @Mark_M

FYI, I am using Blue Iris with CodeProject.AI. The face recognition in CodeProject.AI was not very reliable. Currently, I am using Double-Take in Home Assistant to orchestrate face recognition using Compreface as the face detector. It's not bad but I am still getting some false positives. Hence my post above about NVR.

 

[Mark_M]

I'm surprised you have CodeProject.AI and other software not to be good.
The NVR has limited updates.... other software like you mentioned can be updated and tweaked a lot more.

Camera position is also a very big factor for false alerts.

 

[wittaj]

Keep in mind that most of us have found that facial identification is more gimmicky and novelty than anything else. If you have to put in 5 or 10 or 15 or 35 pictures or more of yourself in the system for it to recognize it is you...then you shouldn't expect much.... My success rate was under 5% so I moved on to other things LOL. YMMV

It can work in certain situations like a business that requires everyone to stop in front of the camera and the camera is at head height. Outside of that, the percentage of being accurate is probably not going to be super high. You will get a lot of false "confirmations" doing a search.

Someone here posted once how horrible it was inside his house identifying his neighbors and others as him. Another guy his kids and wife were being tagged as him inside the house.

Unless you spend the big bucks that casinos and airports have LOL.

As always YMMV and some here use it and say it is acceptable for their use case.

Heck even in ideal situations like a business with the camera at ideal height and optimal lighting it fails....

What do you think of Dahua's "Uyghur Warnings"?

Good luck. Wish you no ill will. I'm not here to argue with people simply to contribute when and where I can. This is also followed by lending my views on current technology and how it impacts all of us. It's undisputed that splitting of the atom changed the world but once again man decided to...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

The data meta is doing great on the very smart cameras, the new AI NVR we sell also bit smarter than before.

EmpireTech Video Metadata setting guide Via Super Smart PTZ SD8C845FG-HNF - YouTube

But AI tech have 2 sides based on who use them.