Possible to automate PTZ security camera FOV

Hey,

Quite new to the community. We are moving pretty soon into a new house and thinking about buying a security cam (outdoor) for 2 reasons:

  • when not home or during night: camera pointed to back doors to act as security cam
  • when home: camera (should be PTZ) pointed to swimming pool to work as security device (kids falling unattended in the pool)

So I would like to know if there is any way to setup these type of ‘coordinates’ of the camera so that when the modes are triggered automatically (geofencing, timer,…) the camera pans and tilts to the correc point of view.

Any recommendations?

If the camera has a standard API, it definitely can be done.

I can’t think of any pre-packaged software (though there probably is - Blue Iris maybe?) - but @RBoy is likely to have more recommendations.

More info on Blue Iris & profiles / presets…

https://www.xl4u.ca/index.php/blue-iris/20-blue-iris-schedule-setup

You can check out the Foscam camera. Very capable ones like the R2 or even the older 98xx series. The have PTZ, presets and other features.

With the Foscam Camera Manager you can set rules to activate PTZ or presets based on modes, presence, alarms etc. you can use CoRE to create custom actions based on other parameters as well

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How will you monitor the cameras so that you know something’s wrong in the pool?

Tough one, you’ll have to use reverse logic here, if there is no motion then something is wrong. That’s the logic used by professional swimming pool monitor cameras (e.g. Poseidon) with human detection mode (e.g. the Foscam R2 has a human detection mode to tell the difference between humans and objects moving, this can be enabled via the DTH also).

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Synology NAS runs Surveillance Station which can setup a motion detection zone. When motion is detected it can send push notification, email, sms, …

I am sure Smartthings could do something similar? When motion is detected then send notification, play sound indoors, …

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I would mainly do opposite actually. When home and kids are playing in the garden but not in the pool then I would like to have a trigger when motion (i.e. Youngest kid falling by accident in pool for example).

When they are playing in pool I would be in garden as well so no issue.
In this case I would probably need to see how I could put it manually or so in a ‘swimming pool’ mode so it stops pushes notifications

That’s pretty straight forward,

  1. create a mode for when kids are playing and use the Foscam Camera Manager to arm the camera for motion detection (i.e. switch on) when in that mode
  2. create a routine and set the condition to “switch on” the camera when that condition executes (e.g. a motion sensor to trigger the routine when motion is detected where they are playing or at time X) etc

When they are playing in the pool just “switch off” the camera similarly, (create a mode, run a routine etc)

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