Configuring ICE motion detection

The iCatcher Clump Engine (or ICE) provides an advanced form of motion detection based around the tracking of moving objects, and allows video analysis such as object counting. ICE is enabled by checking the "Enable ICE Motion Detection" checkbox on the ICE tab.

Settings

ICE is highly configurable and be tuned to more accurately match the kind of objects you are interested in detecting. The following settings apply to the ICE configuration:

• Target Object Type
  The type of object you are most interested in tracking. The "Custom" type will be shown if you have adjusted the configuration under Advanced ICE Settings.
• Average speed
  The speed at which the objects are most likely to be moving. This affects the edge margin setting (see below). The "Custom" setting will be shown if you have adjusted the configuration under Advanced ICE Settings.
• Advanced ICE Settings
  Click this button to adjust the detection parameters when defining a custom object type (see below).
• Enable speed calculations
  This option turns on ICE's calculation of movement speed. Speed calculations can only be used with cameras providing a "top down" or near top-down field of view, e.g. a camera looking straight down at the ground from a high point.
• Horizontal Range
  The real width in metres of the area visible in the camera's field of view.
• Vertical Range
  The real height in metres of the area visible in the camera's field of view.

Advanced ICE settings

You can define a custom object and detection settings to better match your environment. The configuration options available under Advanced ICE Settings are as follows:

• X & Y merge margin
  The X & Y merge margin control the average size of the objects you are most interested in tracking. Larger values will cause motion to be grouped into larger clumps rather than many smaller clumps.
• Show Edge Margin
  Turns on the display of the edge margin on the recorded image and in the feed window. If the option to save overlay information in the image is turned off, this edge margin will not be added to the recorded image.
• Noise filter
  Filters noise from the image before performing any motion detection. This greatly improves the stability of motion detection and makes the tuning more effective.
• Enable direction tracking
  Optimises motion detection for objects moving in a straight line, like traffic flow or people following a designated path.
• Clump Persist Age
  The maximum amount of time that a non-moving object should be remembered. Objects that do not move for longer than this time period will be discarded.
• Clump Edge Age
  This is similar to the Clump Persist Age, but applies to objects between the edge margin and the edge of the camera's field of view (see above).
• Minimum Clump Age
  The minimum amount of time for an area of motion to be moving before being tracked as a moving object. Areas of motion that have existed for less than this period will not be counted as motion. This option prevents spurious noise or momentary motion from being recorded or triggering a false alarm.
• Edge Margins
  The distance in from the edge of the camera's field of view which will be used as margins for objects moving out of the camera's field of view. Objects between these edge margins and the edge will be discarded sooner than those within the central part of the camera's field of view.
  Each edge can be adjusted individually by dragging the handles in the preview image.

The Defaults button can be used to reset all advanced ICE settings back to their defaults.