All
As promised, I tested the new version (08/28) of this FW on the Color4K-X. I want to be clear that this
08/28 FW is NOT BUILT ON THE KNOWN GOOD 6/11 codebase that I flagged to Dahua as the 08/28 was already being produced to re-test Smart Object Detection. Therefore
I DO NOT RECOMMEND you use 08/28 on the Color 4K/X. Stick with 6/11 while I test the latest version (09/08) that is built on 6/11 and has some bug fixes for items I filed.
For this post I just wanted to focus on Smart Object Detection. It’s back and it DOES work
BUT it needs a lot of work still to make this useful. First let me layout the requirements to use this:
- Must have SMD turned off
- Cannot use with any other Smart Plan therefore you give up IVS to use this
- Only captures snapshots NOT video
- WHen using Smart Object Detection your only option for capturing video is vanilla Motion Detection
As you can see this does limit the application quite a fair amount so you must want to be alerted to packages being abandoned or missing to have a need for this feature. So what does it actually do and what do you get ?
When set to detect Abandoned Objects, the cam algorithm scans the FOV, when an item is added to the scene and the threshold (6s or longer) is breached, an image is captured and an audio alarm, notification etc can be sent. If you set for Missing Objects then the camera will again monitor the scene (before and after scan if you will), detect the object that’s missing and then alert.
Sounds good right ? In theory it is but in current application its not that useful in my testing. The problem is that although the camera algorithm is clearly doing a before and after comparison AND is smart enough to actually show a target box around the missing item (i.e. when the package has already been taken shows a target box in Live view around the area of the missing item) its the end results that at the moment don’t add much value.
For example, on the Abandoned Object image cap you see the whole image, no target box, nothing to highlight what was abandoned and now tagged metadata as part of the stram. Now, granted if you have an empty loading dock or porch then this is very easy to see what was left or abandoned BUT if you have an area that already has a number of items in the FOV it can be tough to tell which one was abandoned. On the Missing Object its unfortunately worse. Assuming you have your empty loading dock, porch etc for this example, the capture image literally shows an empty FOV, again no target box showing even the area the cam detected the missing item AND CRITICALLY no before and after capture.
So in summary, does this feature have promise, could it be useful at some point,
YES, BUT it needs a LOT of work. The algorithm being used is good but the implementation of the resulting capture and alerts is not where it needs to be in my opinion.
Here is what I will be asking Dahua to work on with this feature:
- Ability to have Smart Object Detection as an item under other IVS options (trip / intrusion etc) OR worst case allow Smart Object Detection (as its only images, not video) to be turned on at the same time (parallel processing) as IVS. In this FW (08/28) release Dahua removed Abandoned & Missing Object from the IVS rules, which is great due to the added functionality of alarms etc that you can setup BUT it limits your ability to use your cam for other critical video based captures UNLESS you set a schedule for Smart Object to run from x to x and IVS to run from y to y etc
- IF Smart Object Detection MUST remain as its own Smart Plan item then allow it to capture video not just snapshot images
- If Smart Object Detection remains as image capture only, then:
- a) must have at least 2 captured images per alert, 1 that shows the before Abandoned or Missing Object and the other capture that shows after
- b) highlight / meta tag the target box / item so its easy to see on screen what was Abandoned or what is Missing. Include in stream tagging
- Fix a critical Bug that disables Smart Object Detection. There is an option for Independent Object Alarm BUT in my testing once you’ve checked this and even if you uncheck it then auses the Smart Object Detection to STOP DETECTING any objects.
I will also be updating
@EMPIRETECANDY on my findings and working with Dahua engineers to get their feedback on how they might proceed and fix. As I said, at the moment still needs a lot of work, I don't think its worth using and TBH think there are other areas of focus (such as bugs etc) that are probably more worthwhile working on for Dahua in my opinion.
HTH
As mentioned before, YES you can remove the case and manual focus the lens on this, its not difficult, just a little fiddly BUT as I stated before is not something that end users should have to do on brand new deployed cams from any manufacturer. Also let me know which FW you are running on this one too. Thanks
