Option to restrict Birdseye camera to Alerts (instead of any detected object)

[fplanque]

Describe what you are trying to accomplish and why in non technical terms
I'd like to be able to configure Birdseye to show only the most critical alerts, i-e:

• Show cameras that throw an alert
• Not show cameras that just have tracked objects that fall into the "Detections" category or even into the Object Masks !

Describe the solution you'd like
I propose:

birdseye:
      mode: alerts

(another option would be to make mode: objects more restrictive)

Describe alternatives you've considered
My current config is:

birdseye:
  enabled: true
  mode: objects
  inactivity_threshold: 5

Unfortunately, mode: objects includes all cameras that have false positives (and there are a lot of these when it rains). Those false positives are excluded with Object Masks and they do not trigger Alerts in the Review screen. However, all these false positives tigger inclusion into birdseye :'(

Additional context
I believe it would also make sense to include mode: detections which will give a more chatty birdseye than mode: alerts but still less chatty than mode: objects.

Thank you.

[NickM-27]

Unfortunately, mode: objects includes all cameras that have false positives (and there are a lot of these when it rains). Those false positives are excluded with Object Masks and they do not trigger Alerts in the Review screen. However, all these false positives tigger inclusion into birdseye

That is incorrect, object masks are applied at the object detection level, before anything including birdseye can be triggered.

[fplanque]

Then I must be misunderstanding something...

I am using mode: objects and I keep seeing a random rotation of the 3 cameras that triggered a ton a false alerts before I added object masks. I do not see any of the other cameras that also have rain/wind movement on them. So clearly mode: objects is doing some effect and it's clearly different from mode: motion.

Now, why would mode: objects still show those specific 3 cameras (and at the same time, while being on heavy rotation on birdseye, those specific 3 cams do not show any alerts nor detections any more).

How is that possible? Am I missing something?

Any way to debug this on my side?

[NickM-27]

try using the debug live view

[fplanque]

Thanks! Indeed, what I see there is that there are quite a few additional false positives when the wind moves the bushes BUT those tend to last only 1 single frame... and therefore they are not picked up as alerts because the relevant zone requires an inertia of 3 frames.

So the way the Zone works (requiring 3 frames to confirm that an actual person is there (behind he bushes)) is indeed great and I would not want to change that (nor shrink the zone).

So, do I assume correctly that birdseye: mode: objects reacts at the first frame?

If so, is there already a way to make it react only after X frames, depending on what is configured for the zones?

If not, isn't a mode: alerts a relevant proposition?

[fplanque]

Do I understand it correctly now?

• birdseye: mode: objects is ultra sensitive and will show a live stream before even asking whether or not it would qualify as a Detection (in the sense of Alert vs Detection we have on the Review screen).
• birdseye: mode: detections could be more restrictive, not activating if the object does not fall into the Detection Zones and if the object does not pass the Inertia Criteria.
• birdseye: mode: alerts would be even more restrictive and only activate a stream when the object is in a Zone enabled for Alerts (this is the level I'd really want).

What I am trying to do is push "What is happening on my cameras right now?" to the next notch: "What is happening that I really need to know about?"

Background: I believe you need to distinguish two usage profiles:

1. The honeymoon phase where you can't get enough of watching everything that is going on on your cameras. (If you are a developer you can spend years in this phase because you always want to check that everything works)
2. The production phase where you want Frigate to run in the background and not use any of your attention unless something happens that really really requires your attention. In this case we're talking about visual attention "show me a plain static black screen with a bird logo as much as possible, wake up only when it really matters".

• The next awesome step would be: allow to auto enable the audio feeds of the cameras that do pass all the criteria to qualify as a serious alert, but if we could already have the visual part fully filtered, it would already be awesomely useful :)

Thank you for your consideration.