SMD – Smart Motion Detection
Hey everyone, Security Camera King is excited to share with you an amazing feature for reducing false alerts called SMD, or SMart Motion Detection! This is a new AI enhancement to existing motion detection technology and the best part? It’s available on many of our DVRs as well as COAX cameras and systems! Before we get into why SMD is so amazing, let’s talk a bit about what Motion Detection even is or does!
The name says it all when it comes to Motion Detection and its purpose- to notice (detect) movement (motion) in a given scene. So what that means is that if within a camera’s field of view there is an object that moves, the camera’s motion detection feature will be able to see this. This can then potentially trigger several possible reactions from the recorder connected to that camera- everything from recording, to notifying via the app, triggering alarm outs- you name it! So, How does this amazing process work though?
To understand this better, we first have to know what pixels are. Pixels are the small dots or points on a screen or image that make up the picture together. Motion detection works by comparing the way the pixels are in one moment, versus how they appear in the next.
As a camera takes in a fixed view from any given scene, most of those pixels are going to remain relatively the same. For example, the floor and walls, as well as street signs, poles, and buildings aren’t often going to suddenly move. These static objects make up the pixels in the scene, and motion detection can see when these pixels change. There may be subtle changes such as shadows, and lighting over time, but these are slow and gradual, MD knows not to count that sort of stuff. Now if in that same scene a car or a person walks through, this is a sudden and more chaotic change in the pixels in the scene than say daytime slowly turning into the nighttime. This sudden change in pixels could be considered a motion event.
Additionally, there are three important settings when it comes to motion detection that determines the tipping point at which the change in pixels is considered different enough to be considered a ‘motion event’. These are Called sensitivity, threshold, and anti-dither. Together, these three settings allow you to fine-tune your Motion detection to make it so that objects need to be larger or smaller, moving more or less, and for a longer or shorter time. This is all based on trial and error and need.
So now we know a lot more about what motion detection is, and what the settings mean. So what are the benefits of motion detection? First – is identifying suspicious activity in the moment. Motion detection is useful for logging changes in a scene so that you can receive a notification on your phone, or via email if an event happens. Next is the ability to more easily find footage later. When motion footage is captured, it is logged in the recorder’s playback and export areas by indicating a particular color on the seek bars. Usually, this is yellow, different from the standard green on a normal non-motion tagged recording. This makes finding footage that might have an event in it simpler, and faster. Lastly, is saving recording space. You can have your cameras programmed to record only on the motion at certain, or all times of the day. This reduces the amount of data consumed on the hard drive by drastically reducing the amount of time your cameras spend recording.
What if we were able to take it a step further though, and really get rid of all the false alerts that tweaking our settings might not eliminate?
That’s where SMD- or Smart motion detection comes in! Our SMD DVR’s have onboard AI-powered chips that allow them to process advanced calculations from the video data coming in from various cameras on the system. With SMD, this AI function can use its processing power to actually eliminate human or vehicle objects from the equation entirely. You read that right!
What that means is if you have a scene you are looking to constantly monitor for motion, but only for specific things, you can now do this! Imagine a busy parking lot full of cars that’s normally off-limits for pedestrian traffic outside of employee activity. Having your SMD-powered DVR eliminate all vehicle targets frees it to focus solely on if a person is moving where they shouldn’t, and vice versa! in the same token, you could have that SMD system focus ONLKY on people targets, eliminating anything it sees as nonhuman from the events list. No more cats, raccoons, leaves or squirrels sending you motion alerts late at night!
For a long time only IP based systems such as NVRs had the AI tools to really take alert tracking to the next level. Now, with SMD and SMD+ an even more powerful version of SMD, our COAX-based systems are more viable than ever before. Speaking of COAX and IP, we now carry IP cameras capable of utilizing SMD as well. This means adding an IP camera to a Hybird DVR system and using SMD is now a possibility!
Check out this LINK HERE for a quick list of some cameras and recorders equipped with SMD!
For more info on this Amazing feature, give us a call any time at 561-288-5258. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! Thanks for checking out SMD and until next time- stay safe!
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