SmartSentry is an intelligent motion detector designed to operate unattended for extended periods of time. Features are provided to allow the user to set simple rules to capture varying degrees of movement or activity.
If set up correctly, the resultant AVI file will only contain information of interest, eliminating the need to needlessly review long periods of video. This technique also results in very high effective compression rates, for example: a relatively static scene can be monitored at 10 frames per second for well over 10-hours to produce an output AVI smaller than 50 Megabytes.
Output can be viewed using the standard Windows Media Player or Active Movie Player. A dedicated viewer SentryReport is also now provided, this displays the date and time stamp for each recorded frame and provides hot-key support for rapid stop/start and single frame advance/reverse.
A text log file is produced that contains information relating to the settings chosen when the recording was made, and the time that each frame was recorded.
Typical uses include: intruder-detection; perimeter monitoring, bird-watching and door-sentry applications. Due to the additional frame processing overhead, it is currently not best suited to high speed movie capture.
This is shareware software. It's a spin-off from a related project, v0.15 is an intermediate build. Changes to v0.10 are listed below.
Further updates will be made available at http://www.smartsentry.co.uk There is no charge, no time limit, and no special requirements for uninstalling. If you don't find it useful simply delete it.
Legal notice: There are no claims or guarantees of any kind whatsoever made or implied by Rapid Automation relating to the use of this shareware product.
Rapid Automation are a small Design and Consultancy company based in the Midlands UK, specialists in C++, Windows, and PC Hardware development projects.
Please report any problems to - mailto:support@smartsentry.co.uk
Please send your comments or suggestions to - mailto:comments@smartsentry.co.uk
Selecting the target folder determines where the image and log file is stored
Selecting this option displays the 'File Name Options' Dialog which allows a file naming convention to be chosen from a list of alternatives
Allows pre-allocation of the AVI file to help improve performance. Important only if capturing is expected to be continuous and relatively high volume, not so much of an issue for capturing changes in relatively static scenes for example intruder detection.
Closes the application immediately.
Starts or ends triggering and capturing.
Analyzes the current scene for approximately 15 seconds and makes a recommendation for the 'Differential' and 'Capture On' settings. Please note: This is only a recommendation - it may be unsuitable for certain types of scene
Hides SmartSentry and installs an icon on the system taskbar. Double click this icon to restore SmartSentry to the desktop
Makes available a peek window, as defined in the configuration settings and installs an icon on the system taskbar. Double click this icon to restore SmartSentry to the desktop
Displays the status bar within the frame window,
Highlights movement when not capturing
Forces video overlay (if your hardware supports it) - disabled while capturing.
Used to select the most suitable Video CODEC on your system
Used to select the required video mode and colour depth for your capture operation.Please note that under certain conditions, changing the Video Settings while a Trigger Zone is in place may result in undesirable side-effects
Used to select the required video source, video mode, brightness, contrast, and colour levels supported by your hardware
Expands to two sub-menus
- Clear Trigger Zone (Ctrl + X)
Resets / Clears the zone
- Show Trigger Zone (Ctrl + Z)
Highlights the current Trigger Zone (If set)
Expands to a sub menu which allows the size and position of the peek window to be defined. Please note, if the peek window is totally occluded by the task bar - capturing is inhibited. This is a vfw limitation, a work-around is under development.
Starts Capturing.
Ends Capturing.
Suspends Capturing, reverting to Preview mode until 'Continue' pressed
Resumes Capturing
Analyzes the current scene for approximately 15 seconds and makes a recommendation for the 'Differential' and 'Capture On' settings. Please note: This is only a recommendation - it may be unsuitable for certain types of scene
Hides SmartSentry and installs an icon on the system taskbar. Double click this icon to restore SmartSentry
Makes available a peek window, as defined in the configuration settings and installs an icon on the system taskbar. Double click this icon to restore SmartSentry
While Capturing - Beeps if five consecutive frames are captured.
Displays the number of frames sampled since the start.
Displays the number of frames captured since the start.
Sets the maximum activity deflection. See #Pixels hit belowLow = 0 to 2,000 pixels
Medium = 0 to 8,000 pixels
High = 0 to 64,000 pixels
Indicates the number of pixels that matched the trigger condition. Note: The level indicator is scaled to the same ratio as the slider bar below.
When this threshold (set by the Slider) matches the number of pixels hit, a single frame is captured and appended to the AVI file.
Sets the delta level between the same pixel on successive frames. Setting this to a lower value will result in more pixels being hit.
Applies the following settings enclosed within the group box.
Sets the sample interval in milliseconds. (Minimum value is presently 100 ms).
Sets the limit to the number of frames to be captured, once this value is reached capturing automatically ends.
If the 'Specify playback rate' checkbox is checked - Allows the playback rate in frames per second (fps) to be defined separately to the Sample Intervalif the 'Specify playback rate' checkbox is unchecked - Indicates the rate in frames per second that the avi will be played back
Forces a Restart automatically when the frame limit has been reached
Position the mouse inside the capture window. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the cursor to define a rectangle that defines the area you wish to monitor.
Use the menu 'Configuration.Trigger Zone.Clear Zone' option or press Ctrl + X
There are two separate techniques that can be used1. Use the the menu 'Configuration.Trigger Zone.Show Zone' option or press Ctrl + Z
2. Suspend capturing and set the 'Differential level' temporarily to 0, raise this value in steps to the optimum for the scene in question and then resume capturing
Movement activity matching the pixel trigger setting is highlighted.
Movement activity matching the pixel 'Differential' setting and the #Pixels Hit condition results in a frame being captured and appended to the AVI file.
Two separate files are produced: a video file in AVI format and a log file in ascii text format. The 'Naming Options' dialogue allows a choice of file naming convention to be specified.
- Standard
Uses the following naming convention - "SCV" followed by yymmddhhmm where yy represents the year, mm represents the month, dd represents the day of the month, hh is the hour of day in 24-hr format, an mm is the minute that the capturing was initiated.
- Detailed
Uses the following naming convention - "Sentry" followed by the camera number ("00" or "01") followed by a detailed representation of the Weekday, Month, Day of month, Year, Hour of day in 24-hr format and minute that the capturing was initiated
- Prefixed
Allows you to specify your own prefix to the Standard or Detailed options specified above
- Custom
Allows you to specify your own filename
By default, SmartSentry will attempt to store these files in the folder selected by the file.target folder. If this has not been set, it will attempt to store to folder C:\Avi - if this does not exist it will store to the current directory (ie the same directory that SmartSentry is located in).
Please note: SmartSentry takes advantage of the Video For Windows (VFW) features provided by the drivers supplied with your Video Capture card. To optimize performance most VFW drivers suspend capture operations when the Capture Window is minimized or occluded. The following techniques can be used to overcome this. A dedicated driver is being developed ...
Once capturing has started - Using the 'Hide' option will result in SmartSentry continuing to capture as a background process.
Double-click on the SmartSentry icon on the System Taskbar to restore the window to the desktop. Please note: once restored to this state capture operations will be suspended when the window is occluded.
While hidden, hovering the mouse cursor over the SmartSentry icon on the system taskbar displays the capturing state, the number of frames sampled and the number of frames captured.