# Video Session Setup and Operation

## Table of Contents

## Related topics on this page

- Video Capture Settings
- Video Hardware Settings
- Video For Windows Settings
- Start Video Capture Session
- Setting up for Web Camera Operation
- Floating-Target Image Captures

## Video Capture Operation

Eyes-N-Ears is designed to work with almost any type of image capture device, including frame grabbers and digital cameras. Primarily, support for these hardware devices is either provided through MCI, Video for Windows® or TWAIN interfaces.

The primary concept behind the Eyes-N-Ears video capture operation is to only record changes in the video signal to disk. This will allow you to monitor any type of area and only capture and record significant changes. This drastically reduces the amount of disk space required to monitor an area over time. And also, it increases the speed and simplicity of reviewing the recordings. All video events are recorded to disk using a sequential numbering system to assist in event playback. In addition a timestamp and rating are assigned to each event file. The timestamp indicates the time of the event (in MM/DD - HH:MM:SS format). The rating indicates the significance of the change in the video signal. This numerical rating falls in the range of 0-100, with 100 indicating the highest significance of change. This rating is used to assist in reviewing the recordings, by making it extremely easy to see what event files have the most significant video changes without having to view each event file.

Before starting a video capture setting, you will want to setup the Eyes-N-Ears software. Please read the following 2 sections to help guide you through the setup.

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Video Capture Settings

Video Vendor | Use the drop-down list box to select the name of the vendor that supplies the hardware for your video capture device. Or you can select either Generic MCI (Media Control Interface), Generic VFW (Video for Windows) or Generic TWAIN if your frame-grabber comes with drivers that support 1 or more of these interfaces. If you select either Generic VFW or Generic TWAIN, you will be presented with an additional dialog box from which you can select the correct driver source name. Depending on the hardware you have installed on your computer, you may see several source entries in the drop list box. Be sure you chose the correct source name for your video capture device. Also, you can also manually modify the Source Name entry located in the [Generic VFW] section of the EANDE.INI file. To do this open Control Panel and select the MultiMedia icon. Then with your mouse, select Devices from the tab control and then select Video Capture Devices from the tree control. Now find the entry for the VFW driver for your frame grabber card and enter this name into the Source Name setting exactly as it appears in the Control Panel window. As an example, the Source Name setting for a Willow's card is: [Generic VFW] Source Name=Willow VGA-CTV VFW Driver
Manual Capture Directory | Enter the name of the directory where you would like manual video capture event files to be stored. This directory will be created automatically if it does not already exsist. The directory can be on a local or a network drive.
Auto-Capture Directory | Enter the name of the directory where you would like auto-capture video event files to be stored. This directory will be created automatically if it does not already exsist. The directory can be on a local or a network drive.
Email Event To | Click this radio-button control and enter the email address where you would like all video event files to be emailed. Depending upon settings in the Email and FTP Setting dialog box, the video events will either be emailed immediately after the capture event, or batched and mailed in groups on a timed interval.
FTP Event To | If you would prefer to use an FTP copy mechanism versus e-mail (SMTP), click this radio button and enter the FTP server address where files should be copied. Depending on other configuration setting, the copy will either take place immediately after capture or batched and copied in groups of events.
Dont Email of FTP Event | Click this radio button if you don't want the video events to be transmitted.
Audible Events (Barking Dog) | Check this control and enter the name of a wave file (enter a relative or full path name) if you would like Eyes-N-Ears to play this file when a video capture is triggered. This feature can simply be used as an audible notification of a video event, or as a burglar alarm when using the right WAV file and output volume.
Sensitivity | This sets the sensitivity of the video capture operation. Higher numbers reflect lower sensitivity. This parameter will be discussed more below, in the Start Video Session section.
RGB Threshold | This setting adjust RGB delta minimums for the video capture logic. This setting can dramatrically affect motion sensitivity. Higher number result in significantly lower sensitivity. A good value to start with is in the range of 10-15. Valid ranges are 0-255. This parameter will be discussed more below, in the Start Video Session section.
Maximum Events | Enter the maximum number of video events you would like Eyes-N-Ears to record, before beginning to overwrite exsisting event files.
Capture Timer | This reflects the number of seconds Eyes-N-Ears waits in between video sampling. Entering a 2 here indicates that the video signal will be sampled and compared every 2-seconds.
JPEG Capture | This radio button tells Eyes-N-Ears to store captured images in a JPEG format (recommended).
BMP Capture | This radio button tells Eyes-N-Ears to store captured images in a BMP format. Since BMP is a non-compressed format (usually), it is recommended that this setting is not used, unless you require a lossless image file (i.e. for graphics artist work).
Timestamp | Toggle this checkbox (on/off) to add or remove timestamp information from the image capture file.
Time Lapse | When turned on, the time lapse setting begins capturing images based on the timer event that is specified by the Capture Timer setting. So, if the timer is set at 5, Eyes-N-Ears will capture images every 5 seconds. Note that turing on the Time Lapse feature turns off the motion-sensing logic normally provided by Eyes-N-Ears during automated video capture sessions.

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Video Hardware Settings (for most MCI controlled devices)

Brighten | Use this slider control to adjust the brighteness of the image.
Contrast | Use this slider control to adjust the contrast of the image.
Hue | For color cameras, this slider control will adjust the hue of the image.
Saturation | For color cameras, this slider control will adjust the saturation of the image.
Capture Size Settings | You can select from 4 pre-defined image capture sizes using these radio button controls. The custom size setting is obtained by reading the Custom Width and Custom Height settings under the [Video Capture Setting] in the EandE.INI file. By default, the custom width and height is 160x120. It is recommended that you choose the smallest image capture size, especially if you wish to have the video events transmitted via SMTP or FTP.
Reset Default Values | Press this button to restore the values in this dialog box back to the previous settings.
Capture | Press this button to immedialely capture and record a video event. This is useful for testing or for grabbing video events manually.

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Video for Windows® Settings

If you are using a frame-grabber that is supported by Video for Windows® (VFW), a special dialog box has been added to give you access to the VFW control settings that are supported by your cards device driver. It should be noted that the dialog box described above (for MCI devices) will not be shown if you select a VFW-type device. The VFW Video Hardware Setting dialog box has Video Source, Video Format and Video Display buttons. Each button will bring up a device driver-supplied dialog box for control your capture card.

You will probably also have option to use the VFW setup dialogs that are accessible through either the Control Panel/Multimedia settings or through setup software that came with you image capture card. Normally, settings made through these dialogs are persistent and will be re-used each time the hardware is activated.

Since there are no standards, each hardware manufacturer may support a different set of controls, but the most common controls are:

Video Source Settings | From this dialog, you will be able to control settings such as selecting video inputs, video signal formats (i.e. PAL, NTSC, etc.), brightness, contrast, and a mixed-bag of other items.
Video Format Settings | This dialog normally provides methods for controlling the size of the image capture window and color resolution (i.e. 8, 16, 24-bit color)
Video Display Settings | Access to controls that effect the look of the image capture window will sometimes be provided in this dialog. Again, controls for brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and window positioning may be found in this dialog.

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Start Video Capture Session

You can start a video capture session by either going through the drop-down menu or by using the shortcut control on the main window. To use the menu, simply select V ideo Capture from the menu bar and then select Start V ideo Capture Session from the drop-down menu.

To use the shortcut control, simply press the Video button located in the Auto Capture button group.

Upon starting a video capture session, Eyes-N-Ears first attempts to calibrate the video signal to both adjust for light levels as well as to eliminate noisy backgrounds. An example of a noisy background in a video signal would be a leafy-tree on a windy day. The constant movement of the tree's leaves could possibly cause video events to be triggered. Eyes-N-Ears video calibration can help reduce the possibility of false triggering due to these types of events. To further reduce the sensitivity of the comparision algorithm, you can increase the value in the Sensitivity control discussed above. Higher numbers result in lower sensitivity. You can also adjust sensitivity by modifying the RGB Threshold values. Again, higher numbers result in lower sensitivity. The difference between these 2 settings is that the RGB Threshold values affects pixel comparison logic. So this value is used to determine if any particular pixel in a captured image changed. The Sensitivity setting affects the entire image. It determines how much of the image must change (0-100%) to trigger an image capture. Therefore a setting of 1 tells Eyes-N-Ears to capture the image if only 1% of the image changed (more sensitive). Likewise a value of 50 indicates that 50% of the image must change to trigger a capture (less sensitive).

After calibrating, Eyes-N-Ears begins to sample the video signal on a regular timed interval (discussed above). As each still frame is captured, it is compared with the previous frame to determine if a significant event has occured. If the amount of change exceeds the threshold calcuated during the calibration process, the video event is recorded to disk and an event counter is incremented to prepare for the next event. If the number of video events exceeds the value of the Maximum Event setting, the event counter will be reset to 1 and Eyes-N-Ears will begin to overwrite any existing video event files. This will help elminate filling the hard disk with video event files.

The number of currently recorded video and audio events is displayed at the top of the shortcut control on the main window.

For additional information read the section on Floating-Target Image Captures below to further enhance the Video Capture Session utility.

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Setting up for Web Camera Operation

Setting up Eyes-N-Ears for web camera operation is easy. Just follow these steps:

1. First, be sure to set up and test your video camera and frame-grabber hardware.
2. Design your web pages so that the <IMG SRC> tag points to file(s) that follow the Eyes-N-Ears image capture naming convention of vcapture###.jpg. The ### will be replaced by a sequence number in the range of 1 through the Maximum Events setting located in the Video Capture Settings dialog box. Also, be sure in your <IMG SRC> tags to reference your images sequentially from 1 through last picture you want your web visitors to view. For example, if you want to display 4 dynamically updated images on your web page(s), you would reference <IMG SRC=vcapture1.jpg>, <IMG SRC=vcapture2.jpg>, <IMG SRC=vcapture3.jpg>, and <IMG SRC=vcapture4.jpg> somewhere in your html page(s).
3. Follow the instructions regarding the Email and FTP Settings. Make sure the FTP Directory setting in the Email Settings dialog box points to the path where your web page(s) expect to find the captured images. Also, be sure to select the time interval for transmission of the events. You can select immediate or timed-batch transmitals.
4. Open the Video Capture Settings dialog box.
5. Check the FTP Event To button and fill in the address of your FTP server. You can use either an IP address or a domain name for this setting.
6. Check the JPEG Capture button. We do not recommend using BMP files for web pages as they are too large for efficient web page transmissions.
7. Set your Capture Timer to the appropriate settings. If you are doing scene-activated captures, set the timer value to 1 or seconds. If you are doing time-lapsed captures, set the time to the appropriate value and also check the Time Lapse button.
8. In the Maximum Events field, enter the number of images that must be updated on your web server. If you reference six different images from your web pages (vcapture1-6.jpg), you will enter 6 as the maximum. This will cause Eyes-N-Ears to recycle the event counter back to 1 after the 6th image has been captured.
9. Press OK to save your settings.
10. Open the Video Hardware Settings dialog box.
11. Adjust the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation if needed.
12. Select the appropriate image capture size. We recommend 320X240 or smaller (using the custom size setting) to keep files sizes down and to improve web page download speeds.
13. Press the Capture button to capture a test image.
14. Press OK to save the settings.
15. Select the Event Playback dialog box to review the captured image.
16. If the image appears OK, clear the event list and close the Event Playback dialog box.
17. Now start a Video Auto-Capture session.
18. Based on the settings you have chosen, Eyes-N-Ears will begin transmitting images to you website at the selected intervals.

A future enhancement to the software will provide you with the ability to automatically start and end Video Auto-Capture sessions based on hourly, daily, and/or weekly schedules. Registered users of the Eyes-N-Ears software will get a free copy of this upgrade when it is available.

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Floating-Target Image Captures

Eyes-N-Ears has a feature that allows you to quickly and easily define a specific area in the video capture window where motion-detection should be isolated. This will allow you to capture images with a large field of view based on motion events in one small, specific area. Any motion outside of the specified area is ignored.

A good example where this feature could be used would be surveillance of an apartment complex that has a number of doorways within the field of view of your camera. By dragging a floating-target rectangle over a specific doorway, Eyes-N-Ears will know to trigger video captures based on motion only in that doorway.

To setup a floating-target rectangle:

1. Start a video capture session either through the shortcut control or via the menu.
2. After the video capture window appears on your monitor, place the mouse cursor over the top-left corner of the area to isolate for motion detection.
3. Press and hold the left mouse-button and drag the mouse cursor down to the bottom-right corner of the isolated area.
4. When you have the correct area isolated, release the left mouse button.

You can easily change the target area by following steps 2-4 above. You can also clear the target area, by clicking the right mouse button over the video capture window. Please note that Eyes-N-Ears will suspend video captures while the target area is being selected (when the left mouse button is down). Also, Eyes-N-Ears will automatically recalibrate the video capture threshold and re-activate video captures upon release of the left mouse button.

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