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Updated for v0.9.7 

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@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
ZONE MINDER v0.9.6
ZONE MINDER v0.9.7
==================
Introduction
============
Welcome to ZoneMinder, the new all-in-one Linux GPL'd security camera solution.
A few months back my garage was burgled and they stole my wine and power tools!
A few months back my garage was burgled and my wine and power tools were nicked!
I realised shortly after that if I'd just had a camera overlooking the door then
at least I'd have know exactly when and who did the dirty deed. And so
ZoneMinder was born. It's still a baby but hopefully it can grow up to be
@ -47,8 +47,8 @@ please let me know.
Requirements
============
ZM needs a couple of things to work. Firstly, it uses MySQL so you'll need that,
in order to compile you need to make sure you have a development installation
ZM needs a couple of things to work. Firstly, it uses MySQL so you'll need that.
In order to compile you need to make sure you have a development installation
and not just a runtime. Next it does things with JPEGs so you'll need at least
libjpeg.a which I think come as standard nowadays. It also uses the netpbm
utilities in a very limited way to generate thumbnails under certain
@ -73,47 +73,67 @@ feedback on other distributions.
Building
========
Before you start building you have a couple of things to do. Firstly you'll have
to create your ZoneMinder database and users. You'll need to identify these in
zmcfg.h and in index.php. You'll notice that in zmcfg.h there are two sets of
users and passwords. This is because the Streaming server and Utility binaries
require only read access to the database so you may wish to create both a full
access user and a limited access user. You can of course set both to the full
access user. The included schema (zmschema.sql) can be used to actually create
the tables required. The database is usually called 'zm'. If you are upgrading
from a previous version you can use zmalter.sql to upgrade your database and
make the necessary changes. ZM also needs to know where it stores its events
relative to the web root directory in zmcfg.h and where in full path terms in
zmconfig.php. There are also several other paths in index.php but these can wait
until later.
The first thing you need to do is run the included configure script to define
some initial configuration, just type
So to continue, just type
./configure --with-mysql=<your MySQL root> --with-webdir=<your web directory> --
with-cgidir=<your cgi directory>
./configure --with-webdir=<your web directory> --with-cgidir=<your cgi directory> --with-mysql=<your Mysql root>
where --with-webdir is the directory to which you want to install the PHP files,
and --with-cgidir is the directory to which you want to install CGI files.
There are also two further arguments you can add if your web user and group
are not apache and apache. These are --with-webuser and --with-webgroup. Type
where –with-mysql identifies where you have installed MySQL (usually /usr), --
with-webdir is the directory to which you want to install the PHP files, and --
with-cgidir is the directory to which you want to install CGI files. These
directories could be /var/www/html/zm and /var/www/cgi-bin for example. There
are also two further arguments you can add if your web user and group are not
both ‘apache’. These are --with-webuser and --with-webgroup. Type
./configure --help for details.
That’s the build configuration sorted out. The next thing you have to do is do a
little more runtime specific configuration. ZoneMinder config is scattered
around various files in the distribution so to make things easier for you there
is a ZoneMinder configuration utility included. Type
./zmconfig.pl
to get it started. It is an interactive utility and will prompt you by asked you
various questions. For most questions typing ‘?’ will give you additional help
if you need it. Once you’ve answered all the questions it will write out a
configuration file ‘zmconfig.txt’ and then process various files to substitute
the information in them. If you run it again it will remember your answers from
before by reading ‘zmconfig.txt’ before it starts. You can also edit this file
directly to change values and if you do you can run zmconfig in non-interactive
mode by typing
./zmconfig.pl –noi
which will just read your file and do the substations with no questions asked.
Among the first questions zmconfig.pl asks you are to do with the database and
the next thing you should do is create it and the associated database users. You
may notice that there are two sets of users and passwords. This is because the
Streaming server and Utility binaries require only read access to the database
so you may wish to create both a full access user and a limited access user. You
can of course set both to the full access user. The included schema
(zmschema.sql) can be used to actually create the tables required. The database
is usually called 'zm'. If you are upgrading from a previous version you can use
zmalter-x.y.z.sql to upgrade your database and make the necessary changes where
x.y.z identifies the version of ZoneMinder you had installed previously. For a
new installation the simplest way to create your database and users is as
follows,
mysql mysql < zmschema.sql
mysql mysql
grant select,insert,update,delete on <your database name>.* to '<your first
username>' identified by '<your first password>';
grant select on <your database name>.* to '<your second username>' identified by
'<your second password>'
quit
mysqladmin reload
Though you may need to supply a username and password to the mysql commands to
give yourself sufficient privileges to perform the required commands.
Then just type 'make' and off you go.
I know what you are going to say next, it doesn't work. I hope it does but this
is my first type with autoconf and quite honestly I haven't a clue what I'm
doing so if you do get any build problems then just let me know and I'll try and
tell you how to fix them. Alternatively if you are an automake/autoconf expert
then please let me know what to do!
There are a couple of files in the package that come from other packages, this
is just to simplify the build and reduce dependencies on other packages.
Anything ZM specific is named as such.
It is possible to rebuild the whole thing from the enclosed automake files but
if you do you will have to ensure that the installation part for the php and
cgi files in the src/Makefile.in and web/Makefile.in is reconstructed, as it
is not present by default.
Installation
============
@ -122,7 +142,8 @@ Once the build has completed you should have several shiny new binaries. I will
now briefly describe what each of them do.
zmc - This is the ZoneMinder Capture daemon. This binary's job is to sit on a
video device and such frames off it as fast as possible, this should run at more
video device and such frames off it as fast as possible, this should run
at more
or less constant speed.
zma - This is the ZoneMinder Analysis daemon. This is the component that goes
through the captured frames and checks them for alarming events. It generally
@ -132,40 +153,54 @@ zms - This is the ZoneMinder Streaming server. The web interface connects with
this to get real-time or historical streamed images.
zmu - This is the ZoneMinder Utility. It's basically a handy command line
interface to several useful functions. Not really meant to be used by anyone
except the web page (there's no 'help' in it yet) but can be if necessary.
except the web page (there's only limited 'help' in it so far) but can be if
necessary.
zmfix – This is a small binary that exists only to ensure that the video device
files can be read by the main capture daemons. It is often the case that these
device files are set to be accessible by root only on boot. This binary runs
setuid and ensures that they have appropriate permissions. This is not a daemon
and runs only on system start and then exits.
As well as this there are the web PHP files in the web directory and some perl
scripts in the scripts directory, only one of which is actually required for
a minimal installation. These scripts all have some configuration at the top
of the files which should be viewed and amended if necesary and are as follows.
As well as this there are the web PHP files in the web directory and some perl
scripts in the scripts directory, only one of which may actually be used in a
minimal installation. These scripts all have some configuration at the top of
the files which should be viewed and amended if necessary and are as follows.
zmdc.pl - This is the ZoneMinder Daemon Control. This is used by the web
interface to control the execution of the capture and analysis daemons amongst
interface to control the execution of the capture and analysis daemons amongst
others. You should not need to run this script yourself.
zmfilter.pl - This script control the execution of saved filters and will be
started and stopped by the web interface based on whether there are filters
that have been defined to be autonomous. This script is also responsible for
the automatic uploading of events to a 3rd party server so you will need to
modify it to suit your confguration.
zmaudit.pl - This script is used to check the consistency of the event file
system and database. It can delete orphaned events, ie. ones that appear in
one location and not the other as well as checking that all the various event
related tables are in line. It can be run interactively or in batch mode either
from the command line or a cron job or similar. In the zmconfig.php there is
an option to specify fast event deletes where the web interface only deletes
the event entry from the database itself. If this is set then it is this
script that tidies up the rest.
zmx10.pl - This is an option script that can be used to initiate and monitor
X10 Home Automation style events and interface with an alarm system either by
the generation of X10 signals on ZM events or by initiating ZM monitoring and
capture on receipt of X10 signals from elsewhere, for instance the triggering
of an X10 PIR.
zmfilter.pl - This script control the execution of saved filters and will be
started and stopped by the web interface based on whether there are filters that
have been defined to be autonomous. This script is also responsible for the
automatic uploading of events to a 3rd party server.
zmaudit.pl - This script is used to check the consistency of the event file
system and database. It can delete orphaned events, i.e. ones that appear in one
location and not the other as well as checking that all the various event
related tables are in line. It can be run interactively or in batch mode either
from the command line or a cron job or similar. In the zmconfig.pl there is an
option to specify fast event deletes where the web interface only deletes the
event entry from the database itself. If this is set then it is this script that
tidies up the rest.
zmx10.pl - This is an option script that can be used to initiate and monitor X10
Home Automation style events and interface with an alarm system either by the
generation of X10 signals on ZM events or by initiating ZM monitoring and
capture on receipt of X10 signals from elsewhere, for instance the triggering of
an X10 PIR.
zmwatch.pl – This is a simple script purely designed to keep an eye on the
capture daemons and restart them if they lockup. It has been known for sync
problems in the video drivers to cause this so this script makes sure that
nothing important gets missed.
Finally, check zmconfig.php in the web directory and amend any configuration
necessary in there.
necessary in there. Most will have already been done by the configuration
utilities.
At this stage typing 'make install' will install these everything to the desired
locations.
locations. The installation routine will copy the binaries and scripts to your
chosen install location, usually /usr/local/bin and then move zms to your cgi-
bin area. It will then copy the web files to your chosen directory and ensure
they have the right permissions. Finally it tries to link zm.php to index.php
but will not overwrite an existing file if it exists.
Start your web browser and point it at zm.php and off you go.
@ -177,39 +212,139 @@ To start with you should see the ZM Console window, this will resize itself to
avoid being too intrusive on your desktop. Along the top there is a set of links
to configure your bandwidth, this allows you to optimise your settings depending
on where you are and the actual options relating to this are defined at the top
of the index.php file. If you are using a browser on the same machine or network
then choose high, over a cable or DSL link maybe choose medium and over a dialup
choose low. You can experiment to see which is best. This setting is retained on
a per machine basis with a persistent cookie.
of the zmconfig.php file. If you are using a browser on the same machine or
network then choose high, over a cable or DSL link maybe choose medium and over
a dialup choose low. You can experiment to see which is best. This setting is
retained on a per machine basis with a persistent cookie.
Defining Monitors
-----------------
To use ZM properly you need to define at least one Monitor. Essentially a
monitor is attached to a camera and will continually check it for motion
detection and such like. So, next click 'Add New Monitor' to bring up the
dialog. First choose a name for it, anything you like. The next field is
'Function' which essentially defines what the monitor is doing. This can be
dialog. The options you have are as follows,
Name - First choose a name for it, anything you like.
Function - This essentially defines what the monitor is doing. This can be
'None' meaning the monitor is currently disabled, 'Passive' meaning you can
watch the streams coming from the camera but no alarms or events will be
generated, or 'Active' meaning all the images will be analysed as well as the
stream being available to watch. Generally you'll want 'Active' but for now
leave this at 'None'. Next enter the device number that your camera is attached
to. If it's /dev/video0 enter '0' etc. Some video devices, e.g. BTTV cards
support multiple cameras so in the Channel box choose the appropriate channel,
or leave it at zero if you're using a USB camera or one without channels. Next
enter the video format, and dimensions of the video stream your camera will
stream being available to watch. If you have specified X10 support then X10 is
also available as an option which means that the monitor is generally passive
but may go active on receipt of X10 commands. Generally you'll want 'Active' but
for now leave this at 'None'.
Device Number/Channel - Enter the device number that your camera is attached to,
if its /dev/video0 enter '0' etc. Some video devices, e.g. BTTV cards support
multiple cameras so in the Channel box choose the appropriate channel, or leave
it at zero if you're using a USB camera or one without channels.
Device Format - Now enter the video format of the video stream. This is defined
in various system files but the two most common are 1 for PAL and 2 for NTSC.
Device Width/Height - The dimensions of the video stream your camera will
supply. If your camera supports several just enter the one you'll want to use
for this application, you can always change it later. However I would recommend
starting with no larger than 352x288 and then perhaps increasing and seeing how
performance is affected. This size should be adequate in most cases. Finally
enter the colour depth. ZM supports both greyscale and 24 bit colour, so enter 1
or 3 here. Currently it doesn't support any of the more esoteric formats, like
15 bit etc. Click 'update' to add your monitor.
performance is affected. This size should be adequate in most cases.
Device Colour Depth - Finally for the video part of the configuration enter the
colour depth. ZM supports both greyscale and 24 bit colour, so enter 1 or 3
here. Currently it doesn't support any of the more esoteric formats, like 15 bit
etc.
Timestamp Label Format - This relates to the timestamp that is applied to each
frame. It is a sprintf style string. It is actually passed through sprintf and
then through print to add the monitor name so a format of ‘%%s - %y/%m/%d
%H:%M:%S’ would be recommended though you can modify it if necessary.
Timestamp Label X/Y - The X and Y values determine where to put the timestamp a
value of 0 for the X value will put it on the left side of the image and a Y
value of the height you supplied earlier minus 8 will place it on the bottom of
the image.
Image Buffer Size – This option determines how many frames are held in the ring
buffer at any one time. It can be any value you like with a couple of provisos,
(see next options). However it is stored in shared memory and making it too
large especially for large images with a high colour depth can use a lot of
memory. A value of no more than 100 is usually ok.
Warmup Frames – This specifies how many frames the analysis daemon should
process but not examine when it starts. This allows it to generate an accurate
reference image. I use a value of 25 here, too high and it will take a long time
to start, too low and you will get false alarms when the analysis daemon starts
up.
Pre/Post Event Image Buffer – These options determine how many frames from
before and after an event should be preserved with it. This allows you to view
what happened immediately prior and subsequent to the event. A value of 10 for
both of these will get you started.
FPS Report Interval – How often the current performance in terms of Frames Per
Second is output to the system log. Not used in any functional way so set it to
maybe 1000 for now. If you watch /var/log/messages (normally) you will see this
value being emitted at the frequency you specify.
Reference Image Blend %ge – Each analysed image in ZoneMinder is a composite of
previous images and is formed by applying the current image as a certain
percentage of the previous reference image. Thus, if we entered the recommended
value of 10 here, each images part in the reference image will diminish by a
factor of 0.9 each time round. So a typical reference image will be 10% the
previous image, 9% the one before that and then 8.1%, 7.2%, 6.5% and so on of
the rest of the way. An image will effectively vanish around 25 images later
than when it was added. This blend value is what is specified here and if higher
will make slower progressing events less detectable as the reference image would
change more quickly. Similarly events will be deemed to be over much sooner as
the reference image adapts to the new images more quickly. In signal processing
terms the higher this value the steeper the event attack and decay of the
signal. It depends on your particular requirements what the appropriate value
would be for you but start with 10 here and adjust it later if necessary.
X10 Activation String – This option is only available if you have specified X10
support in the configuration. If you have then this contents of this field
determine when a monitor starts and stops being Active if its function is set to
X10. Basically what this means is that a monitor with a Function of X10 normally
acts as it is Passive, i.e. you can watch the video stream but no analysis is
done. On receipt of the appropriate X10 signal however it effectively changes to
Active mode and starts to analyse images until an X10 signal changes it back to
Passive again. The format of this string is as follows,
n : If you simply enter a number then the monitor will be activated when
an X10 ON signal for that unit code is detected and will be deactivated when an
OFF signal is detected.
!n : This inverts the previous mode, e.g. !5 means that the monitor is
activated when an OFF signal for unit code 5 is detected and deactivated by an
ON.
n+ : Entering a unit code followed by + means that the monitor is
activated on receipt of a ON signal for that unit code but will ignore the OFF
signal and as such will not be deactivated by this instruction. If you prepend a
‘!’ as per the previous definition it similarly inverts the mode, i.e. the ON
signal deactivates the monitor.
n+<seconds> : As per the previous mode except that the monitor will
deactivate itself after the given number of seconds.
n- : Entering a unit code followed by - means that the monitor is
deactivated on receipt of a OFF signal for that unit code but will ignore the ON
signal and as such will not be activated by this instruction. If you prepend a
‘!’ as per the previous definition it similarly inverts the mode, i.e. the OFF
signal activates the monitor.
n+<seconds> : As per the previous mode except that the monitor will
activate itself after the given number of seconds.
You can also combine several of these expressions to by separating them with a
comma to create multiple circumstances of activation. However for now leave this
blank.
X10 Input Alarm String – This has the same format as the previous field but
instead of activating the monitor with will cause a forced alarm to be generated
and an event recorded if the monitor is Active. The same definition as above
apply except that for activated read alarmed and for deactivated read
unalarmed(!). Again leave this blank for now.
X10 Output Alarm String – This X10 string also has the same format as the two
above options. However it works in a slightly different way. Instead of
ZoneMinder reacting to X10 events this option controls how ZoneMinder emits X10
signals when the current monitor goes into or comes out of the alarm state. Thus
just entering a number will cause the ON signal for that unit code to be sent
when going into alarm state and the OFF signal when coming out of alarm state.
Similarly 7+30 will send the unit code 7 ON signal when going into alarm state
and the OFF signal 30 seconds later regardless of state. The combination of the
X10 instruction allows ZoneMinder to react intelligently to, and also assume
control of, other devices when necessary. However the indiscriminate use of the
Input Alarm and Output Alarm signals can cause some horrendous race conditions
such as a light going on in response to an alarm which then causes an alarm
itself and so on. Thus some circumspection is required here. Leave this blank
for now anyway.
Finally, click 'update' to add your monitor.
On the main console listing you will now see your monitor and some of its vital
statistics. Each column is also a link and you get to other functions of ZM by
choosing the appropriate one. For the most part I'll describe them left to right
but lets start with the Device column which you'll see showing red. This means
but let’s start with the Device column which you'll see showing red. This means
that that device has no zmc (capture) daemon running on it, if it were orange it
would mean that a zmc daemon was running but no zma (analysis) daemon and green
means both are running. In our case it is red because we defined the Monitor to
@ -231,8 +366,7 @@ You can now add further monitors if you have cameras set up to support them.
Once you have one or more monitors you may notice a 'Scan' link appears which
allows you to cycle through a shot from each of your monitors (unless they are
switched off) and get a still image from each in turn. Clicking on the image
will take you to the monitor watch window, which will be discussed shortly.
will take you to the monitor watch window, which will be discussed shortly.
Returning to the main console window, if you click the Id of your monitor in the
listing then you will have the opportunity to edit any of the settings your
originally defined your monitor to have.
@ -248,19 +382,21 @@ In the default case this will cover the whole image and will be red. Beneath
that will be a table containing a listing of your zones. Clicking on either the
relevant bit of the image or on the Id or Name in the table will bring up
another window where you can edit the particulars for your Zones. As you can see
there are quite a few, so now is a good time to go through them.
there are quite a few, so now is a good time to go through them. The options are
as follows.
Firstly the zone Name appears, you can change this to be more representative if
you like, though it isn't used much except for logging and debugging. After that
is the zone Type, this is one of the more important concepts in ZM and there are
four to choose from. The one you'll use most and which will be set for your
default zone if 'Active'. This means that this zone will trigger an alarm on any
events that occur within that meet the selection criteria. The next two options
I'll cover shortly but the one at the bottom is Inactive, which is the opposite
of Active. In this zone type no alarms will ever be reported. Create an Inactive
zone to cover any areas in which nothing notable will ever happen or where you
get constant false alarms that don't relate to what you are trying to monitor.
An Inactive zone can overlay other zone types and will be processed first.
four to choose from. The one you'll use most often and which will be set for
your default zone if 'Active'. This means that this zone will trigger an alarm
on any events that occur within that meet the selection criteria. The next two
options I'll cover shortly but the one at the bottom is Inactive, which is the
opposite of Active. In this zone type no alarms will ever be reported. Create an
Inactive zone to cover any areas in which nothing notable will ever happen or
where you get constant false alarms that don't relate to what you are trying to
monitor. An Inactive zone can overlay other zone types and will be processed
first.
The next option is Inclusive and you'd use this zone type for any zones that you
want to trigger an alarm only if at least one other Active zone has already
@ -312,22 +448,11 @@ Motion Detection
The options that follow are all related to motion detection and now would be a
good time to describe how that works. Once a stream of images starts coming
through the zma daemon will begin analysing them initially there will be a warm-
up period where it does nothing except start to build up a reference image. This
image is a composite of the previous images and by default is formed of by
applying the current image as 10% of the previous reference image. Thus each
images part in the reference image will diminish by a factor of 0.9 each time
round. So a typical reference image will be 10% the previous image, 9% the one
before that and then 8.1, 7.2, 6.5 and so on of the rest of the way. An image
will effectively vanish around 25 images later than when it was added. This
blend value of 10% can be varied and if higher will make slower progressing
events less detectable as the reference image would change more quickly,
similarly events will be deemed to be over much sooner as the reference image
adapts to the new images more quickly. In signal processing terms the higher
this value the steeper the event attack and decay of the signal. It depends on
your particular requirements what the appropriate value would be for you.
up period where it does nothing except start to build up a reference image. How
this is done was explained above.
So to go back to the settings, the next one is an alarm threshold, this
represents the difference in value between a pixel and it's predecessor. For
So to go back to the settings, the next one is an alarm threshold; this
represents the difference in value between a pixel and its predecessor. For
greyscale images this is simple but for colour images the colours are averaged
first, originally this used an RMS (root mean squared) algorithm but calculating
square roots mugs performance and does not seem to improve detection. Using an
@ -389,7 +514,7 @@ cooling down, if another alarm is generated in this time it will just become
part of the same event. These indicators are colour coded in green, red and
amber. By default if you have minimised this window or opened other windows in
front it will pop up to the front if it goes to Alarm state. This behaviour can
be turned off in configuration at the top of the index.php file. You can also
be turned off in configuration at the top of the zmconfig.php file. You can also
specify a sound file in the configuration, which will be played when an alarm
occurs to alert you to the fact if you are not in front of your computer. This
should be a short sound of only a couple of seconds ideally. Note that as the
@ -397,24 +522,25 @@ status is refreshed every few seconds it is possible for this not to alert you
to every event that takes place, so you shouldn't rely on it for this purpose if
you expect very brief events. Alternatively you can decrease the refresh
interval for this window in the configuration though having too frequently
refreshing may impact on performance. Below the status is a list of recent
events that have occurred, by default this is a listing of just the last 12 but
clicking on 'All' will give you a full list and 'Archive' will take you to the
event archive for this monitor, more on this later. Clicking on any of the
column headings will sort the events appropriately. From here you can also
delete events if you wish. The events themselves are listed with the event id,
and event name (which you can change), the time that the event occurred, the
length of the event including any preamble and post amble frames, the number of
frames comprising the event with the number that actually contain an alarm in
brackets and finally a score. This column lists the average score per alarm
frame as well as the maximum score that any alarm frame had. The score is an
arbitrary value that essentially represents the percentage of pixels in the zone
that are in blobs divided by the number of blobs and then divided by the size of
the zone. This gives a nominal maximum of 100 for a zone and the totals for each
zone are added together, Active zones scores are added unchanged, Inclusive
zones are halved first and Exclusive zones are doubled. In reality values are
likely to be much less than 100 but it does give a simple indication of how
major the event was.
refreshing may impact on performance.
Below the status is a list of recent events that have occurred, by default this
is a listing of just the last 12 but clicking on 'All' will give you a full list
and 'Archive' will take you to the event archive for this monitor, more on this
later. Clicking on any of the column headings will sort the events
appropriately. From here you can also delete events if you wish. The events
themselves are listed with the event id, and event name (which you can change),
the time that the event occurred, the length of the event including any preamble
and post amble frames, the number of frames comprising the event with the number
that actually contain an alarm in brackets and finally a score. This column
lists the average score per alarm frame as well as the maximum score that any
alarm frame had. The score is an arbitrary value that essentially represents the
percentage of pixels in the zone that are in blobs divided by the number of
blobs and then divided by the size of the zone. This gives a nominal maximum of
100 for a zone and the totals for each zone are added together, Active zones
scores are added unchanged, Inclusive zones are halved first and Exclusive zones
are doubled. In reality values are likely to be much less than 100 but it does
give a simple indication of how major the event was.
Filtering Events
----------------
@ -424,7 +550,7 @@ and a total for events that you may have archived for safekeeping. Clicking on
one of these totals or on the 'All' or 'Archive' links from the monitor window
described above will present you with a new display. This is the full event
window and contains a list of events selected according to a filter which will
also pop up in it's own window. Thus if you clicked on a 'day' total the filter
also pop up in its own window. Thus if you clicked on a 'day' total the filter
will indicate that this is the period for which events are being filtered. The
event listing window contains a similar listing to the recent events in the
monitor window. The primary differences are that the frames and alarm frames and
@ -434,18 +560,20 @@ refresh automatically, rather only on request. Other than that, you can choose
to view events here or delete them as before. The other window that appeared is
a filter window. You can use this window to create your own filters or to modify
existing ones. You can even save your favourite filters to re-use at a future
date. Filtering itself is fairly simple, you first choose how many expressions
date. Filtering itself is fairly simple; you first choose how many expressions
you'd like your filter to contain. Changing this value will cause the window to
redraw with a corresponding row for each expression. You then select what you
want to filter on and how the expressions relate by choosing whether they are
'and' or 'or' relationships. For filter comprised of many expressions you will
'and' or 'or' relationships. For filters comprised of many expressions you will
also get the option to bracket parts of the filter to ensure you can express it
as desired. There are several different elements to an event that you can filter
on, some of which require further explanation. These are as follows, 'Date/Time'
which must evaluate to a date and a time together, 'Date' and 'Time' which are
variants which may only contain the relevant subsets of this, 'Weekday' which as
expected is a day of the week. All of the preceding elements take a very
flexible free format of dates and time based on the PHP strtotime function
as desired.
There are several different elements to an event that you can filter on, some of
which require further explanation. These are as follows, 'Date/Time' which must
evaluate to a date and a time together, 'Date' and 'Time' which are variants
which may only contain the relevant subsets of this, 'Weekday' which as expected
is a day of the week. All of the preceding elements take a very flexible free
format of dates and time based on the PHP strtotime function
(http://www.zend.com/manual/function.strtotime.php). This allows values such as
'last Wednesday' etc to be entered. I recommend acquainting yourself with this
function to see what the allowed formats are. The other elements you can filter
@ -459,7 +587,7 @@ whether you want this filter automatically applied in order to delete events or
upload events via ftp to another server. This functionality is explained in more
detail elsewhere. Filtering is a powerful mechanism you can use to eliminate
events that fit a certain pattern however in many cases modifying the zone
settings will better address this. Where it really comes into it's own is
settings will better address this. Where it really comes into its own is
generally in applying time filters, so for instance events that happen during
weekdays or at certain times of the day are highlighted, uploaded or deleted.
@ -479,32 +607,33 @@ image sequence number and the image score. You will notice for the first time
that alarm images now contain an overlay outlining the blobs that represent the
alarmed area. This outline is in the colour defined for that zone and lets you
see what it was that caused the alarm. Clicking on one of the thumbnails will
take you to a full size window where you can see the image in all it's detail
and scroll through the various images that make up the event. Should you
determine that you don't wish to keep the event, clicking on Delete will erase
it from the database and file system. Returning to the event window, other
options here are renaming the event to something more meaningful, refreshing the
window to replay the event stream, deleting the event, switching between
streamed and still versions of the event (if supported) and generating an MPEG
video of the event (if supported). These last two options require further
explanation. Archiving an event means that it is kept to one side and not
displayed in the normal event listings unless you specifically ask to view the
archived events. This is useful for keeping events that you think may be
important or just wish to protect. Once an event is archived it can be deleted
or unarchived but you cannot accidentally delete it when viewing normal
unarchived events. The final option of generating an MPEG video is experimental
and not likely to be highly useful. It uses the Berkeley MPEG encoder and will
generate a short video which will be downloaded to your browsing machine to
view. Due to the relatively slow frame rate that ZM will capture at and the high
minimum frame rate that the encoder uses, each image is included twice. This has
the useful effect of making the video watchable and not too quick while having
the unfortunate side effect of increasing file size and generation time.
Building an MPEG video, especially for a large event, can take some time and
should not be undertaken lightly as the effect on your host box of many CPU
intensive encoders will not be good. However once a video has been created for
an event it will be kept so subsequent viewing will not incur the generation
overhead. I will be the first to admit that this area of the package is not
particularly well implemented and needs work, and probably a better encoder.
take you to a full size window where you can see the image in all its detail and
scroll through the various images that make up the event. Should you determine
that you don't wish to keep the event, clicking on Delete will erase it from the
database and file system. Returning to the event window, other options here are
renaming the event to something more meaningful, refreshing the window to replay
the event stream, deleting the event, switching between streamed and still
versions of the event (if supported) and generating an MPEG video of the event
(if supported). These last two options require further explanation. Archiving an
event means that it is kept to one side and not displayed in the normal event
listings unless you specifically ask to view the archived events. This is useful
for keeping events that you think may be important or just wish to protect. Once
an event is archived it can be deleted or unarchived but you cannot accidentally
delete it when viewing normal unarchived events.
The final option of generating an MPEG video is experimental and not likely to
be highly useful. It uses the Berkeley MPEG encoder and will generate a short
video which will be downloaded to your browsing machine to view. Due to the
relatively slow frame rate that ZM will capture at and the high minimum frame
rate that the encoder uses, each image is included twice. This has the useful
effect of making the video watchable and not too quick while having the
unfortunate side effect of increasing file size and generation time. Building an
MPEG video, especially for a large event, can take some time and should not be
undertaken lightly as the effect on your host box of many CPU intensive encoders
will not be good. However once a video has been created for an event it will be
kept so subsequent viewing will not incur the generation overhead. I will be the
first to admit that this area of the package is not particularly well
implemented and needs work, and probably a better encoder.
That pretty much is it for the tour. You should experiment with the various
setting to get the results you think are right for your. Naturally letting
@ -515,7 +644,7 @@ the first place or ensure that you housekeep them strictly.
Have fun, please report any bugs or features you'd like to see and hopefully ZM
can be your camera monitoring friend!
Philip Coombes (philip.coombes@zoneminder.com) - December 2002
Philip Coombes (philip.coombes@zoneminder.com) - January 2003
Troubleshooting
@ -533,12 +662,7 @@ Some things to check.
make sure that you have the correct settings. Use xawtv or something like that
to check for settings that work. If you can't get them to work with that then
the likelihood is they won't work with ZM.
2. Device permissions. Since the ZM daemons are started by your web server, you
need to ensure that your video devices can be opened by the associated user,
usually apache or web. It is often the case that these files are created with
read access by root only (and sometimes reset on a reboot) so you might need to
chmod a+r /dev/video0 etc. to make them readable.
3. Web server. Ensure that your web server can serve PHP files. It's also
2. Web server. Ensure that your web server can serve PHP files. It's also
possible that your php.ini file may have some settings which break ZM, I'm not a
PHP guru but setting safe mode may prevent your PHP files from running certain
programs. You may have to set configuration to allow this. Also since the
@ -546,7 +670,7 @@ daemons are started by your web server, if it dies or is shut down then the
daemons may disappear. In this version the daemons are run under the control of
a script which should trap expected signals but it is possible this doesn't
cover all circumstances.
4. Use debug. ZM has various debug in it that by default will go into your
3. Use debug. ZM has various debug in it that by default will go into your
system log (via syslog). These will be of the form of
"Sep 14 14:50:11 localhost zma-0[1975]: INF [Front: 221000 - Processing at 4.26
fps ]"
@ -573,42 +697,42 @@ http://www.zoneminder.com/downloads/noIEClick.reg
Whats New
=========
Release 0.9.5 - Yes, a big jump in release number but a lot of changes too. Now
Release 0.9.7 - Yes, a big jump in release number but a lot of changes too. Now
somewhat more mature, not really an alpha any more, and a lot of bugs fixed too.
- Added zmconfig.pl script to help with configuration.
- Revamped to work better with configure scripts
- Monitors now have more configuration options, including some that
were statically defined before such as location and format of the
image timestamps.
- Removed Alarms table from schema as not required, never was actually..
- Monitors now have more configuration options, including some that were
statically defined before such as location and format of the image timestamps.
- Removed Alarms table from schema as not required, never was actually...
- Added a number of new scripts, see the scripts directory
- Added Fast delete to PHP files. This allows the web interface to only
delete the event entries themselves for speed and them have the zmaudit
script periodically tidy up the rest.
- Added event filter to enable bulk viewing, upload or deletion of events
- Added Fast delete to PHP files. This allows the web interface to only delete
the event entries themselves for speed and then have the zmaudit script
periodically tidy up the rest.
- Added event filter to enable bulk viewing, upload or deletion of events
according to various attributes. Filter can be saved and edited.
- Added last event id to shared memory for auto-filtering etc.
- Changed zmu -i option to write to monitor named image file.
- Made shared memory management somewhat more sensible.
- Now stores DB times as localtime rather than UTC avoiding daylight
saving related bugs.
- Now stores DB times as localtime rather than UTC avoiding daylight saving
related bugs.
- Fixed bug with inactive zones and added more debug.
- Changed main functions to return int.
- Added help and usage to zmu.
- Fixed browser acceptance problem, more easily defaults to HTML.
- Split out the PHP files into a bunch with specific functions rather
than one monolithic one.
- Split out the PHP files into a bunch with specific functions rather than one
monolithic one.
- Fixed NetPBM paths and changed _SERVER to HTTP_SERVER_VARS.
- Added HUP signal on zone deletion.
- Added NETPBM_DIR and conditional netpbm stuff.
- Removed hardcoded window sizes, all popup window dimensions can be
specified in zmconfig.php
- Changed form methods to 'get' from 'post' to avoid resubmit warnings
all the time.
- Removed hard coded window sizes, all popup window dimensions can be specified
in zmconfig.php
- Changed form methods to 'get' from 'post' to avoid resubmit warnings all the
time.
- Added conditional sound to alarm on web interface.
- Fixed syntax error when adding default monitor.
- Some of the web views have changed slightly to accomdate the separate
events view.
- And much much more, probably.
- Some of the web views have changed slightly to accommodate the separate events
view.
- And much much more, probably...
Release 0.0.1 - Initial release, therefore nothing new.
@ -634,9 +758,9 @@ precisely define and see where your zone is going to go. Not critical but handy
but a bugger to do.
6. Zone Definitions - Allow zones to be defined according to a colour coded
bitmap or as polygons. Currently all zones are rectangular this would add a bit
of flexibility. Would need a bit of a rewrite though. 20. This will incur a
slight penalty on startup and a very slight one on processing for all reasonably
shaped zones.
of flexibility. Would need a bit of a rewrite though. This will incur a slight
penalty on startup and a very slight one on processing for all reasonably shaped
zones.
7. Security - I think I need to give the php file a bit of a good going over as
I'm sure it's not done in the most secure way regarding passing things onto
command line, exposing file paths and other stuff. I'm a bit of a PHP novice, as
@ -645,53 +769,47 @@ I'm sure you can tell so might need help here. I should have done it in perl!
be handy. A bit more help full stop actually.
9. WAP interface - A bit of a crusade of mine I'm afraid. I'd like to put a WML
interface on to allow you to view event listing and perhaps the most significant
image from each event on your phone. Also simple management. In version 0.9.5
image from each event on your phone. Also simple management. In version 0.9.7
there is a very basic crude initial version that probably won't work with your
phone but its there as a testbed. Note, temporary WAP files are not tidied up
properly so don't use it for extanded periods of time at present.
phone but its there as a testbed.
10. Email and SMS notifications - As with the FTP uploads, probably event the
same daemon to let you know when something happens, perhaps configurable to
report only certain types of events.
11. Templatise the php file. Personally I hate mixing up HTML and logic, perhaps
use Smarty or something and separate the screens out from the rest.
12. Automatic device configuration - Video 4 Linux supports various device
report only certain types of events. This will be a new sort of filter in the
next version.
11. Automatic device configuration - Video 4 Linux supports various device
queries, it should be possible to get most of the device capability information
from the device itself.
13. Extend the X-10 integration - A handy feature would be to allow a generated
event to trigger some other action perhaps to an attached X-10 interface, for
instance turn lights on or make a dog barky noise!
14. Extend the API. Well ok it's not really got an API yet but the image data is
12. Extend the API. Well ok it's not really got an API yet but the image data is
held in shared memory in a very simple format. In theory you could use the
capture daemon to gab the images and other things could read them from memory or
the analysis daemon could read images from elsewhere. Either way this should be
done through an API, and would need a library I think. Also the zmu utility
could probably do a whole lot more to enable other things to manage when the
daemons become active etc.
15. Access control should probably be built in rather than relying on .htaccess
13. Access control should probably be built in rather than relying on .htaccess
etc.
16. I've got lots of ideas for enhancing the motion detection part with optional
14. I've got lots of ideas for enhancing the motion detection part with optional
algorithms etc. Just got to find the time somewhere!
17. Create .rpm packages (as there can be several dependencies) and maybe other
15. Create .rpm packages (as there can be several dependencies) and maybe other
types of packages also, e.g. for Debian distributions.
18. Allow ZM to 'train' itself by allowing the user to select events that are
16. Allow ZM to 'train' itself by allowing the user to select events that are
considered important and to discard those that should be ignored. ZM will
interpolate, add a bit of magic, and recommend settings that will support this
selection automatically thereafter.
19. Add quotes to all PHP array references. I should have done it in the first
selection automatically thereafter. The hooks for this are already in to some
extent.
17. Add quotes to all PHP array references. I should have done it in the first
place but I'm a perl person really and it kind of bugs me that you have to.
Bugs
====
1. Sometimes there is a sync error and very rarely a capture daemon just stops.
Probably need a watchdog to restart it when this happens.
2. I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design but the timestamp is added to the
1. I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design but the timestamp is added to the
image by the capture daemon. I _think_ this isn't necessary as it may contribute
to alarms, plus the time is associated with the image anyway. So I think this
should be moved to the analysis daemon.
Probably a bucket load more, just fire them at me.
Probably bucket loads more, just fire them at me.
Non-Bugs
@ -726,3 +844,4 @@ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.