[Support]: Home Assistant Events not honoring required_zones setting in 0.13

[TarheelGrad1998]

Describe the problem you are having

I upgraded to 0.13 today from 0.12, and some of my notifications in Home Assistant stopped triggering. I have narrowed it down to the automation conditions with payload = "new" which checks for entered_zones. On all of my "new" events, the entered_zones is empty. This is despite the fact that I have required_zones specified for the cameras in my config. Additionally, I see a ton of events sent to HA which are detecting vehicles not in any zone, resulting in excess noise. This all worked perfectly in 0.12, so this functionality has changed with 0.13.

Version

0.13.2-6476F8A

Frigate config file

cameras:
  front_doorbell:
...
    record: 
      enabled: True     
      events:
        required_zones:
          - driveway
          - yard

Relevant log output

n/a

FFprobe output from your camera

n/a

Frigate stats

n/a

Operating system

Other Linux

Install method

Docker Compose

Coral version

USB

Network connection

Wired

Camera make and model

n/a

Any other information that may be helpful

after:
  id: 1709766517.571947-vrdmer
  camera: front_doorbell
  frame_time: 1709766540.632798
  snapshot:
    frame_time: 1709766540.632798
    box:
      - 421
      - 219
      - 442
      - 229
    area: 210
    region:
      - 146
      - 71
      - 466
      - 391
    score: 0.7265625
    attributes: []
  label: vehicle
  sub_label: null
  top_score: 0.701171875
  false_positive: false
  start_time: 1709766517.571947
  end_time: null
  score: 0.7265625
  box:
    - 421
    - 219
    - 442
    - 229
  area: 210
  ratio: 2.1
  region:
    - 146
    - 71
    - 466
    - 391
  stationary: true
  motionless_count: 104
  position_changes: 1
  current_zones: []
  entered_zones: []
  has_clip: false
  has_snapshot: false
  attributes: {}
  current_attributes: []
type: new

[NickM-27]

required_zones does not change what is sent in /events. /events has always been a raw topic that sends all information about an object and it is the job of the user to filter these items out, like using the entered_zones field for example.

Also, the functionality of sending zones for a new event has not changed either. It was never a guarantee that new would include a zone and I would not recommend triggering off of new, update, or end but rather triggering off of the information in the payload.

The reason you are seeing different behavior is because zones now have inertia so by default an object must be detected in a zone for multiple frames before it is considered in the zone in order to avoid misfires where an objects bounding box was inaccurate for a frame or two.

https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/zones#zone-inertia

[TarheelGrad1998]

I would argue, it is not an event if it does not meet the criteria I have set for an event. It should not be sending events that by definition I have said are not events, because the object has never been in a required zone. Thus, a new event in those cases should always contain a zone.

I can probably fix my automation by changing the conditions. That doesn't change the excess noise, like how I'm getting events all day for my neighbor's cars that have not moved nor been in any of my zones.

It behaved the way I described in 0.12.

[NickM-27]

that's not really correct. As the user you don't decide what is an event, you decide what events should have a snapshot / be recorded.

The /events topic won't be changing behavior. Many users use its advanced information and I for example have notifications that for events that don't get recorded / snapshot.

There will be a new topic coming in 0.14 that will be a simplified version of /events that will be less verbose and work in the way that you are describing.

[TarheelGrad1998]

Thanks. I'll deal with it in the automation, but I'm glad to hear an enhancement is in the works. Having to define this event logic in two different places two different ways rankles me as a dev.

[TarheelGrad1998]

Also in case it helps anyone else, this condition (I think) restores the functionality of my notifications in HA:

{{ trigger.payload_json["type"] == "new" or not set(trigger.payload_json['after']['entered_zones']).issubset(set(trigger.payload_json['before']['entered_zones'])) }}

..in English, it's a new event, or the object has been detected in a new zone.