Why isn't the car being alerted on?

[broyuken]

I have a car in my driveway zone that isn't being alerted on for some reason. This is the car, just pulled into my driveway zone (blue outline). The bottom middle of the car is clearly in the driveway, but it's not showing up as a alert, or even a detection.

This is my config for the review section, and my camera:

review:
  alerts:
    labels:
      - person
      - package
  detections:
    labels:
      - car
      - dog
      - cat
      - amazon
      - usps
      - fedex
      - ups
      - bicycle
      - deer
      - raccoon
      - fox
      - rabbit
      - skunk
      - possum
      - rodent

  driveway_camera:
    ui:
      order: 2
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/driveway_camera
#          input_args: preset-rtsp-generic
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/driveway_camera_sub
#          input_args: preset-rtsp-generic
          roles:
            - detect
      output_args:
        record: preset-record-generic-audio-aac
    live:
      streams:
        Sub Stream: driveway_camera_sub
        Main Stream: driveway_camera
    detect:
      enabled: true # <---- disable detection until you have a working camera feed
      fps: 5
      stationary:
        interval: 500
    mqtt:
      timestamp: false
    motion:
      mask: 0.825,0.064,0.998,0.065,0.997,0.01,0.824,0.018
    notifications:
      enabled: false
    zones:
      Trash_Bin_Driveway:
        coordinates: 0.176,0.245,0.204,0.502,0.256,0.447,0.224,0.188
        inertia: 3
        loitering_time: 0
        objects: waste_bin
      Driveway:
        coordinates: 
          0.255,0.228,0,0.755,0,0.992,1,0.992,1,0.763,0.722,0.142,0.516,0.118
        loitering_time: 0
        objects: car
        inertia: 3
      Driveway_Camera_Zone:
        coordinates: 0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0
        loitering_time: 0
        objects:
          - bicycle
          - cat
          - deer
          - dog
          - fox
          - package
          - person
          - rabbit
          - raccoon
          - skunk
          - squirrel
          - waste_bin
    review:
      alerts:
        labels:
          - person
          - package
          - car
          - dog
        required_zones:
          - Driveway
          - Driveway_Camera_Zone
      detections:
        required_zones: Driveway_Camera_Zone

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

Your configuration has a few potential causes for why a car in your driveway zone is not triggering an alert or detection:

1. Required Zones for Alerts/Detections
   Your review section for the driveway_camera specifies both Driveway and Driveway_Camera_Zone as required_zones for alerts, and only Driveway_Camera_Zone for detections:

   review:
     alerts:
       labels:
         - person
         - package
         - car
         - dog
       required_zones:
         - Driveway
         - Driveway_Camera_Zone
     detections:
       required_zones: Driveway_Camera_Zone

   For an alert to be created, the object (car) must be in both the Driveway and Driveway_Camera_Zone zones at the same time(1)(2). If the car's bottom-center is not within both zones simultaneously, no alert will be created.

2. Zone Object Restrictions
   In your zones config:

   Driveway:
     ...
     objects: car
   Driveway_Camera_Zone:
     ...
     objects:
       - bicycle
       - cat
       - deer
       - dog
       - fox
       - package
       - person
       - rabbit
       - raccoon
       - skunk
       - squirrel
       - waste_bin

   Only car is allowed in the Driveway zone, but car is not listed in the objects for Driveway_Camera_Zone. This means a car will not trigger as being "in" the Driveway_Camera_Zone zone, so required_zones logic will not match(1).

3. How Zones Work
   Zones only trigger for the object types listed under their objects key. If an object type is not listed, it will not be considered present in that zone, regardless of its position(1).

How to Fix:

• Add car to the objects list for the Driveway_Camera_Zone zone:

  Driveway_Camera_Zone:
    ...
    objects:
      - car
      - bicycle
      - cat
      ... # other objects as needed

• Alternatively, remove the objects filter from the zone if you want all object types to be considered.

Summary:
Your car is not being alerted/detected because car is not included in the objects list for the Driveway_Camera_Zone zone, which is required for alert/detection creation by your config(1).

📚 Sources:

1. Zones
2. Review

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[hawkeye217]

Thanks for your feedback.

Frigate is an open-source project with 3 main volunteer developers. We have families and full-time jobs, and we're happy to contribute some of our spare time back to the project to write code and support users. We are not in a position to contribute personal funds to professional usability studies.

However as we've mentioned to other users in discussions here and on Reddit, GUI configuration is most certainly a planned feature as Frigate is not yet "1.0". When Blake released the initial version of Frigate a few years ago, he didn't even want it to have a user interface. Since then, he has intentionally kept Frigate focused on a more technical audience, and we've focused development on core features, speed, and reliability before bringing in a less-adept user base that would greatly increase our support burden.

We're always looking to improve our documentation as well, so if you feel there are areas of the docs that are lacking for the kind of professional audience like you, please let us know.

I'm going to mark your comment above as "off-topic" so we can keep this user's support discussion on-topic, but if you'd like to engage further, feel free to open your own discussion in the General category.

[broyuken]

Then how would I do this? I only want cars to show up as an alert if they're in the driveway, but I want any person, package or dog to be an alert no matter what zone they're in.

[NickM-27]

you can test using https://docs.frigate.video/development/contributing#2-modify-your-local-config-file-for-testing

you probably just need to increase your motion detection sensitivity a bit

[broyuken]

I can try that, but it still doesn't explain why the car was not alerted when it was detected in the driveway.

[NickM-27]

it was only detected once it was in the driveway, and it never changed position. So it was essentially a stationary object because it never moved after it was detected until it left.

[broyuken]

it was marked as stationary 10 seconds after it was detected.

[NickM-27]

that doesn't matter. It was still not changing positions, which means it had not moved and was not active from Frigate's point of view

[broyuken]

ok, if that's the case then I'm leaning towards this being an issue not so much with the motion sensitivity, but with how the video was stuttering at the beginning of the video. This camera is the new Reolink Elite which I'm having some slight issues with. Right now it's using rtsp because its over 5MP and can't do http until I either go to .17 or ffmpeg 8, however I can't seem to find an ffmped 8 for ubuntu (my dockers host os). Can you give a very rough ETA on .17 betas will be out (weeks vs months) or should I try to figure out how to get ffmped 8 on my container?

[NickM-27]

yes

[broyuken]

after going to ffmpeg 8, all my old recordings do not play, is that expected since they were made under 7?

[NickM-27]

No, ffmpeg is not involved in the recording playback

[broyuken]

All I changed was that, and I changed a couple cameras to use http-flv instead of rtsp, and those new videos play back fine. Any ideas what could have gone wrong? Nothing in the logs.

[broyuken]

It seems like it was just a little bit of time that the videos got corrupted, if I go back farther in time everythings fine again.