Using a camera Blue Iris to control Insteon

[fastbird1]

I am trying to figure out if I can program something in the network module to control events in the Isy994i. Case: if blue iris camera recognizes motion at the gate, send a command in a url to turn on a light, or close a contact in the Elk M1. Since it is a local event I would rather not use IFTTT.  Is this even possible?  Also many cameras themselves can be set to send a http command as well.  Can I set a global variable in the Isy using some string in http? 

Thanks for the help

[larryllix]

Keep in mind that top end cameras use a separate motion sensors to detect motion. Visible light is not a good medium to detect motion, thus the usage of the iR spectrum in most motion detectors. Prepare for many false alarms.

[mmb]

52 minutes ago, fastbird1 said:

I am trying to figure out if I can program something in the network module to control events in the Isy994i. Case: if blue iris camera recognizes motion at the gate, send a command in a url to turn on a light, or close a contact in the Elk M1. Since it is a local event I would rather not use IFTTT.  Is this even possible?  Also many cameras themselves can be set to send a http command as well.  Can I set a global variable in the Isy using some string in http? 

Thanks for the help

@fastbird1I do exactly that with my BI and ISY994.

Set up a ISY state variable and have a program watch it.

Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)

Have the program turn on a light (or whatever) like this...

I also count the number of times it's triggered and the ISY sends me a report in the morning.

I've run this for about 10 years without an issue and no false allarms as I have a trigger area set in BI.

Edited March 17, 2022 by mmb

[fastbird1]

“Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)l“

That is really what I am looking for, but I simply have no idea how to set that up in the ISY. Do I do something within the network resource module? 
Sorry, very much a newbie at this part,  though I have several ISY’s and have many programs and devices that I have setup in a few rental homes.

[mmb]

1 hour ago, fastbird1 said:

“Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)l“

That is really what I am looking for, but I simply have no idea how to set that up in the ISY. Do I do something within the network resource module? 
Sorry, very much a newbie at this part,  though I have several ISY’s and have many programs and devices that I have setup in a few rental homes.

@fastbird1 Just make sure you have the Network Module installed is all (I think it's included with Portal) you don't actually have to touch or program it, it just opens the ISY to network calls.

As I noted, just create the state variable the program and and the corresponding url on BI.

State variable /rest/vars/set/2/38/1 -> 2 is state table, 38 is variable number and 1 is the value

Of course BI and the ISY need to see each other on the network.

I found the hardest part was finding the Alert setting in BI 5.

I have several friends who use this functionality and they love it.

Edited March 18, 2022 by mmb
added variable pointer, clarified Network Module

[mmb]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:22 PM, larryllix said:

Keep in mind that top end cameras use a separate motion sensors to detect motion. Visible light is not a good medium to detect motion, thus the usage of the iR spectrum in most motion detectors. Prepare for many false alarms.

@larryllix in this configuration the video stream is just passed along to BlueIris and it does all the heavy lifting - all the features in the cam aren't really used. 

BlueIris powerful pro sw given its really low price.

Edited March 19, 2022 by mmb
spelling mistake

[fastbird1]

2 hours ago, mmb said:

@fastbird1I do exactly that with my BI and ISY994.

Set up a ISY state variable and have a program watch it.

Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)

Have the program turn on a light (or whatever) like this...

I also count the number of times it's triggered and the ISY sends me a report in the morning.

I've run this for about 10 years without an issue and no false allarms as I have a trigger area set in BI.

“Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)

Sorry just not quite getting it. What does this mean: set/2/38/1 

Thanks

[mmb]

49 minutes ago, fastbird1 said:

“Setup an alert (on alert) in BI like http://admin:xxxx@192.168.0.169/rest/vars/set/2/38/1 (motion_cam_detect)

Sorry just not quite getting it. What does this mean: set/2/38/1 

Thanks

@fastbird1 I thought you would so I edited my post and added.  But here it is again

State variable /rest/vars/set/2/38/1 -> 2 is state table, 38 is variable number and 1 is the value.

I have over 50 state variables and the 38th is the motion detected value.

"Set" is obvious, BI is setting the value to 1 on motion - classic binary 1 is on and 0 is off

So the program is watching for motion (1) and it resets the value to no motion (0) when the program finishes.

Edited March 18, 2022 by mmb
Added images for State Table and BI Alerts

[mmb]

17 hours ago, larryllix said:

Keep in mind that top end cameras use a separate motion sensors to detect motion. Visible light is not a good medium to detect motion, thus the usage of the iR spectrum in most motion detectors. Prepare for many false alarms.

@larryllix

Here is a quick demo of BI/ISY and motion detect - you'll see my house lights turn on via the ISY as the van approaches. It's the morning paper delivery  at 3:00 am.

The cam uses low light technology called ColorVu and costs about $100.  Basically it's a HikVision knockoff.  You'll see ambient lighting on the street provides plenty of light with this technology but the house lights do help.

 

[larryllix]

Looks like the motion sensing would be a waste of money here.

There is a reason they use iR. Mine would always be on 24 x 7 with such sensitive settings, or they would see nothing at all at night, unless the moon moving triggered them.

As it is using iR mine blink on
and off all night with every snow flake and wisp of wind during temperature changes.

My 8 cams are mostly disabled for motion if they are outside. Who can look through 20 to 30 events per day x 8 cams?
My inside MSes are close to flawless though. They use iR.
Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[apostolakisl]

Blue Iris has excellent motion sensing ability that is customizable.  You can designate the number of pixels, the amount of contrast, how far the pixels move, contrast levels, and so on.  The most useful feature is to set zones and then set rules that require an object to travel from zone to zone.  For example, I have Blue Iris monitor my driveway at the street.  I have set up 3 zones within the camera field of view.  Zone 1 is the 1/3 of the driveway closest to the street, zone 2 is in the middle and zone 3 is the part closest to the house.  The rule requires that an object start in zone 1, travel through zone 2, and then if it enters zone 3, then it is a trigger.  If this happens, then it triggers a program in ISY that causes my light switches through the house to chirp, announcing a visitor and BI sends me an email with a picture.  Shortcomings: I have the occasional deer trigger it in the middle of the night and for some reason when the camera switches from black and white to color around sunrise I get a false trigger sometimes.  Also heavy rain gives me false triggers.  I set a second program to disable the first program for 2 hours which I activate with rain and I also have a timeout on it so multiple visitors all at once don't keep making my house go beep.

 

I have similar programs for my cameras pointing around the house and at the doors that turn lights on when it detects someone approaching the house.

Edited March 18, 2022 by apostolakisl

[larryllix]

Blue Iris has excellent motion sensing ability that is customizable.  You can designate the number of pixels, the amount of contrast, how far the pixels move, contrast levels, and so on.  The most useful feature is to set zones and then set rules that require an object to travel from zone to zone.  For example, I have Blue Iris monitor my driveway at the street.  I have set up 3 zones within the camera field of view.  Zone 1 is the 1/3 of the driveway closest to the street, zone 2 is in the middle and zone 3 is the part closest to the house.  The rule requires that an object start in zone 1, travel through zone 2, and then if it enters zone 3, then it is a trigger.  If this happens, then it triggers a program in ISY that causes my light switches through the house to chirp, announcing a visitor and BI sends me an email with a picture.  Shortcomings: I have the occasional deer trigger it in the middle of the night and for some reason when the camera switches from black and white to color around sunrise I get a false trigger sometimes.  Also heavy rain gives me false triggers.  I set a second program to disable the first program for 2 hours which I activate with rain and I also have a timeout on it so multiple visitors all at once don't keep making my house go beep.
 
I have similar programs for my cameras pointing around the house and at the doors that turn lights on when it detects someone approaching the house.

The cams using iR illumination attract many wild animals that see by iR. Lights up their world.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[mmb]

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

Looks like the motion sensing would be a waste of money here.

There is a reason they use iR. Mine would always be on 24 x 7 with such sensitive settings, or they would see nothing at all at night, unless the moon moving triggered them.

As it is using iR mine blink on
and off all night with every snow flake and wisp of wind during temperature changes.

My 8 cams are mostly disabled for motion if they are outside. Who can look through 20 to 30 events per day x 8 cams?
My inside MSes are close to flawless though. They use iR.
Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk


 

Why a waste? Do you continuously record and review 24X7?  Motion detect is the perfect application here.  I have 5 cams all on motion detect and it works perfectly. 

I do not use IR on the front cam and BI can control size of object causing motion so snowflakes are not a problem.

Sounds like you need BI...

Edited March 18, 2022 by mmb

[apostolakisl]

24 minutes ago, larryllix said:

The cams using iR illumination attract many wild animals that see by iR. Lights up their world.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
 

I don't know what animals have IR vision.  A lot of insects see UV.  I would be interested to learn more about IR vision.  I get insects flying around the camera, but that is a rare trigger, and same with cobwebs.  The fact is, unless you have a camera with true AI that can identify a deer as something different than a human, there is just no way to stop that false alarm.  And of course other forms of MS will detect the deer also.  The main complaint I have is with heavy rain and false triggers at night.  Daytime rain is not an issue, it is the rain drops being lit up by the IR at night.  I'm sure if I were better at programming it, I might be able to prevent it.  The rain issue is that it will wake me up in the middle of the night and I'll have to pull out my phone to disable it.  The more traditional MS won't get tricked by rain.  I suppose a hybrid system that requires both to trigger might work best.

Rain Trigger:

Real night time trigger:

[apostolakisl]

And another nice feature of BI is that the same camera can be used multiple times with different programming to create different triggers.

[mmb]

9 minutes ago, apostolakisl said:

I don't know what animals have IR vision.  A lot of insects see UV.  I would be interested to learn more about IR vision.  I get insects flying around the camera, but that is a rare trigger, and same with cobwebs.  The fact is, unless you have a camera with true AI that can identify a deer as something different than a human, there is just no way to stop that false alarm.  And of course other forms of MS will detect the deer also.  The main complaint I have is with heavy rain and false triggers at night.  Daytime rain is not an issue, it is the rain drops being lit up by the IR at night.  I'm sure if I were better at programming it, I might be able to prevent it.  The rain issue is that it will wake me up in the middle of the night and I'll have to pull out my phone to disable it.  The more traditional MS won't get tricked by rain.  I suppose a hybrid system that requires both to trigger might work best.

Rain Trigger:

 

Real night time trigger:

 

I had similar issues with IR until up updated to the newer cams that have low light capability like ColorView.  So now I don't use IR at all. Ambient street lights are enough.

The motion detect/ISY is used more now to scare away kids checking cars and the light do highlight objects.

This is the old front cam with IR, as you can see there is a world of difference with the newer tech.

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by mmb

[apostolakisl]

7 minutes ago, mmb said:

I had similar issues with IR until up updated to the newer cams that have low light capability like ColorView.  So now I don't use IR at all. Ambient street lights are enough.

The motion detect/ISY is used more now to scare away kids checking cars and the light do highlight objects.

This is the old front cam with IR, as you can see there is a world of difference with the newer tech.

 

Not much ambient light where I am.  Unless the moon is bright.  I have decorative landscape lights only.  Putting out general area lighting doesn't appeal to me from an aesthetic.  I suppose a real IR camera, a thermal camera in other words, would do the trick.

[mmb]

19 hours ago, apostolakisl said:

And another nice feature of BI is that the same camera can be used multiple times with different programming to create different triggers.

@apostolakisl I hardly use any of the capability of BI, but the trigger programming is different on the backyard cams because they trigger more with snow storms.

Edited March 19, 2022 by mmb

[apostolakisl]

4 hours ago, mmb said:

@apostolakisl I hardly use any of the capability of BI, but the trigger programming is different on the backyard cams because they trigger more with snow storms. 

I run BI on a VM with storage on a NAS and space capped at 30 gigs.

I don't get a whole lot of snow here.  I would speculate that snow at night would be the same issue as rain at night with a camera that "shines" IR light.  Maybe with enough snow it would all just be white and not trigger anything though.

[larryllix]

I don't get a whole lot of snow here.  I would speculate that snow at night would be the same issue as rain at night with a camera that "shines" IR light.  Maybe with enough snow it would all just be white and not trigger anything though.

I haven't noticed a lot of rain triggers. However snow flakes will trigger the motion sensors as fast as the MS shuts off. Typically MS lights are on 89 to 90 % of the time while it is snowing.
When the sensitivity is turned down lights typically will not respond to a human further than about 8 to 10 feet away.

When visible light cameras with iR illumination see snow, a continuous sheet of moving white flakes on the front row are all you will ever see. They seem to glow in the dark and blind everything else.

A cam in my garage sees the reflective strip on my snowblower hood and the rest of the view goes blank in the garage with iR illumination. I have cover the reflective strips or anything shiny metal or all the cams go blind to everything else.

Possibly the HDR technique better android cams have now, with two different technology sensors could make a difference but then who wants to pay 500 or 600 dollars for every cam?

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[fastbird1]

This worked perfectly. Thanks for the explanation. Until now I have not been able to find much documentation.  In my application I have setup zones in Blue Iris to notice my car leaving and using the web command to opens the automatic gates.  It also turns on the driveway lights when a car arrives. 

[mmb]

9 hours ago, fastbird1 said:

This worked perfectly. Thanks for the explanation. Until now I have not been able to find much documentation.  In my application I have setup zones in Blue Iris to notice my car leaving and using the web command to opens the automatic gates.  It also turns on the driveway lights when a car arrives. 

Slick setup!