[Config Support]: help with the "parked car" problem.

[remon-nashid]

Describe the problem you are having

There are multiple config examples in the docs that aim to tackle the repetitive parked car recording, such as "parked cars guide" and "zones" pages. However, coming up with config that is at the intersection of all those examples is a bit confusing (at least to me).

Here's the desired result and I'd appreciate any help with writing config for it.

• Entrance zone: Record/snapshot all events by all objects.
• Parking zone:
  • If object is not a car, record/snapshot all events.
  • Else If object is a car
    • If this this is coming from the entrance zone, record/snapshot.
    • Else, ignore this event (because presumably that's a parked car).
• Objects (these are the only objects I'm interested in capturing by frigate, regardless of zone or camera):
  • car
  • person
  • dog

Note that in the parking zone we're still interesting in capturing events raised by non-car objects.

Version

0.13.2

Frigate config file

N/A

Relevant log output

N/A

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

Other Linux

Install method

Docker Compose

Coral version

CPU (no coral)

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[NickM-27]

sounds like you want an entrance zone with an object mask where the car parks in the driveway, then a separate zone for the other objects you care about

[remon-nashid]

Actually I might be muddying the problem statement by mentioning zones. I'm not even sure I need zones.

All needed is: if a car is stationary, please frigate, stop showing me endless events about this parked car, or whatever stationary object that might be.

[NickM-27]

object masks are used to force frigate to ignore an object that is detected in that area. Typically this is recommended to only be used for false positives (and as a last resort) but this is the only way to ensure a car is not detected while it is in view of your camera.

as it says in the docs, we have plans to improve parked car handling in future versions so this is not necessary.

cameras:
  driveway_cam:
    objects:
      filters:
        car:
          mask: 
            - 1452,0,1218,0,1230,147,1462,154 # <- mask on bottom center of parked car
    zones:
      street:
        coordinates: 2560,720,2560,531,2010,326,1296,313,1309,498,579,479,450,550,94,720
    record:
      events:
        required_zones:
          - street
    snapshots:
      required_zones:
        - street

[remon-nashid]

First of all, thank you @NickM-27 for the blazing fast responses. I realize this is an area of future improvement and I'm happy with a compromise for now.

Regarding the snippet you share: How can I apply the required_zones only to car-related events? for example, I want person (or any non-car) to be tracked regardless of where they are now or where they came from.

[NickM-27]

like you said, you could just not use zones, otherwise you could make the street zone only for cars and make a second zone on the whole camera frame that tracks other object types and then make them both required

[remon-nashid]

Alright, I'll remove zones and keep optimizing a car-specific object mask. Thank you.

Any idea which version is targeted for the improved parked car handling? Are we talking about a v0.13.x release or v0.14?

[NickM-27]

it will be 0.14. The UI is being rewritten so ongoing events won't be shown, only periods where objects are active will be shown. And other internal logic for tracking has been improved as well

[NeoDuder]

Will this addition also stop the hours long recording while a car is parked?

[NickM-27]

That would be an existing configuration error or misunderstanding of the config, this only refers to the ui