Sensor Items

These items analyze the video for motion, and cause EvoCam to upload, save or archive an image whenever motion is detected. Sensors are normally green when no motion is detected, yellow while the sensor is recharging, and red when motion is detected.

Working with sensor items:

¥ To create a sensor, click the 'New Item' button in the 'Items' tab and choose 'Sensor' from the popup menu, or choose 'New Sensor' from the Items menu. You can then place the sensor over the portion of the video in which you wish to detect motion.

¥ To resize the sensor, move the cursor over the sensor's lower-right corner and drag the grow box which appears.

¥ To adjust the sensitivity of the sensor, use the 'Sensitivity' slider in the 'Items' tab. This slider determines how much movement needs to occur before the sensor is activated. If the sensor is not detecting motion, move the slider towards 'High'. If the sensor is activating when it shouldn't, move the slider towards 'Low'.

¥ To specify what action the sensor performs when it detects motion, use the 'On motion' popup menu in the 'Items' tab. Each sensor can be configured to either capture the current image, run an AppleScript, play an alert sound, or speak any phrase using your Mac's text-to-speech feature.

¥ To specify whether the sensor should also operate when EvoCam is in periodic refresh mode, use the 'Use in addition to refresh timer' checkbox. If motion occurs before the next periodic refresh, a refresh will occur immediately and the timer will be reset. This allows you to set up EvoCam to periodically refresh at 1 minute intervals, and also use a motion sensor to refresh more often while motion is occurring.

¥ To specify whether to show motion as colored pixels in the video, use the 'Show motion' checkbox. This can be useful when adjusting the sensitivity of a sensor, as it allows you to verify that EvoCam is "seeing" motion.

¥ To specify whether to leave the sensor's border in captured images, use the 'Leave border in captured images' checkbox. This allows you to see which sensor caused the image capture to occur.

¥ To adjust the recharge time of the sensor, click the 'Recharge Time' button in the 'Items' tab. This setting affects how long the sensor takes to recharge after motion has been detected. The recharge time can be between 0 seconds and 24 hours. You can use this setting to limit the number of images captured during periods of continuous motion.