Motion Detect - Lighting Change Detection

Current sensitivity I believe is just a percentage of pixel changes.
Above that number, a motion alert is triggered.
I suggest a max threshold, where if a motion alert is triggered, but above another percentage of pixel changes, then it’s considered a flicking on/off of a light switch, which then suppresses the alert action.

Also having debug info on the saved video will also help users fine tune the correct sensitivity. (ie actual percentage of pixel changed that caused the motion alert)

Thanks.

I’ve led a number of folks to buy Wyze cams. But the common complaint is that when their connected lights turn off or on, they get a Wyze alert. When 60 or 70% of the pixels all report change, it’s likely a lighting change.
Add a lighting change detect threshold slider and a toggle for enable/disable and I’ll bet you will make a lot of people happy.
Sensitivity is the minimum that has to change to trigger. Lighting detection is a ceiling, where anything over that is ignored.

1 Like

This would probably help with lightning too.

Perhaps this is an “Artificial Intelligence” opportunity. I have unsuccessfully tried several approaches without success: Automated lights going on or off fill the “area” with illumination. That’s their purpose. To make appear that the house is occupied they have to be visible to onlookers.

Therefore, even turning the sensitivity as low as it will go does not work
Likewise, the light fills the area so the change is seen everywhere. Detection zones don’t work.

Nonetheless, there is something about human perception that does NOT see a light going on as motion. Nothing seems to move; the light just goes on or off. True “motion” creates a changing location over time Sensing this sounds like “intelligence” to me.

I am not under the delusion that this is easy. But, if it were to be developed I’m pretty sure it would be unique to Wyze. Perhaps the developers would consider it.

I would like to see this option as well. Wyze ran for a full week and all alerts were my lights turning on or off or bright lights hitting my window (car).

I guess motion is now seen as a delta between two image frames, but light is not motion. I would really like to have an option to ignore this. I do see a risk as well, you don’t wat people with flashlights disabling your alerts but those tend to move rather than cause a sudden flash of brightness change.

I second this. I have the motion sensing triggered even by car headlights on the side of the porch when the car never enters the frame. Another common case is sunlight filtering through swaying trees, which makes the illumination move but there is no actual motion.

I own five Wyze cams and some of the other hardware. I love this company, their products, and their tech support.

However, the biggest issue I have is this: All the cameras, regardless of the sensitivity level I set, create a notification when a light comes on (esp. at night), or leaves/bushes blow in the wind.

I know that the algorithms for detecting a human must be extremely complex. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem that it would be that difficult to detect a person moving across the field of vision vs. the entire scene changing from light to dark (or vice-versa), or branches/leaves/bushes swaying back and forth in the wind – both of these in no way act/move the same way as a human would.

I hope that you’ll be able to improve the algorithm a lot to solve both of these issues.

I have submitted hundreds of feedback through the app (I saw a person / I didn’t see a person) since you first began this, but the false person detection hasn’t improved at all.

Thanks for listening. I wish your team the very best, and thanks for such great products and customer support!

David

1 Like

Just to let you know, it is great to send in the feedback of when you did and did not see a person, but the only way the algorithm is updated is through a firmware update, it does not ‘learn as it goes’. So far they have had only one update roll out since the original release.

1 Like

Thanks, Jason. Hopefully the next firmware update will reduce these “non-human” alerts. :smiley:

1 Like

This is the only issue I’ve had with my WYZE cam, car lights driving by triggering the motion detection, even on the lowest setting. It also triggers when I enter the room and turn the lights on because it facing the window and the reflection. Hopefully there is a way to fix it.

Put a hood around the camera to decrease reflections from inside the room.

Place the camera as flat against the glass as you can get it (you may get reflections still with double or more pane glass).

Decrease the detection zone in app.

Reposition the camera to a different spot to where the car lights effect it less.

The camera “motion detection” is actually detecting pixel change, which is why you turning on the lights triggers an event. Are you using the camera to see outside the window that it’s facing or in the room? You just said it’s facing a window, not that it’s positioned to see outside by looking out the window.

3 Likes

Thanks for taking the time to type out those tips, I’ll give them a try!

1 Like

I see a lot of events that are just nearby lights turning on/off. It should be relatively easy to detect that only brightness changed without motion and have the ability to ignore these type of events.

1 Like

I have one V3 camera that is pretty much useless at night for notifications. A portion of the frame contains a road with regular car traffic passing diagonally from top center to the middle left edge. Any lights from these cars will trigger a capture. I have set up detection zones in an attempt to have it not trigger (including well into the frame portions that do not contain the road) but it still picks them up.

Since this is only a night time issue would it be possible to design an algorithm than would exclude lights appearing in the frame that are a certain level above the background light level?

Pixel detection picks up ANY changes in pixels.

Best bet it to use a PIR (Passive Infrared) sensor that triggers on heat signatures, like from living creatures.

Wyze sell those, but are tied to the HMS (Home Monitoring System), as you need that Hub.

That particular configuration only gives you 12 second recordings. I use it for the reason you suggest but automations have limited duration clips.

I have SD cards on all my cams, so I just hit the Playback button on the 12-second clip to watch as much of the event as I want from the SD card. :slight_smile: