Stack video frames to enhance face and catch Truck Thief?

[TheWaterbug]

TL;DR: Is there software out there that can track a moving face for a few frames and enhance it?

Our neighbor at our office complex got their truck stolen from their roll-up garage, twice! The thieves broke a side window, went into the building, opened the roll-up, took the truck out, closed the roll-up, and drove away with a load of tools. A few hours later they came back, went back in through the broken window, opened the roll-up, backed the truck in, loaded up with more tools, and drove away. Brazen. There was a separate vehicle involved as the lookout.

Our neighbor has no cameras, and my cameras are focused on my building, but we got a few frames that might be of interest to the police. Before the first theft, we caught this guy on a bicycle:



Right after the first theft we caught the stolen truck driving by another camera:



These videos are Unlisted, so anyone with the URL can view them, but I don't have them as Public until the police tell me it's Ok to do so, so please keep these within this community, or with people you know well, until laster. After I've done some editing I'll have video of the actual theft from the garage, but you can't see any faces.

One of my employees took the best still from each and fiddled with them in some photo software, and it appears to be the same guy:




Is there software out there that can track a moving face for a few frames and enhance it? The bicycle clip has him in roughly the same orientation for at least 4-5 frames.

Here are the original video files:

https://www.kan.org/download/SideLot.20240411_183652-183725.45-00.00.18.013-00.00.26.002.mp4

https://www.kan.org/download/BackLotSouth.20240411_180643-180759.46-00.00.27.010-00.00.32.010.mp4

These were recorded as Direct-to-Disc in BlueIris, then downloaded without the Re-encode checkbox, and then trimmed in LosslessCut, so there has been no re-encoding of any frames, and they are as close to the originals from the camera as possible.

 

[wittaj]

Unfortunately that tech is only available in TV shows and movies.

This company claims they can do it, but my buddy tried it and it didn't work. YMMV

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[bigredfish]

^^^^^
This

FYI before you get hit you might want to consider lowering those cameras so you can get faces instead of bald spots if they were to break into your place. Typically 7ft is ideal. You’d also get better shots of the street

 

[CanCuba]

Those stills are not bad at all. And it does look like the same guy. Sideburns and small forehead. But the company name on the truck should be the biggest lead unless it was stolen.

 

[ludshed]

You have to enable “zoom and enhance!”

 

[TheWaterbug]

Those stills are not bad at all. And it does look like the same guy. Sideburns and small forehead. But the company name on the truck should be the biggest lead unless it was stolen.

Yes, that's the stolen truck. One Way is our neighbor.

 

[TheWaterbug]

^^^^^
This

FYI before you get hit you might want to consider lowering those cameras so you can get faces instead of bald spots if they were to break into your place. Typically 7ft is ideal. You’d also get better shots of the street

Yeah, I need to completely re-do the cameras. The problem is that I need a hammer drill (and the landlord's permission) to get through 8" of concrete wall if I want to move them. So it's not so simple.

 

[TheWaterbug]

There is one place I can hang a camera pretty quickly, and requires no drilling or landlord approval. We're Pulse Research Lab, at the southeast corner of the largest building at 22301 S. Western Ave. #107. The truck was stolen from the building to our West, where I've pasted in the truck graphic:



Click these links for panoramic views from the south side of our building and from the west side of our building.

The view from the South shows the red balcony that's also visible in the bottom-right corner of the aerial view, above. I can run a cable from a POE switch inside and out to that balcony, and then hang a camera off the side of the balcony below its floor level.

That's still not the greatest place, because it's a bit too high, but a camera mounted there can look almost due West, and cars coming from the back lot towards Western Ave. will drive pretty much straight towards it, as the stolen truck did that evening. Google Maps's distance tool says that's 84.42' plus some additional for the hypotenuse.

Any recommendations for a quick-and-dirty license plate camera? I don't need automated LPR (yet); I just need to be able to "zoom and enhance" and make out a plate manually. I will put a "regular" camera side-by-side to capture normal footage.

And yes, the thieves were stupid enough to attempt a repeat visit yesterday! They got chased off by the truck owner, but he was too rattled to think about getting a plate.

Thanks!

 

[JDreaming]

There is one place I can hang a camera pretty quickly, and requires no drilling or landlord approval. We're Pulse Research Lab, at the southeast corner of the largest building at 22301 S. Western Ave. #107. The truck was stolen from the building to our West, where I've pasted in the truck graphic:

View attachment 192421

Click these links for panoramic views from the south side of our building and from the west side of our building.

The view from the South shows the red balcony that's also visible in the bottom-right corner of the aerial view, above. I can run a cable from a POE switch inside and out to that balcony, and then hang a camera off the side of the balcony below its floor level.

That's still not the greatest place, because it's a bit too high, but a camera mounted there can look almost due West, and cars coming from the back lot towards Western Ave. will drive pretty much straight towards it, as the stolen truck did that evening. Google Maps's distance tool says that's 84.42' plus some additional for the hypotenuse.

Any recommendations for a quick-and-dirty license plate camera? I don't need automated LPR (yet); I just need to be able to "zoom and enhance" and make out a plate manually. I will put a "regular" camera side-by-side to capture normal footage.

And yes, the thieves were stupid enough to attempt a repeat visit yesterday! They got chased off by the truck owner, but he was too rattled to think about getting a plate.

Thanks!

Maybe the thieves are more stupid and brazen than you thought and will come back for a third time. Truck owner got to plan it out what to do next time in case they are back again.

 

[bigredfish]

To get any kinda zoom you'll have to go to a bullet model

These two are the most used around here for LPR, As you mentioned they dont capture plates in a databse, you'd have to review footage, but with IVS tripwires set, its easy to jump to the alerts and not have to watch hours of video

60+ft (remember the vehicle will likely pass your location so your 84ft may be more a max than an absolute
EmpireTech IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP WDR IR Built-in Mic AI Net

And once you get out there a ways, the Z12 is good out to 120-150ft
EmpireTech IPC-B52IR-Z12E-S2 1/2.8" CMOS 2MP 5mm–60mm Ultra Low Light

Couldnt you put one facing either direction and cover both entrance/exits?

Z12 zoomed to 100-120ft

 

[TheWaterbug]

To get any kinda zoom you'll have to go to a bullet model

These two are the most used around here for LPR, As you mentioned they dont capture plates in a databse, you'd have to review footage, but with IVS tripwires set, its easy to jump to the alerts and not have to watch hours of video

60+ft (remember the vehicle will likely pass your location so your 84ft may be more a max than an absolute
EmpireTech IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP WDR IR Built-in Mic AI Net

And once you get out there a ways, the Z12 is good out to 120-150ft
EmpireTech IPC-B52IR-Z12E-S2 1/2.8" CMOS 2MP 5mm–60mm Ultra Low Light

Couldnt you put one facing either direction and cover both entrance/exits?

Z12 zoomed to 100-120ft

Thanks! I've been trying to talk the landlord into putting in LPR cameras at the 3 different entrances to the facility, on their own dime, but that hasn't happened yet. I've even volunteered to host the BI installation.

In the meantime I just want to get started and learn about LPR, generally, both at work and at home, so I will probably start with 1 camera until I get some level of comfort with how it all works.

Is there any reason to choose the Z4E over the Z12E for LPR applications if they're pretty much the same price? I see the higher resolution, but I've also read all y'all writing about how resolution is less important than other factors for LPR.

Thanks!

 

[bigredfish]

For pure LPR at 60+ ft, not really, I'd just do the Z12's and be done

 

[TheWaterbug]

For pure LPR at 60+ ft, not really, I'd just do the Z12's and be done

Thanks! I just ordered one for work. If I end up spending a few thousand dollars buying a fleet of these, I'm blaming you!!!!

 

[TheWaterbug]

And once you get out there a ways, the Z12 is good out to 120-150ft
EmpireTech IPC-B52IR-Z12E-S2 1/2.8" CMOS 2MP 5mm–60mm Ultra Low Light

There are 3 driveways in the complex. Two of them are close to ~120-ish feet from a potential mounting point on my balcony:



but the 3rd one is more like ~200 ft:



if I can't get my northerly neighbors to host this camera, how much $$$$$ do I have to spend to see plates at 200'?

 

[wittaj]

Any chance you could put the one facing Western up on the roof for a straight shot?

Z12E can get 200 feet. Someone here has it at 220 feet. Some can get it without additional infrared and others need to add supplemental

Here is mine at 175 feet for reference.

 

[TheWaterbug]

Any chance you could put the one facing Western up on the roof for a straight shot?

Unfortunately we rent only the southerly 1/7th of that building, as we're Unit 107.

And the roof is off limits to us.

Also, how far off-axis can I be and still resolve plates? The north driveway on Western is looking like a good 60º.

 

[bigredfish]

Ouch, Probably too much, esp at night

Still they gotta come by closer to get past your corner going either way. Maybe don’t focus on the actual exits but on the approaches.

You should be able to get a good view at some point.

 

[mat200]

Unfortunately we rent only the southerly 1/7th of that building, as we're Unit 107.

And the roof is off limits to us.

Also, how far off-axis can I be and still resolve plates? The north driveway on Western is looking like a good 60º.

Got friends running the other shops ?

 

[TheWaterbug]

Got friends running the other shops ?

I've met most of the other tenants, and I'm hoping I can talk them into buying some cameras, but some of them are not technical at all, which means they'd either have to trust me to manage a device on their network, or I'd need some other way to connect to a camera that's 2-5 suites away.

edit: if one of my neighbors was savvy enough to have a segmented network that would allow them to safely access a camera from the WAN side through port-forwarding, what ports would I need forwarded in order to set up? I'm guessing that DMZing a camera is a bad idea.

 

[mat200]

I've met most of the other tenants, and I'm hoping I can talk them into buying some cameras, but some of them are not technical at all, which means they'd either have to trust me to manage a device on their network, or I'd need some other way to connect to a camera that's 2-5 suites away.

edit: if one of my neighbors was savvy enough to have a segmented network that would allow them to safely access a camera from the WAN side through port-forwarding, what ports would I need forwarded in order to set up? I'm guessing that DMZing a camera is a bad idea.

Perhaps set up a wireless bridge within a network you host and allow them access ..

You can provide the camera and they would provide the mount point and power ..

Seems like a fair exchange ..

Gets complicated when you expose cameras to the internet without proper management..