Area search tool and people counting

For cameras with object detection enabled you can search for specified objects in a selected area of the image and view People Counting statistics for the whole image or just part of it. To start the area search tool click on the area search tool button  from the camera toolbar 

If the area is not selected then People counting statistics for the whole image will be shown and all objects detected on this camera will be listed. To narrow down the results for a specific region of the image select one or more areas of the image.

You can use either a square select tool to quickly draw rectangles with just two clicks or you can use the "free-draw" tool to draw randomly shaped areas specifying a new corner with each mouse click.

When an area has been selected a list of all identified objects will be shown. The list can be further shortened using date, color, and confidence filters.

Use quick access buttons for Today and Yesterday to see the most recent events, or click on the Date to access the calendar and select any date from the available camera archive.

Alternatively, you can choose a time period from the People Counting chart to limit the list of results to the selected time period. To choose the time period simply click and drag over the Chart to choose the desired time period.

The Area search toolbar tools can be controlled either by clicking on a corresponding button or by using keyboard shortcuts. You can hover your mouse pointer over the tool to see the tooltip with the tool name and the keyboard hotkeys combination to use the tool faster.

• To select an area in the image use the select rectangle area (keyboard shortcut: R) or select the custom area button (keyboard shortcut: A).
• To select more than one area just right-click on the region and select the area selection type or use the shortcut keys again.
• Use the toggle overlay button (keyboard shortcut: H) to show or hide the selected region. 
• To clear the selected region use the remove selected area button (keyboard shortcut: Delete button) or to clear the whole selection use the clear selection (keyboard shortcut: shift key +delete button)
• The heatmap can be shown for the whole frame using the heatmap or can be shown only for the selected regions using the selected area or can be hidden completely using the hide heatmap 
• Use the exit search mode button to close the area search tool menu alternatively you can close the search results panel to exit the area search mode.

Click on the Select object line to choose the type of objects that will be shown in the search results. The detection rules should be configured in the Admin portal for the desired object classes to be included in the search results; if the detection rules are not configured for a selected object type no results will be shown.

Note: Smart analytics identifies objects only from the time this feature was activated and configured in the Admin portal for the selected camera. The objects from the past archives that were collected before the smart analytics were configured won't be classified, only new objects detected from the time Object detection was enabled will be classified, so you cannot search for objects in the past if Object detection was not configured for the desired time period even though archives can be available.

The confidence slider determines which results will be shown. When an object is recognized by our machine learning algorithms the server will provide a Confidence level, in other words, how certain the algorithm is that the highlighted object is a person, a car, or any other requested object type. So if there is a shape in the frame that looks like a person it has a chance to be classified by our algorithm as a person but because it only resembles a person it will receive a low confidence value and when a person has a high contrast against the background the algorithm will be highly confident in the results and will assign a very high Confidence value. Thus if you see too many unwanted results increase the confidence limit to exclude these entries from the list and if you know that there was a person or other object that is missing from the list try to decrease the confidence to include objects with lower Confidence scores in the list.

The percent of confidence is shown at the top of the bounding box that highlights the object:

The list of results can be attached to either edge of the screen or completely detached to position it anywhere you prefer:

Additionally, the area search results list will have a zoomed-in view of the recognized objects. For cars, only a small area around the car will be included in the snapshot while for a person a much larger background section will be included to provide some context of where the person is in the scene.

Once the Area search tool is opened, some tools can also be accessed using keyboard shortcuts for convenience. Keyboard Shortcuts for the area search tool are:

• Toggle Overlay: H
• Select Rectangle Area: R
• Select Custom Area: A
• Remove Selected Area: Delete key
• Clear All Selection: Shift key + Delete key

When utilizing the Area Search Tool to select two or more areas, click on 'show heatmap for selected areas.' This option will present the heatmap exclusively for the chosen zones, enabling you to visually observe and compare activity levels in each area. As a business owner, leveraging this information can inform strategic decisions like optimizing product placement or positioning marketing materials where they are likely to garner the most attention. In the provided screenshot below, it's evident that the area on the left experienced higher foot traffic.

You can watch the tutorial on the Area Search Tool here and download the full version of the video portal manual here