Zone Exit Inertia and Entrance Inertia

[bpmich]

Describe what you are trying to accomplish and why in non technical terms
I want to be able to set the amount of time an object must be absent from a zone for that zone to be considered unoccupied

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to have a configuration item for zones, let's say "exit_inertia", which can be set to an integer. This configuration item would determine the number of frames which must pass before an object is assumed to have left the zone.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I have attempted expanding the zone to accommodate the slight motion in an objects bounding box. This works better, but does not account for scenarios where an object is temporarily obstructed and the zone immediately becomes unoccupied. max_disappeared setting does not seem to have this functionality either

Additional context
I live in New Jersey near NYC, and parking out here is TERRIBLE. I have been using Frigate in conjunction with Home Assistant to notify me when the parking space in front of my house is clear. Occasionally, someone will walk in front of one of the cars or park too close, causing the vision model to briefly lose confidence and the object to disappear. I need a way to maintain zone occupancy even if a zone appears unoccupied for a defined amount of time. Presently I get a lot of notifications even though the actual object has not left the zone.

[NickM-27]

I can understand waiting a few frames before saying an object is not inside of the zone while it is detected.

However, I definitely do not agree with the case where a zone would show as occupied even if the object stops being detected. That is a problem that should be solved on the automation side, not something that frigate should lie about what it is detected to fit this specific use case.

[bpmich]

@NickM-27 In case it is of use to you or others, here is my current automation in Home Assistant:

alias: "Frigate: Parking Space Notifications"
description: ""
trigger:
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: frigate/events
    payload: new
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: frigate/events
    payload: end
condition:
  - alias: Frigate Events
    condition: or
    conditions:
      - alias: Vehicle Leaves Parking Space 1
        condition: and
        conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'car' }}"
          - condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ 'parking_1' in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones']
              }}
          - condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ not 'parking_1' in
              trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}
      - alias: Vehicle Leaves Parking Space 2
        condition: and
        conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'car' }}"
          - condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ 'parking_2' in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones']
              }}
          - condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ not 'parking_2' in
              trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}
      - alias: Vehicle Leaves Driveway
        condition: and
        conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'car' }}"
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ 'driveway'in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones'] }}"
          - condition: template
            value_template: >-
              {{ not 'driveway' in
              trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}
        enabled: false
action:
  - if:
      - condition: zone
        entity_id: person.person1
        zone: zone.home
      - condition: time
        weekday:
          - sun
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - fri
          - sat
        after: input_datetime.household_awake_time
        before: input_datetime.household_bedtime
    then:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_iphone_7
        data:
          message: A parking spot has become available
          data:
            image: >-
              https://hass.domain.tld/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}/thumbnail.jpg
            tag: "{{trigger.payload_json[\"after\"][\"id\"]}}"
            when: "{{trigger.payload_json[\"after\"][\"start_time\"]|int}}"
            entity_id: >-
              camera.{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["camera"] |
              replace("-","_") | lower}}
        alias: Notify person1's iPhone
  - if:
      - condition: zone
        entity_id: person.person2
        zone: zone.home
      - condition: time
        after: input_datetime.person2_s_awake_time
        before: input_datetime.household_bedtime
        weekday:
          - sun
          - mon
          - tue
          - wed
          - thu
          - fri
          - sat
    then:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_7_pro
        data:
          message: A parking spot has become available
          data:
            image: >-
              https://hass.domain.tld/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}/thumbnail.jpg?format=android
            tag: "{{trigger.payload_json[\"after\"][\"id\"]}}"
            when: "{{trigger.payload_json[\"after\"][\"start_time\"]|int}}"
        alias: Notify person2's Pixel 7 Pro
mode: single

I understand that intentionally misreporting occupancy could be considered a lie, but a new configuration item would have to be explicitly defined by the user. In my opinion, adding a tool to address the common problem of a frequently obstructed object would make Frigate more versatile, not less accurate.

[NickM-27]

if all you care about is zone occupancy then I would not recommend using the /events topic. I'd recommend using the zone sensor that is created. Just because a car is stopped being detected then redetected does not mean the parking space is open.

The concern with frigate misreporting info even if a user configured it is it makes it really difficult to debug. A user could set that and forget or even not include it in their config and it would be really difficult to know that is what caused the issue. The data reported by frigate should always match what it actually sees and detects.

Forcing zones to not match is a bandaid not a true fix for the actual issue

[bpmich]

I can report that the sensor provided in Home Assistant has the same behavior unfortunately. The accompanying car count sensor also moves to zero for a second or two.

Additionally, if the sensor were used, the notification would not have the event ID required to link a snapshot. Is this something I have set up incorrectly? Here is the debug screen. The thicker zone line indicates it is marked occupied presently, but for a second or two it can disappear and I get an event for a car leaving that zone on all channels

[NickM-27]

I can report that the sensor provided in Home Assistant has the same behavior unfortunately.

Yes but with the sensor you can use the for feature in home assistant to make it so the state needs to stay the same for x amount of time. It is also irrespective of specific object ids

[bpmich]

I can report that the sensor provided in Home Assistant has the same behavior unfortunately.

Yes but with the sensor you can use the for feature in home assistant to make it so the state needs to stay the same for x amount of time. It is also irrespective of specific object ids

Apologies I amended my previous comment. Using the sensor would lack the event id required for the notification snapshot. This snapshot isn't strictly speaking necessary, but would be nice to have. The Frigate docs point users to use the mqtt event trigger as the recommended approach to notifications

https://docs.frigate.video/guides/ha_notifications

See paragraph 2

[NickM-27]

That's for general notifications. This is a different use case so that doesn't apply. If you want an image you could use latest.jpg instead of an event specific image

[bpmich]

This is a general notification. See paragraph 3 of the conditions section for the Home Assistant notifications page, When a person leaves a zone named yard. In this case, I am looking for reliable notifications for when a car leaves a zone named parking_1.

I am open to trying other options, I have even attempted using additional training credits to refine the model for cars in hopes of reducing these false negatives. Average confidence went up, but the object was still lost for seconds at a time when partially obstructed. This shows up on the event chain and meets the conditions described:

Docs reference:

condition:
  - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'person' }}"
  - "{{ 'yard' in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones'] }}"
  - "{{ not 'yard' in trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}"

My automation:

condition:
  - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'car' }}"
  - "{{ 'parking_1' in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones'] }}"
  - "{{ not 'parking_1' in trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}"

[NickM-27]

By general notifications I mean object being detected in a zone like when you want to know if someone enters a front yard.

This is specifically about wanting to know if an object is not in a given area. There are better ways to solve this than using / events.

In general, this is something that we've already improved in 0.14 and have other ideas to improve further. With so many cars in the view there are obstructions, ID swaps, and detection itself to be concerned with. Using the event id is just going to make things really difficult.

[bpmich]

@NickM-27 Thank you for converting to a conversation, I'm pretty new to Github. I appreciate all the detailed assistance and I look forward to what 0.14 brings. I will respond back here if I get the automation working reliably