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What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
Bob Mesnik
What is the right lens and resolution for your IP camera? When you put together your IP
camera system, you want to make sure that the camera you select for each location
meets your expectations. It is important to first know the objectives for each area you
are viewing. Do you want to identify a person’s face, a license plate, or just detect a
person walking far away? In general, the more detail you want, the higher the resolution
you need. This article shows you how to determine the viewing area and distance you
should expect.
First understand that the number of pixels per ft. (or per m) determines the detail we can
see. The higher the resolution of the IP camera, the wider the area we can see at a
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
The lens controls how wide our field of view will be. The wider our field of view the
less pixels per ft (or meter) we will get. Let’s look at a simple example. Take a look at
the line below. The line is broken into small sections or horizontal pixels. The more
elements per distance (pixels/m or pixels/ft.), the more detail we can see. As we adjust
our lens to provide a wider view, the number of pixels/ft. (m) decreases and the less
detail we can see.
Determining the Viewing Area or Field of View.
In a previous article we discussed the resolution required to identify a person’s face. We
determined that if there is good light you will require about 50 horizontal pixels/ft. (162
pixels/m) to identify someone you know. But, if you need to identify a person you don’t
know then you need a lot more resolution. It requires about 150 pixels/ft. (492
pixels/m). We consider this higher pixel count to be more of a forensic identification
than a personal identification.
Calculating the field of view:
How wide a field of view can we see and still be able to identify a person’s face? To
calculate the widest field of view, divide the number of horizontal pixels (available from
the camera) by the pixels/ft. you would like to achieve. The following formula is used to
determine the field of view:
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
For the following example, let’s assume you would like to identify the face of a person
you already know. If the camera resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels (2megapixel), then
our widest field of view is:
1920/50 = 38.4 ft. (11.7m).
If we have a 5megapixel camera with a resolution of 2592 x 1944, then the widest
horizontal field of view is 51.84 ft. (15.8 m). And, a 10megapixel camera, with 3648 x
2752 pixel resolution, provides a 72.96 ft. (22.24 m) field of view.
We can also do this calculation in reverse. We can start with the field of view and then
calculate the resolution of the camera. Use the following formula to calculate the
resolution of the IP camera:
(Field of View) x (pixels/ft.) = Horizontal Resolution
If we want a field of view of 25 ft. and we need 50 pixels/ft. then the formula indicates:
25 ft. x 50 pixels/ft. = 1250 pixels (horizontal)
We can now select a camera that has at least 1250 horizontal pixels. For example the
Sony SNCEM630 IP camera has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels. This is a very nice
1.3 megapixel camera with enough resolution to meet these requirements. It is also one
of the newer IP camera models that provides excellent low light sensitivity and wide
dynamic range (WDR).
Calculating Distance based on the Camera Lens Angle
Someone once asked, how far away can I see with
my IP camera? Well, you can see pretty far away.
You can view the moon which is 238,900 miles
(384,400 km) away. Of course you can't see too
much detail at that distance.
So how do you calculate the distance based on the
detail you want to see. Well there are a number of
ways to do it. There are some calculators available
from various manufacturers, but they tend to use the
Fnumber of the lens (mm) rather than the lens angle, or are very specific to the
manufacturer's cameras. The best way to measure the distance is to use trigonometry.
Hopefully you didn't sleep through that class in school (like I did). We start with the
angle of the lens mounted on specific cameras. The lens plus the sensor size determines
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
We can use the segment of a circle or a righttriangle calculator to calculate the distance
from the camera. The circle segment is more accurate, but the triangle method is easier
because we can use a righttriangle calculator.
Using the triangle to calculate the distance when we have a 30degree lens
Let’s use a 2megapixel camera in this example. The resolution of the camera sensor is
typically 1920 (H) x 1080 (V) pixels. Let’s assume we want to identify someone we
know, so we need 50 pixels per ft. to do this.
Step one is to draw a triangle with the peak of the triangle at the lens and the base at the
field of view. To make the calculations split the triangle into two right triangles.
We will use the righttriangle calculator to
calculate the distance to the viewing area. For
example, there’s a calculator located at
http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/calrtri.htm,
and another at
http://www.mathportal.org/calculators/plane
geometrycalculators/righttriangle
calculator.php
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
If the camera lens angle is 30degrees, cut that in half and Angle x equals 15 degrees.
Using the rightangle triangle calculator, we find that the hypotenuse side (H) is 74.2 ft.
(22.6 m) away from the camera lens.
Using the Segment of a Circle
Calculating the distance using a segment of a
circle requires a different formula.
C= circumference
S= segment of the circumference
A= angle of the lens
R = distance (or radius of the circle)
To calculate the radius (distance) using the segment method, we use the formula C=2πr.
Since a 30degree segment of the circle is 1/12 of 360degrees we need to calculate the
circumference using the following formula:
C= S x 360/A
In this case C= 38.4 ft. x 360/30 = 38.4 x 12 = 460.8 ft. (140.45 m)
Now we have the circumference, we can calculate the radius:
C/(2π) = R
(38.4 x 12)/(2 x 3.14) = 73.3 ft. (22.34 m)
As you can see, both methods provide similar answers, but as the angle increases the
segment method is more accurate. The difference between the arc and the chord of the
circle become greater as the angle increases. When the angle approaches 180 degrees
the triangle method doesn't work.
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
Calculating the Distance Using a Panoramic Lens
How far can you be from a panoramic 360degree camera and still be able to identify a
person’s face? The triangle calculation won’t work, so we must use the circle
calculation for this.
Again we use the formula:
C/(2π) = R
Using a 2megapixel camera we now have a 38.4 ft. circumference, so the formula gives
us the following radius (or distance from the lens).
38.4/(2 x π) = 6.1 ft.
If you want to recognize people further away, you would need a lot more resolution. As
an example, a 5megapixel camera, with a 51.84 ft. viewing width (C), provides a
maximum distance of 8.2 ft. And a 10megapixel camera provides enough resolution to
identify a person’s face 11.6 ft. away from the camera.
Summary
We first determine what we want to see, and then we can calculate the IP camera
resolution and lens to use. Once we know how much resolution we need, we can
calculate the size of the field of view and distance from the camera, based on the lens
we select. To get a rough idea of how far away we can see a certain amount of detail, we
can use the righttriangle calculator, but when our angles get very large it is better to use
the circle calculation.
If you need help with these calculations, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We have a lot of
experience with IP camera systems and can help you get the exact surveillance system
you need. Contact us at 9149443425 or 18005311658 (in the USA), or just use our
contact form.
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7/20/2017 Calculating What You Can See With Your IP Camera | Bob Mesnik | Pulse | LinkedIn
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