Looking for advice on a local storage only camera system

[wittaj]

The Z12E is PERFECT for going back later and reviewing video to find the plate. This is exactly what most of us do. But it won't automatically read them (need a camera 3 times the price). Someone (you or police) would manually read the plate.

But as I pointed out above, at night your image will be completely dark. You shouldn't rely on just the Z12E as a plate camera.

You have to zoom the camera in a lot to be able to read plates. And with the black image at night (unless you have a ton of light) will not give you car color or type and anyone walking in will be missed. Unless you are relying on others in the neighborhood with cameras to fill in those pieces.

 

[bigredfish]

I was simply pointing out (as did @wittaj above who beat me to the punch) that you really dont need a true ANPR camera with a built in database of plates. Thats really the only thing different between it and a regular camera such as the Z12.

For simplicity sake, We have 3 cameras at the entrance (and 3 at the culdesac). One dedicated to plates inbound, one camera dedicated to humans/vehicles looking outbound, and one Overview looking inbound. The overview is most helpfull at night as the LPR cameras at night will only see the plate's IR reflection

5442 Overview Inbound (can be color but better definition with supplemental IR so running IR mode currently)


LPR (5442-Z12) Inbound


5442 Outbound Overview in color

 

[steve1225]

hmm, now I'm concerned that I don't have the correct setup. Our HOA has 180 homes with 2 entrances so we have a fair amount of traffic. My plan was to place the cameras on the islands with 1 pointed in and another pointed out (the angles are excellent). The inward facing would get the front of exiting cars and the back of entering cars. The outward facing will get the back of the exiting cars. If need be later, we could add a 3rd overview camera but my hope was that wouldn't be needed. Primarily the usage would be that if someone had a break in or such we would review the footage to give the police the vehicles moving during that time window (description and plates).

The best solution for car entrances are WIzMind-X cams (7442H-X) or dedicated LPR cams..

WIzMind-X are more universal - because they work not only on cars but also on people.
They do full ANPR (car plate number recognition), but also cars color/brand/type and also human attributes (age, clothes types/colors, hat/glasses/mask etc)..

You can search by those attributes using Video MetaData functions on NVR (5xxx-EI minimum)...

In latest firmware there is also AcuPick 2.0 solution - where Video Metadata is connected with IVS (perimeter protection) and searching people/cars by image.. In case of using higher line NVR (6xx-XI) Dahua promised in materials that those functions can be connected even with Face recognition feature (but for now they didn't released AcuPick 2.0 firmware for 6xx-XI)..




Lots of AI goodness..

Network Cameras - Dahua International

Network Cameras

www.dahuasecurity.com

there are versions with Z4 lenses (8-32mm). Little less as Z12 in 5241-Z12, but difference in AI/ANPR/searching by attributes functionality between 5241-Z12 and 7444H-X is huge..

EmpireTech IPC-B74IR-Z4-AI 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Bullet Network Camera Mo

4-MP 1/1.8" CMOS | Built-in IR LED | Max. illumination distance is 120 m | Time-Division Exposure technology | 2 intelligent functions can be enabled at the same time | Deep learning algorithm | Privacy Protection | IP67 and IK10 protection

empiretech01.com

EmpireTech 1/1.8" CMOS IPC-D78IR-Z4-AI 8MP 8mm–32mm Vari-Focal IR Dome

8-MP 1/1.8" CMOS | Built-in IR LED | The max. illumination distance is 80 m | Face recognition | Face detection | IVS | People counting | Video metadata | PPE Detection | Parking space management | ANPR | Privacy Protection | Built-in Hi-Fi large-diameter speaker | Supports max. 512 G Micro SD...

empiretech01.com

 

[Ben Catoe]

You guys are awesome, thank you for the advice. The 741R is out of our price range, especially since we need 4 of them. We do plan to have lights aimed to (hopefully) make the tags visible at night. I'm not finding pricing on the Wizmind bullet cameras. I don't think looking thru the footage to read the plate is unworkable for us. The budget I got approved was based on these devices.

It sounds like I've got the right NVR to be able to search the metadata, especially with the Acupick firmware...wow, that's cool stuff. Hmm, is that supported on this NVR 5-EI Series Smart H.265+ AI 8 Channels 1U 8PoE 2HDDs Network Video Recorder NVR8CH-8P-2AI - IP Cam Talk Store I notice it is listed as Empire Tech but I am thinking these are Dahua devices.

 

[wittaj]

We have found Accupick isn't really valuable in a home situation, especially with just two cameras. Not aware of anyone here using it. I tried it on my neighbors I set up for him and it was useless.

 

[Ben Catoe]

We would have 4 cameras (2 on each island) but I get your point. It looks like a very good tool but in practice our usage might be minimal. We do have someone that keeps using the exit side of the island to zoom past people coming thru the entrance. It seems like this might help me build a solid case on him by showing him doing it repeatedly without having to comb thru lots of footage looking for him.

 

[Ben Catoe]

We would have 4 cameras (2 on each island) but I get your point. It looks like a very good tool but in practice our usage might be minimal. We do have someone that keeps using the exit side of the island to zoom past people coming thru the entrance. It seems like this might help me build a solid case on him by showing him doing it repeatedly without having to comb thru lots of footage looking for him.

I finally got the system installed and working. It'll need tuning of course but IT WORKS !! I ended up grabbing the T581R 8mg turret cams. Hopefully that doesn't end up being a mistake. The Mimosa wireless PTP got discontinued so I got 2 pair of the Nanostation AC Loco to handle that. I've got 100mg (ish) link that is stable between the 2 islands so all the cameras are recording to the NVR mounted out there. The 2nd link gets it to my house so I can monitor/manage from here. This link is slower since it's going thru a house and currently velcro'd to a broom leaning on a window LOL. Gonna have to run a cable thru the attic to improve this. If there is interest I can take some pics of the overall setup. We may end up adding some lights to help with nighttime viewing but I figure I need to make it work in the daytime first

I've got 2 weeks of 24x7 recording on all 4 and the 8tb HDD still has 3tb free...so estimating I'll get a month before it starts overwriting...I can add a 2nd hdd later if needed but I don't want to comb back thru 2 months anyway.
It is going to take me a bit to figure out best aim, zoom and the intelligence settings. I'm not sure if it is possible to leave the wider shot and have it zoom in when motion detected? The zoom and focus may not be fast enough for that to work. I'd also really like is to have the system flag someone driving in thru the exit side of the 1 island since that has been an issue. I've marked that in red in the attached pic. Any suggestions?
Another goofy thing is that is keeps prompting me to download and install the plug-in but that might be my work computer blocking something. I have installed it but don't see it listed in the Extentions. I have tried both Edge and Chrome.

 

[wittaj]

The extension is for Internet Explorer browser.

 

[TonyR]

Another goofy thing is that is keeps prompting me to download and install the plug-in but that might be my work computer blocking something. I have installed it but don't see it listed in the Extentions. I have tried both Edge and Chrome.

The plug-in is for Internet Explorer or for IE Tab (an extension for Edge, Chrome, Brave and other Chromium-based browsers so it can use IE Tab to emulate IE itself).

 

[Ben Catoe]

The plug-in is for Internet Explorer or for IE Tab (an extension for Edge, Chrome, Brave and other Chromium-based browsers so it can use IE Tab to emulate IE itself).

ahh, thanks. Yep, I enabled IE mode and set the NVR page to use that. Plugin loads properly now however both Edge and Chrome. I also set tripwire in 1 direction for the 2 cameras that cover that exit to flag anyone driving in thru it. I wish there was a way to process the tags but I see in the chain above that I'd need a specialty camera for that ability. For now I'm going to see how well I can do manually with the digital zoom on playback and then adjust the optical zoom on the cameras in enough for this to work.

 

[bigredfish]

Not sure why you went with the 8MP cameras instead of the 5442 series? Nighttime will be more challenging

On these two questions:
It is going to take me a bit to figure out best aim, zoom and the intelligence settings. I'm not sure if it is possible to leave the wider shot and have it zoom in when motion detected? The zoom and focus may not be fast enough for that to work.
A) Not practically. Those cameras arent meant to be zoomed back and forth repeatedly. The zoom is for dialing in your FOV. While I'm sure someone here can tell you how to use API calls to make it do that, your camera motors wont last, and as you say, it wont likely be fast enough

I'd also really like is to have the system flag someone driving in thru the exit side of the 1 island since that has been an issue. I've marked that in red in the attached pic. Any suggestions?
A) Yes, simply create a tripwire with direction "In" and it will only alert on vehicles going that direction

Maybe the distance isnt as far as it looks, but without a dedicated tag camera you're going to struggle especially at night

 

[Ben Catoe]

@bigredfish thank you very much.
It ended up being a supply issue when I was ordering and then the 8mp's were on sale so it seemed like a good idea at the time since the feature set was solid. I didn't think about the nighttime performance being negative. Thanks for the info on the zoom, I had figured that would be the case. Certainly a convenience to be able to adjust to tune my FOV. I'm not sure why the tripwire didn't occur to me at first but yes I've already set that up. The exit side cameras are very short distance so worst case I should be able to get the tags on the way out. If I can get a partial on the way in that should help match things up if needed.

 

[looney2ns]

Thread 'New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin'

Nov 12, 2020

Thought I would throw together a post on my experiences so far with LPR in an effort to help others that are considering running down that rabbit hole. There are some practical considerations you should know about LPR. I am approaching this from the position of using Blue Iris and Plate Recognizer Snapshot as that is what I have done so far. If you are using an NVR or some other plate OCR, then some of the discussion may not apply to you.


Plate Recognizer (PR) is very easy to set up in Blue Iris (BI). It uses the Alert image from the trigger alert in BI. BI sends that Alert image to PR...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 160
• Forum: LPR

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