Detection Configuration

💡 Tip Filenames for detection logic (e.g., motion.yaml, tensor.yaml) can be customized in the Monitor Config.

Scout uses a multi-stage detection pipeline: Motion -> Object -> Face.

💡 Note on Requirements While each detection module is optional, once you enable a module in the Monitor Config, the fields marked as Yes in the tables below become required for that module to function correctly.

Motion Detection (Optional, motion.yaml)

Field	Type	Req.	Default	Description
skip	bool	No	false	Completely disable motion detection.
padding	int	No	0	Add padding (pixels) around detected motion areas.
scaleWidth	int	No	320	Scale frame width for faster processing.
minPercentage	int	No	2	Min area (%) change for motion.
maxPercentage	int	No	75	Max area (%) change for motion.
thresholdPercent	int	No	40	Sensitivity threshold for pixel changes.
noiseReduction	int	No	10	Filter out small pixel fluctuations.
maxMotions	int	No	20	Max number of distinct motion areas for detection.
overloadPercent	int	No	90	If motion areas exceed this (%) of frame, it is considered an overload and ignored.
highlightColor	string	No	purple	Color of the bounding box.
highlightThickness	int	No	3	Thickness of the bounding box.
backgroundHistory	int	No	500	History length (in frames) for the background subtractor.
backgroundThreshold	int	No	16	Variance threshold for background pixel-to-model matching.
detectShadows	bool	No	true	Enable shadow detection in background subtraction.
closingSize	int	No	3	Kernel size (pixels) for morphological closing (closes gaps).
minMotionFrames	int	No	1	Number of consecutive frames motion must be detected in a region to be valid.
mergeOverlapPercent	int	No	20	Minimum overlap (%) of the smaller bounding box to merge overlapping motion regions.
mergeDistance	int	No	10	Maximum pixel gap distance to merge nearby non-overlapping motion regions.
gridSize	int	No	16	Pixel grid cell size used for tracking motion regions across frames.

Object Detection (Optional, tensor.yaml)

Uses TensorFlow/SSD models to identify specific objects like “person” or “car”.

Field	Type	Req.	Default	Description
skip	bool	No	false	Disable object detection.
forceCpu	bool	No	false	Force CPU processing even if GPU is available.
modelFile	string	Yes	frozen_inference_graph.pb	Path to the .pb model file.
configFile	string	No	ssd_mobilenet_v1...	Path to the .pbtxt or similar config file.
descFile	string	No	coco.names	Path to the labels/names file.
scaleWidth	int	No	320	Scale frame width for faster processing.
minConfidencePercentage	int	No	50	Minimum confidence (1-100) to consider a match.
minMotionFrames	int	No	1	Min consecutive frames of motion before object detection triggers.
minPercentage	int	No	-1	Min area (%) change for an object to be valid.
maxPercentage	int	No	0	Max area (%) change for an object to be valid.
minOverlapPercentage	int	No	75	Min overlap (%) with a motion area to be valid.
sameOverlapPercentage	int	No	85	Overlap (%) to consider two detections as the same object.
allowedList	list	No	-	List of objects to trigger on (e.g., person, car).
priorityList	list	No	[{person, 50}]	List of priority items with custom minimum confidence thresholds. Used to resolve conflicts when multiple different overlapping objects are detected. Earlier items in the list outrank later ones.
padding	int	No	0	Add padding (pixels) around detected object.
highlightColor	string	No	blue	Color of the bounding box.
highlightThickness	int	No	3	Thickness of the bounding box.

Priority List Format

The priorityList allows you to specify which object classes take precedence when overlapping detections occur (e.g., a “person” bounding box overlapping a “chair” bounding box). You can configure a specific minimum confidence threshold for each priority class:

priorityList:
  - description: person
    minConfidencePercentage: 70
  - description: car
    minConfidencePercentage: 60

Face Detection (Optional, face.yaml)

Field	Type	Req.	Default	Description
skip	bool	No	false	Disable face detection.
modelFile	string	Yes	res10_300x300...	Path to the caffe model or weights.
configFile	string	No	deploy.prototxt	Path to the .prototxt config file.
minConfidencePercentage	int	No	50	Minimum confidence for face detection.
maxPercentage	int	No	50	Max area (%) a face can occupy in the frame.
minOverlapPercentage	int	No	75	Min overlap (%) with an object detection to be valid.
scaleWidth	int	No	320	Scale width for face detection.
forceCpu	bool	No	false	Force CPU processing even if GPU is available.
padding	int	No	0	Add padding (pixels) around detected face.
highlightColor	string	No	green	Color of the bounding box.
highlightThickness	int	No	3	Thickness of the bounding box.