AI vs PIR, which would be more reliable?

To anybody that has used both, which works better on the Wyze cameras? I tend to get a lot of false alerts with the AI, such as detecting shadows as vehicles, and repeatedly detecting vehicles that are parked and not moving. But at the same time I feel like the AI has more room to grow and improve through firmware than the PIR cameras would. Right now I’m trying to decide between the floodlight v2 vs floodlight pro and battery cam pro vs outdoor cam. Any thoughts?

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I have all of the above.

The Floodlight Pro is one of my all-time favorite cameras. I started with one, loved it! I bought more. I loved them so much I went and CREATED new junction boxes just so I could install more of them. One cool thing about the FLPro AI is that it will only notify you of a vehicle if it is moving or some other AI object is also in the event like a person. It won’t notify you of a parked vehicle in view if there was just other motion starting the event like wind or lights/shadows. The FLPro has an extra “MOVING AI” upgrade in it that the other cameras don’t have yet.

The Battery Cam Pro is way better than the WCO IMO. Even if you prefer PIR, the BCPro also uses PIR.

If you have the BCPro set to sensitivity 1-5 it will use both PIR and Radar. If you have it set to Sensitivity level 6 then it will just use PIR without Radar. So even if you are set on wanting PIR, the BCPro already has that too.

I don’t understand this. So why does it say it’s a higher sensitivity at level 6 then if it’s only using part of the sensors?

Sensitivity 1-5 means an event is only triggered if BOTH PIR AND RADAR are triggered, but will not do so if it is just 1 or the other. This helps reduce false positives. PIR senses heat (technically infrared radiation), and Radar senses object movement but doesn’t care about heat. A person is likely to trigger both, but other objects may only trigger on 1. So using both gives fewer detections/recordings than if you just used 1 of the sensors alone. With just one sensor, the camera will record more things, but it will likely include recordings of things that aren’t always people/animals.

For example, a PIR sensor alone might be activated by the moving hot air from a house’s HVAC vents, or the warm surface of a parked car heated by the sun.

Radar might detect non-living objects like a rolling ball, or ceiling fan.

When combined, Radar and PIR together wouldn’t be likely to record any of those things that they would do alone, thus making it more likely they would record fewer things and preserve the battery better, but it would record relevant things (people, pets, cars, etc). So, when you take away one of the sensors, it will record more things, but it will also be more likely to include irrelevant things in its recordings. In addition, the PIR sensor appears to be able to detect things slightly farther away than the Radar sensor. So by removing the Radar limitation, you can sometimes start recording things that are a little farther away or with less movement or for longer than if you require both PIR and Radar to be triggering the whole time for something to be considered a valid event. Therefore, PIR alone is MORE SENSITIVE because it has fewer requirements and fewer limitations in what will qualify as an approved event and will thus record more things, farther away, sooner, and for longer because the limitations are lessened.

Hopefully that helps to explain. I know it’s a little technical and complex.

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Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense.

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