Feature request: delayed live views
I am somewhat challenged by "present/absent" alarms, and I suggest a solution. Use case: if I have an "object removed" alert, this sometimes means I have two cameras: one focused directly on the object, and another focused on the surrounding area (think of high-value items on a display table.) If the object disappears, an alert can be generated. However, a person sitting at the console is probably not going to see what happened, since by the time they shift their attention to the alert window (only a few seconds, but still - a delay) the activity is over, and it's not possible to see what just happened other than the artifact of the alert. One needs to then open the browser or actively participate in a method to view the historical action, which takes quite a while to configure and is really only useful in a forensic situation and not for dozens of events per hour. Instant replay is not feasible or useful in this situation, as it isn't workable and wasn't designed for this.
What I'd like to do is have a duplicate "camera" for a particular feed that has a delay before transmission to the console or to a browser or other viewing window. Maybe up to 30 seconds of delay? Not sure how configurable this needs to be, but it does need to be tuned for the circumstances down to just a few seconds but up to maybe a minute? This window could then be "popped up" with the delayed feed if an alert is triggered, and the observer could then see the context around what happened when the object vanished.
Of course, use cases are not limited to object present/removed. Activity in an area, person or auto detected, etc. are all viable triggers that would create conditions where a delayed view would be useful. Often it takes long enough for the alarm to be triggered PLUS the person to find the right window that a delay would make a lot of sense for ease of use.
Comments
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The best solution for this is SecuritySpy's "instant replay" function. You enable this under Settings > Display, specifying there now much replay time you want. Then, in any video window at any time, hold Command on the keyboard and swipe/scroll left on the mouse or trackpad. A yellow bar appears at the top to indicate your position within the replay buffer. With the Command key still held, scroll left/right to go back/forward in time.
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As noted in my original comment, instant replay requires intervention and is not quite suitable. When looking at a large number of windows, it incurs a high cognitive burden to figure out which window and then perform the action, which then also removes brain focus from all other windows (which may have additional activity in them which is relevant.) My interest is in a virtual camera that has a delayed view, perhaps even with some indication (color bar at the top? a new icon like a red "D" at the top that implies delay?) that the feed is intentionally offset from reality.
I say this with significant experience managing "minor distraction" alerts on my array of cameras. I don't want to have to touch anything to figure out why an alert was just triggered by a motion or event that has just moved off-camera. I want the ability to look at an always-running instant replay for some of the more important views. I am not looking at the screens 24x7 - they run on a large wall view, and if I'm working on something else then there is a high cost to context shifting to find the window, press the buttons, etc.
