Multiple thumbnails in the events list

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MJN
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Multiple thumbnails in the events list

Post by MJN »

I would really like the ability to have multiple thumbnails (not just one) shown against each event in the event table.

The reason for this is that when browsing through the list of recent events looking for captures of interest it can sometimes be difficult to see what was captured as the displayed thumbnail may not always be the most useful.

A case in point - I've got a camera monitoring the catflap (high security or what?!) and whilst it does a great job of recording our cats coming in and going out it is often difficult to tell at a glance from the events list which cat was captured and what they did because the displayed thumbnail is often not the most useful. I'm assuming this is the highest scoring image - but in this case this is turning out to be the image after the cat has come through and disappeared and hence is not the most useful. I guess the high score is due to the transparent flap being suddenly fully illuminated by daylight.

So, instead of this (for event 46046):

Image

I'd like to see something like this:

Image

That is, a selection of images - perhaps taken from the middle of the alarm sequence in addition to that of the highest scorer? This then increases the chance of some real action and shows me at a glance which cat (err... burglar) it was and what they were doing.

I have no doubt there's an overhead with something like this (creating the thumbnails, bandwidth, browser rendering etc) but as a configurable option I'd find it really useful and would be willing to take the performance hit if there was one.

What do you think?

Mathew

P.S. In case you're wondering why we're so interested in the catflap - it's merely for peace of mind if we're out/away so we can see that the cats are safely inside (and also that no other cat has got in - it's an infrared locking catflap but it's not bullet proof).
coke
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RFID

Post by coke »

How about RFID tags on each cat, and a cheap RFID reader? Though it looks like the longest range on cheap ones is 7".

Are the cats different colors? You could run some sort of analysis script on each event if they're different enough, and rename the event based on the result.
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MJN
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Post by MJN »

I am actually due to replace the flap soon with an microchip-compatible one but...

..that's not really what I'm asking! :-) The catflap illustration was just an example, I'd be equally interested in having this multiple-thumbnail feature for all my monitors.

Mathew

(As an aside I like the colour suggestion - hadn't thought of that!)
coke
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Post by coke »

They have microchip compatible cat flaps? God, that's cool. I love living in this century.
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MJN
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Post by MJN »

Sure, there are a couple:

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/
http://www.petporte.com/

The latter one is going to have a PC interface released for it too!

It's funny - here's me struggling with my keys at the front door and the cats are wandering through the back completely handsfree!

Mathew
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cordel
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Post by cordel »

MJN wrote:Sure, there are a couple:

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/
http://www.petporte.com/

The latter one is going to have a PC interface released for it too!

It's funny - here's me struggling with my keys at the front door and the cats are wandering through the back completely handsfree!

Mathew
That is pretty ironic. :lol:
Maybe any luck with the computer interface, you can get stats from the kitty door to either cause an alarm or exclude one on an alarm panel or in ZM.
theemed
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Post by theemed »

Dang, I was going to post a feature request for the thumbs in events list myself, but I had the brightest idea of browsing this forum's threads and found this, so I discovered there actually already is something like this implemented.
Anyway I had in mind something slightly different, so lets make it an improved feature request:

=========IMPROVED FEATURE REQUEST===========

When displaying thumbnails in the events list, use a GRID-like interface instead of a ROW-like interface.
I use thumbnails as big as the analog cams captures, ~320*240, to rapidly identify who's in front of it (usually family members, and not evil thugs => events get deleted to save space) so I get thumbs only on the end of each row, while I could easily get, on a single 22" widescreen lcd, a grid with about 6 thumbs each row, and a total of maybe 4 rows (sums up to 24 events per page), with the details for each event in a small table below the image.
whatboy
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Post by whatboy »

Maybe showing an alarmed image and not the first image, and if more than one alarmed image, then show the middle one of the whole alarmed images...

Like in time lapse...
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MJN
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Post by MJN »

theemed wrote:Dang, I was going to post a feature request for the thumbs in events list myself, but I had the brightest idea of browsing this forum's threads and found this, so I discovered there actually already is something like this implemented.
Is there? Is that in a later version? (I'm still running 1.22.3)

Mathew
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cordel
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Post by cordel »

This has been a feature for a while. ZM_WEB_LIST_THUMBS under the WEB tab.

As for multiple thumb nails, how would you suggest the dynamic selection is determined?
Keep in mind error handling in case the event is not large enough to satisfy populating the "desired Grid".

@whatboy:
It already does and has since at least 1.18, it shows the alarmed image with the highest score.
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MJN
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Post by MJN »

cordel wrote:This has been a feature for a while. ZM_WEB_LIST_THUMBS under the WEB tab.
Yes, but it's multiple thumbnails I'm specifically interested in (in a fashion shown in the photoshopped example) which that option doesn't provide.
As for multiple thumb nails, how would you suggest the dynamic selection is determined?
Keep in mind error handling in case the event is not large enough to satisfy populating the "desired Grid".
ZM already knows the start and end of motion so any interpolation in-between could produce a couple of thumbnails with a high liklihood of featuring some 'action'.

There'd be no need for complex error handling on such a simple deterministic algorithm. Even the worse case scenario, of only one alarm frame, would simply end up with all three thumbs (highest scorer, beginning and end) being the same.

All I really want is a greater chance of always seeing the subject of an event. As things stand I often see 'empty' thumbs because the highest scoring image can easily be when the subject has just left the frame.

Mathew
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