Tracking quirks

[Chrislaf]

The other day I was out snowshoeing with my family and had the NEO Active tracking my son while I had the controller in my hands. Both my son and I have exactly the same colour coat and hat. They are the Special Olympics team coats for our area. The NEO was tracking him well but when he was close enough to me and I was in the frame, it switched and jumped to tracking me before I realized what was going on. I did not even have to be right next to him, just in the frame.

I was surprised this happened at the time and was kind of frustrated because I wanted it to track him, not me, but when I reviewed the footage at home I realized just how hard it would have been for the NEO to figure out who was the target. Lesson learned - wear different coloured clothing!

Chris

 

[GFields]

I would suppose that it was because you two were dressed alike

 

[Chrislaf]

I would suppose that it was because you two were dressed alike

Yeah, for sure, but I was surprised that even though I was at the edge of the frame and my son was in the centre of the frame with space in between us, it jumped from him to me. Next time I will definitely wear a different colour coat so that doesn't happen again. It shocked me because my wife was close to my son throughout the Active track and it remained locked on my son but as soon as I was in the frame it jumped.

Chris

 

[NeoNeo]

Experiment time to test the sensitivity, selectivity of Neo tracking. Maybe distinctly different hats? Or put on a backpack, waist pack ? Or you can always put on a bib like sign saying , "Hey Neo, Wrong Person".

 

[Droning on and on...]

Not even sure how it "identifies" the target. Color may not make any difference. Someone want to check if it simply does this when a tracked person gets near another person? Because of color temperature (white balance) changes a lot going in and out of shadows, groves of trees, sky BG vs not, etc., and apparent size is all over the place as distance varies, it may be simply shape that's recognized.

 

[Chrislaf]

Not even sure how it "identifies" the target. Color may not make any difference. Someone want to check if it simply does this when a tracked person gets near another person? Because of color temperature (white balance) changes a lot going in and out of shadows, groves of trees, sky BG vs not, etc., and apparent size is all over the place as distance varies, it may be simply shape that's recognized.

When I get a chance I am going to get out and try again with different colours to see if it makes a difference. We have a severe weather watch in effect with heavy snow at the moment so it won’t be today.

Chris