What are security camera analytics and how can we use them at home?

As security has fast become one of the most important considerations in business and government, it’s finally found it’s way to the residential sector. Adding cameras to our homes serves as a deterrent to smart criminals, and evidence to put away the rest. But with the increase in the number of cameras, it’s harder and harder to keep on eye on every one of them. 

Security camera analytics give the cameras a way of alerting you that an event occurred and that you may want to look at. Motion detection, license plate reading, line crossing, gunshot detection, and more are all available as events that cameras identify on their own. Those events can trigger recording, alerts to a guard, opening of a parking lot gate… the options are endless. 

In this post we talk about how analytics can be used at home.

That’s the question though… How can I use this at home?

I realize that I’m a special case because I’m kind of a camera nerd, and this is just how my brain works, but here’s an example of how I’ve used camera analytics at home, myself. 

I live on the third floor of a triplex, and my doorbell was broken when I moved in. I had a package coming from work, but I had to sign for it in order to receive the package. This posed a bit of a problem, because I couldn’t know they were here and they had no way of contacting me.

Obviously, I left a note for them with my phone number and a short explanation of the situation, but I’d much rather not need to rely on them going above and beyond their job. 

Gosh, I remember so vividly because that night I had to leave town, I didn’t have time to wait til the next day. 

Anyway, I setup a camera to look out the front–Just out the window–so I could see when he gets there. But I wanted more. I can’t sit here just watching the camera all day, I may as well be sitting at the window the whole time. 

This is where analytics come in. I turned on the analytic in the camera for “IVA – Virtual Line Crossing” and drew a line across the screen at the edge of the sidewalk. Now, any time someone walked past the sidewalk into either the grass or the stairs, it would trigger an event to e-mail me. 

That’s a little better. I’ll get an email about 15 seconds after it’s triggered, which should be while they’re still reading the note on the door. 

Actually, I went a step further. I also configured the VMS (Video Management System) that I use to play a sound when that event was triggered by the camera. This means even before the e-mail got to me, my computer played a sound through the speakers. Makeshift doorbell before they ever get to the door. I think I win this round of nerd. Hah!

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Okay fine, doorbell is fine. How’s it going to help ME?!

Straight back to business. I like it. Analytics include motion detection, object detection, face detection, gunshot detection, loitering, and more.

Loitering’s a good example. Setup a camera to watch the front of your house and turn loitering on. Tell it to send you an email if someone has been loitering out in front of your house for some time.

You can also set it up to only record when someone has been detected as loitering. This will save huge mounts of space, and allow you to save recordings for a much longer period of time.

Not into loitering? No problem. Let’s talk motion detection.

Put a camera watching your back door. If the back door opens, get an email saying the back door has opened. That way you know to pull the camera up right away and see what’s happening.

If those aren’t real world use case enough for ya, give me some examples in the comments and let me know what situations you imagine using this sort of technology!