Activity Zones Being Ignored?

[Glaphmion]

I have an Arlo Q that keeps recording videos of motion well outside the activity zones, with sensitivity set to 3 (in case that matters). Something that may be different is that the camera is mounted upside down, but the video "invert" setting is toggled on, and the image shows with the correct orientation.

I've checked that:

• activity zones are correctly saved
• activity zones are selected in the recording mode (i.e. "Everywhere" is unselected)

I've tried without success:

• selecting only one activity zone, which is set to a motionless surface
• removing the camera from account, factory-resetting the camera, then set up everything from scratch

The camera is peppered with false positives at the rate of > 40 per day, and I'm running out of things to try.

I'd appreciate any suggestion anyone might have.

Thanks!

[Glaphmion]

On whim, I disabled the "rotate image" (aka. invert video) setting and adjusted the activity zones accordingly. I haven't gotten any false trigger in the last 6 hours! The video is upside down, yes, but at least it seems to work?

This feels like a bug in the software dealing with inverting video. How do we report this to Netgear? I'd love to have both the video right-side up and activity zone working correctly.

Thanks!

[JamesC]

Glaphmion,

Thank you for the feedback, I have escalated this topic. I will post again once I receive an update.

JamesC

[Glaphmion]

Thanks, JamesC. I did some more experiments today, and this may help.

After the activity zones worked correctly for a good amount of activity in the monitored area, I inverted the video again, but this time *without* adjusting the activity zones. In other words, the activity zones look like they're covering the wrong places in the inverted video.

So far, in the past 10 hours or so, there hasn't been any false positive. This makes me think that perhaps the activity zones aren't being inverted when the video is?

[Iseeyou]

Same issue here!
40-50 false alerts per day as the activity zones are being completely ignored.

Inverting the video, changing the zones, deleting and reapplying- nothing worked in rectifying it.

A serious bug.

[JamesC]

Iseeyou,

If your activity zones are being completely ignored, it sounds like the rules you have set for your Arlo Q may not be detecting motion based on the zones.

Consider checking your rules and make sure you have the zones set as a motion detection condition. Within the active mode, select the rule you wish to edit and then click the pencil icon next to "Motion is detected". From here you can select the zones you wish to be active.

Please let me know if you are still experiencing an issue,

JamesC

[Glaphmion]

I'd change the original message subject if I could, but the problem I had was really about the combination of activity zone and inverting video.

The camera has been happily capturing only the intended videos, with the video inverted and activity zones remaining in uninverted position, as I pointed out in an earlier post. It would be good to see the activity zones actually line up with the inverted video, but as things stand at the moment, I don't have any issue with the functionality of activity zones.

An interesting side note though, I thought some videos with incorrectly captured with motion outside the activity zones. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some light sources cause a tiny reflection at the opposite end of the screen (e.g. light from upper-left corner would show up as a tiny light point on the lower-right corner), which was what tripped the activity zones and video recording. These happen from time to time, but not frequent enough to be annoying.

[Glaphmion]

JamesC, I noticed the new iOS app release today. Any chance a fix for this issue was included?

[hokeysmoke]

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Glaphmion wrote:

I thought some videos with incorrectly captured with motion outside the activity zones. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some light sources cause a tiny reflection at the opposite end of the screen (e.g. light from upper-left corner would show up as a tiny light point on the lower-right corner), which was what tripped the activity zones and video recording. These happen from time to time, but not frequent enough to be annoying.

---

You are seeing internal reflections inside of the lens.  This is pretty common with ultra-wide angle, low f-number lenses like the one in the Arlo Q.  There is really nothing that can be done about it.

[Glaphmion]

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hokeysmoke wrote:

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Glaphmion wrote:

I thought some videos with incorrectly captured with motion outside the activity zones. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some light sources cause a tiny reflection at the opposite end of the screen (e.g. light from upper-left corner would show up as a tiny light point on the lower-right corner), which was what tripped the activity zones and video recording. These happen from time to time, but not frequent enough to be annoying.

---

You are seeing internal reflections inside of the lens.  This is pretty common with ultra-wide angle, low f-number lenses like the one in the Arlo Q.  There is really nothing that can be done about it.

---

I'm familiar with the phenomenon, and have actually seen the reflection in recorded video when there's a significant light source; but have verified that it's not the cause of the issue I observed.

Activity zones currently work perfectly when defined as if the video was not rotated, even though the "rotate image" toggle is enabled. Motion outside the inverted activity zones do not trigger video recording when there no light reflection, which is how I was able to eliminate that as a cause.

Though it "works," obviously it's not ideal, which is why I continue to wait for a fix.

[JamesC]

Glaphmion,

This is still under investigation by the engineering team. I will continue monitoring your case and post an update when I have more information.

Thank you for your patience,

JamesC

[beardeddude]

I have this same issue, seems like a huge bug & it has cost me many hours of trying to figure out why these damn things aren't working!!

Please help Netgear/Arlo?

[jguerdat]

It's been a long time since I got my Q, inverted it and set zones.  I believe I did this in that order, which may be important.  That is, invert the view and then set the zones.  I've rearranged zones several times while inverted with no issues.

[Manani]

Net gear support
have exactly the same annoying issue here I am getting alerts outside the tbe zones that have been set in my Bedroom Cam under my account . I have intentionally mades zones to avoid any movement seen through my windows yet, it keep on alerting me in any cars passing or lights passing by ???? Please can you investigate my account for the "bedroom cam" events and urgently address this issue.

[JamesC]

Manani,

It sounds like you may not have the zones correctly set up within your rules. After setting up zones under camera settings, those zones then need to be selected within your rules for motion detection.

You can find these options by logging in to your Arlo account and navigating to Mode > select the mode you want to edit > click edit next to the desired rule > click the ">" next to motion detected. You will then see sensitivity and detection zones. From here select which zones you want for motion detection.

JamesC

[Dchen212]

Recently purchased my Arlo Q and have run into this problem.

I see this problem was brought up on 6/27 of last year and there is yet to be a resolution. Can this be escalated to a Product Manager? I have 20 emails and alerts from Arlo of just cars passing by my house in the past 20 minutes. Should there be an actual incident I may ignore it since in my mind it's just a car passing by.

[jguerdat]

My Q is inverted and uses zones properly.  Have you selected the zones to be used in your modes? Simply creating the zones won't make them active.  If necessary, try deleting your zones and recreate them.

[Dchen212]

Deleted the Zones. Created them while creating a new mode. Doesn't work.

Created zones. Created a new mode. Chose those zones. Doesn't work.

[jguerdat]

By "doesn't work", I guess you mean detection is outside the defined zones. What happens if you use the camera without inverting? It might be useful to reset the camera using the reset button untile the LED flashes amber and resync.