Fisheye Smart Search Behaviour Change
Answered
Currently running 4.2.0.32840 and have discovered that some behavior when using Smart Seach has changed compared to version 3.x. We upgraded directly from 3.x to 4.2, so am not sure if 4.1 was impacted.
When you activate Smart Search on a camera, it now changes all cameras in all open layouts to Smart Search mode. Under 3.x it only changed the camera you selected - which makes far more sense.
With fisheye cameras, under 3.x, you could have a second instance of the same camera open in the layout in a dewarped view. This way you were able to mark the search area on the non-dewarped Smart Search view, but simultaneously view the playback in a dewarped view next to it. Since in 4.2 it now changes all cameras to SmartSearch, instead of just the selected one(s), this is no longer possible.
Can this behavior be fixed so when you select Smart Search on a camera, it is only activated for the camera you selected?
Tore Myhren I have tagged you in this since you had made a query about Smart Searching fisheye cameras previously, so I thought you might be interested.
Thanks
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Thank you for your feedback.
As of 4.0, the behavior of Smart Motion search is such that it's a client-wide state. So all cameras will have a transparent grid + smart search features over their video, and fisheye cameras will exit dewarping mode.
Can this behavior be fixed so when you select Smart Search on a camera, it is only activated for the camera you selected?
This would not be a simple change, so I will ask internally if this will be possible on the roadmap.
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Thanks for the quick reply. Are you able to advise the rationale behind this change? I can't think of any way that this is better than the old method, but there are a bunch of reasons why it's worse. If this can be changed in a future release that would be great.
To make it even worse, not only does enabling SmartSearch on one camera apply it to all cameras, but when you disable it again the other cameras go to their default view instead of returning to their previous dewarped view.
We have some layouts with 12 different fisheye cameras which we view dewarped. So enabling Smart Search on one applies the change to all of them, but we then have to manually change each one back to dewarping mode individually afterwards. This is obviously very annoying when you have many fisheye cameras.
Tore Myhren For your info, I've found a partial workaround that at least allows you to Smart Search a dewarped image. If you create a picture-in-picture view from the fisheye camera you wish to search, that part remains dewarped when you activate Smart Search. It's not as good as having a dewarped image you can pan and zoom like in 3.x, but it's something. Also cameras in other open layouts only leave their dewarped state if you switch between layouts while Smart Search is activated. This makes it a little less painful as long as you remember to deactivate it before switching layouts. But this is still a serious regression in usability in my opinion.
Thanks
Paul
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Hello Paul,
1. About the motion search working for all cameras
The behavior was changed in 4.0, when we introduced the left panel with bookmarks and analytics tabs. When bookmarks and objects are being viewed, we need to change the state of cameras and the timeline – to display bookmarks overlays, object frames and data on the cameras, highlight objects and bookmarks on the timeline and allow to play only certain parts of archive.
These modes aren't compatible with the "motion search" mode, because in this mode different overlays are displayed and only parts of archive with motion can be played.
Because "objects" and "bookmarks" mode are applied to all cameras on scene (defined by the state of the search panel), we had to made the "motion search" mode also global. Otherwise, we'd have to deal with the situations where, for example "Objects" mode is enabled, but for some cameras instead of object motion events are shown on camera and on the timeline. Or to make these mods not global, but individual for each camera, which would make the using bookmarks and object much less convenient.
2. About fisheye cameras exiting dewarping mode when motion search is enabled
In general motion search doesn't contradict with the dewarping mode, but at some point it was easier for us to exit it instead of making motion zones grid and area selection tools also support dewarping.
I understand your pain with having to manually enable dewarping on many cameras after doing motion search for some single one. It is really annoying and shouldn't be this way.
In the distant future we are planning to improve motion search so that it'd work with the dewarping.
In the nearest future we will fix the behavior so that when you disable motion search, all cameras, which were in the dewarping state, would return to this state.
Hope It'll fix your issue for the most part.
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VMS-23322
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Hi @...,
Thanks for the reply and explanations.
1. It's a shame that making an improvement in one area has made another area less functional, but I understand the reasoning behind it.
2. Fixing it so that all cameras change back to their pre-Smart Search state would certainly help. We don't have any urgent need to be able to overlay a Smart Search grid over a dewarped image (this would be awesome though), but it would be great if there was still a way when we use Smart Search that we could still get a dewarped image next to it that we can pan and zoom. We can get by with the picture-in-picture method for viewing a search dewarped - it is bit of a step backwards for this one particular function, but I understand we are likely in the minority having predominately fisheye cameras.
Thanks
Paul
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Hi Paul Gear,
I created a support ticket on your behalf and shared the private build with you there.
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Thanks Norman - Nx Support
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