Outdoor IQ activity zone notifications

[TahoeJim]

I’ve been using a nest IQ outdoor cam for years on my second home, so I’m not a stranger to how this works. 

I’ve installed an outdoor IQ camera at my primary home, which is on a busy street. I’ve defined an activity zone halfway up my driveway to minimize notifications, and set it to only notify on people inside the zone.

I continue to get notifications of people walking on the sidewalk, even though my zone is far enough back that even their shadow does not cross my zone. 

Any tricks to get this to work properly? 

[TahoeJim]

 

 

[EmptyNester]

I also have been a long time user and have found the activity zones to be a gray area.  I get false alerts as well.  And no matter how much I try to get it dialed-in it is never perfect   In this case I wonder if the shadow on the ground is what triggered the alert.

[TahoeJim]

Thanks EmptyNester. 
I have redrawn the zone smaller a couple times now, and nest is still notifying of people in zone 1… even at night, or on any small reflection inside of the zone (some honestly I can’t see any zone motion at all). I used to think googles Image recognition was pretty good but now I’m not so sure.

Do you know if recognition happens in the camera or in the cloud? 

[EmptyNester]

All good questions.  I'm almost certain that the recognition happens in the cloud.  However the IQ cameras might work a bit differently.   I think the Cloud is needed to determine if motion is within a zone.  I don't see how that could  have been included 8+ years ago when these old cameras were designed.   

And for what it is worth the I have one of the new Cameras (works only in Google Home App) and it is a bit better in that I get less false-alerts.  But it still isn't perfect.  

I have also tried cameras from other companies and they all seem to suffer from this.   About 2 months ago I purchased the new EUFY S3 pro cameras that can do 24/7 recording to the EUFY Base station with no yearly subscription.  These cameras also have the same flaw.  In the evening when the lights from a passing by car hit a try just right I get a person-alert.  But not all the time.  At least there is a 'sensitivity' fader to I can sort of  minimize the problem  I will say also that the "day-lite "image quality on the EUFY S3 Pro at night is INCREDIBLE.   However I still can't recommend  them because their ZONE and ALERTS software is terrible.  My dream would be EUFY cameras working with Google Home app.

[TahoeJim]

Yeah this is what I'm facing... nascent flickers of headlight reflections off of the trim on my jeep are registering as a Person in my zone.
I just bought an Eufy flood cam for the side of my house to identify people (nobody should ever be there), and it is working great, but it is a protected spot without all the 'noise' of the busy road to deal with.
It might be that I just can't have a camera on the front of my house if no cameras actually can identify 'people' in a zone.

[EmptyNester]

You would think with all this new AI that false alerts would be a thing of the past... but sadly they are not.

I would completely switch to EUFY but it has a big design flaw that drives me crazy.   You can define Motion Zones but it will then ONLY record in the motion zones and give you an alert.  There is no way to have a motion zone that record but that you DON'T get alerts.   And if motion happens outside the motion zone it won't get recorded at all for later viewing.   For example if a person walks on my front yard I want it to be recorded AND give me an alert.   However there is no way to have it record the people on the side walk without getting an alert. I don't need an alert if they are on the sidewalk but I would still the option of going back later and viewing them if I need to..