Troubleshooting Canary's Facial Recognition (Person Detection)
Canary's Person Detection is a powerful AI feature that elevates your home security, filtering out the noise of general motion to specifically alert you when a person is seen. When it works, it's brilliant for reducing unnecessary notifications. But when it doesn't, it can be frustrating. This guide will help you understand and troubleshoot the most common issues with Canary's facial recognition capabilities.
## Understanding How Canary Person Detection Works
First, it's important to clarify the terminology. While we often think of "facial recognition" as identifying specific individuals (like "John is at the door"), Canary's feature is officially called Person Detection. Its primary goal is to distinguish between motion caused by a person and motion caused by other things, like pets, swaying trees, or changing light patterns. It tells you that a person is there, not who the person is.
This feature is a key part of the Canary Premium subscription service. If you do not have an active subscription, your camera will only alert you to general motion.
### 1. Prerequisite: Check Your Subscription
Before any other troubleshooting, you must verify your service plan.
- Open the Canary app.
- Navigate to the Settings menu.
- Look for a section on 'Account' or 'Subscription'.
- Confirm that you have an active Canary Premium membership. If you are on the free Basic Service, Person Detection will not be active.
### 2. Optimise Your Camera's Placement and Environment
The accuracy of Person Detection is highly dependent on the quality of the video it analyses.
- Lighting is Crucial: The camera needs a well-lit view of the area. Very dark scenes or rooms with harsh backlighting (where the camera is pointing towards a bright window or light source) can make it difficult for the AI to distinguish shapes. Ensure the area is adequately lit, especially where people are most likely to appear.
- Angle and Height: Position your camera so that it has a clear, unobstructed view of people. If the camera is too high and pointing down, it will mostly see the tops of heads. A height of around 6-7 feet, angled slightly downwards, is often ideal to capture faces and upper bodies.
- Distance Matters: The further a person is from the camera, the fewer pixels the AI has to work with. For optimal detection, people should pass within 5 to 25 feet of the camera.
- Clean the Lens: A smudge, dust, or dirt on the camera lens can significantly blur the image and impact detection accuracy. Wipe the lens gently with a soft, microfibre cloth.
### 3. Configure Your In-App Settings
Your notification and mode settings determine when and how you are alerted.
- Customise Your Notifications: Go to the Canary app's Settings > Notifications. Here, you can fine-tune your alerts. You have the option to receive notifications for 'All Motion' or only for 'People'. To take advantage of the feature, ensure you have it set to alert you when a person is detected.
- Check Your Mode Settings: Your Canary system has different modes (Home, Away, Night). Within the settings for each mode, you can configure whether motion detection is active at all. For example, in 'Home' mode, you might have motion detection turned off. Ensure that recording and alerts are enabled for the modes when you expect Person Detection to be active (primarily 'Away' and 'Night' modes).
If you have checked your subscription, optimised your camera's view, and configured your settings correctly, your Person Detection feature should work much more reliably, providing you with smarter and more relevant security alerts.