I just got my Hubitat and the next thing I want to set up is security cameras both exterior and interior. There looks to be a lot of options for NVR software such as Blue Iris, Zomeminder, and a plethora of other options. What I want to know is which of these systems is easiest to integrate and/or provides the best options for Hubitat. I've for a lot of learning to due so I don't want to add to that by getting something that doesn't work well. Right now I'm interested in having events happen when a camera detects motion (or faces as some cameras are getting that functionality now). For example have outside lights turn on at night when something is detected. I'd also like to set up functions where, for example, indoor cameras can be activated either by Google Assistant commands or when I'm away.
I've been using Blue Iris for a few years now and would highly recommend it. It isn't compatible with Google Assistant but it does work with Alexa. Here's a good resource for more information on Blue Iris:
Blue Iris can be integrated with Hubitat as well. There's a community driver here:
And as noted in that thread, Blue Iris can make HTTP requests based on motion (or other events), so you can hook those events into Hubitat either via Rule Machine or the Hubitat Maker API.
Just wanted to share some perspective.... Your experience may be different but...I wanted to put this in the mix. I have 16 cameras watching the outside of my home. Most are high megapixel 4k cameras with IR night vision and all have motion sensing capabilities, including zone definition, sensitivity adjustments, etc. I have explored useful motion detection with these extensively. My experience is that motion detection on cameras is not reliable. I have found that, especially in summer (bug season), too many false detections occur to rely on them for motion. Wind blowing grass, bushes, shadows, etc are other considerations. If you have ever seen what a bug looks like on video flying on IR night vision, it paints a wild white streak that looks like an alien just flew by.
While in principle motion detection from cameras sounds good on paper, the real life experience is very different. Might I suggest that you look into outdoor Z-Wave or Zigbee motion detectors that are much more accurate in detecting motion and much more reliable. As I said your experience may be different, I just wanted to give you some food for thought before you invest heavily in cameras for motion detection.
Thanks, and I agree. But pretty much every camera offered these days has some motion detection so it's not really a factor in the cost. Right now I'm looking at options for either line crossing, or even better, face/person detection. That's showing up even on sub-$200 cameras now. But I am interested in hearing how much better dedicated motion sensors work better. Have you found any tricks such as placement that helps? I have older outside lights with similar motion sensors and they are crap too in my opinion.
Is anyone here tried anything other than BI? Just curious.
I have 2 ZooZ Zwave detectors that watch my driveway and vehicle area. They do a good job with only a very few false detections. They have a good quick detect rate. They aren't particularly attractive and are a little conspicuous but they work well.
I have a smaller number of cameras but the same experience as you described.
Agree with that assessment, I have the motion sensors turned off on my POE cameras (for notifications) and only use the line crossing, and a small bit of intrusion detection for notifications. The only thing I use the motion sensors in the cameras for if for IFTTT to turn on my driveway light when motion is detected but not for notifications way to many false alarms. Instead I do the same use zigbee and zwave motion sensors for presence notifications.
I live on the lake, and routinely get spiders trying to build webs around the cameras, those are ridiculously freaky on IR night vision
I have 15 cameras that are all configured to use the built-in motion sensor in Blue Iris and my experience is just the opposite. If configured correctly, you should see very few false alerts even with trees and/or shrubs blowing in the wind.
Hmm this is surprising to hear. Wyze just released person detection and it has been working fantastic for me.
Odd that higher end solutions cant do this as well?
The concern there is where is that third party service located and what kind of security is in place to keep those images private.
Ah guess I just figured something like blue iris running local should be able to match this. I honestly was just curious.
As far as security. My cameras do not point at anything I feel needs securing.
If someone wants to see what is happening in my boring front yard more power to em I guess.
The Wyze person detection runs on camera using xnor.ai
Here's a video talking about it:
Hmm even better.
It’s XNOR.AI they are using. I honestly don’t know where their servers are, but I don’t think that WYZE would go to the trouble of moving their data from Chinese servers in the beginning, to Amazon servers in order to please their customers concerns, and then turn around and use a company that is storing outside of the United States.
But I do recognize that I don’t actually know, have not researched it, and therefore I am making an assumption. My WYZE cam is outside my front door, not inside my house. It is of little concern to me personally.
They literally drive down the road from Wyze HQ to Xnor.ai HQ in the video (Washington, USA). 
At 5:25 in the video, they show the server cluster that's used for training the models. They still train the models in the 'cloud', but xnor.ai's speciality is building edge AI models that can run on low power hardware (eg. Directly on the camera).
I just watched the video in the link. I have a few questions, such as whether that information goes out to the cloud or if it can be used on a system that is isolated from the cloud. If it is the latter, I would really be interested in it.
Thanks Josh. I posted before I saw the link you posted. That’s great to know. They are an impressive little company, Like Hubitat and SharpTools.
I just watched the whole video myself too. I guess I don’t understand your question. Obviously the AI detection runs on the camera, they said it many times, but in order to be notified, of course that must go out to the cloud. There’s no third-party software that’s going to be able to know that person detection has occurred, unless Wyze adds an IFTTT action, or they reverse engineer the WYZE firmware. Obviously Wyze has spent a lot of money to get this happening at no cost to the user, with clearly a plan for payed options in the future. I don’t think that they should give that capability to any other third-party software company without charging them a license fee. Perhaps that’s a possibility?
My concern is the routing of the video. Does it stay in the country of origin or does it go through servers located in places which may allow others to view the video? Is the video stream encrypted in any way or is it unencrypted video?
I do have two indoor cameras that I would certainly not want viewed. I'm not concerned about the one (soon to be two) outdoor camera(s). It isn't as if I am doing anything to be concerned about, but if I were to walk out into view of one of the indoor cameras not suitably covered, I would not want that video going out anywhere.
