Reducing false positives

Object Scores

For object filters in your configuration, any single detection below min_score will be ignored as a false positive. threshold is based on the median of the history of scores (padded to 3 values) for a tracked object. Consider the following frames when min_score is set to 0.6 and threshold is set to 0.85:

Frame	Current Score	Score History	Computed Score	Detected Object
1	0.7	0.0, 0, 0.7	0.0	No
2	0.55	0.0, 0.7, 0.0	0.0	No
3	0.85	0.7, 0.0, 0.85	0.7	No
4	0.90	0.7, 0.85, 0.95, 0.90	0.875	Yes
5	0.88	0.7, 0.85, 0.95, 0.90, 0.88	0.88	Yes
6	0.95	0.7, 0.85, 0.95, 0.90, 0.88, 0.95	0.89	Yes

In frame 2, the score is below the min_score value, so Frigate ignores it and it becomes a 0.0. The computed score is the median of the score history (padding to at least 3 values), and only when that computed score crosses the threshold is the object marked as a true positive. That happens in frame 4 in the example.

Minimum Score

Any detection below min_score will be immediately thrown out and never tracked because it is considered a false positive. If min_score is too low then false positives may be detected and tracked which can confuse the object tracker and may lead to wasted resources. If min_score is too high then lower scoring true positives like objects that are further away or partially occluded may be thrown out which can also confuse the tracker and cause valid events to be lost or disjointed.

Threshold

threshold is used to determine that the object is a true positive. Once an object is detected with a score >= threshold object is considered a true positive. If threshold is too low then some higher scoring false positives may create an event. If threshold is too high then true positive events may be missed due to the object never scoring high enough.

Object Shape

False positives can also be reduced by filtering a detection based on its shape.

Object Area

min_area and max_area filter on the area of an objects bounding box in pixels and can be used to reduce false positives that are outside the range of expected sizes. For example when a leaf is detected as a dog or when a large tree is detected as a person, these can be reduced by adding a min_area / max_area filter. The recordings timeline can be used to determine the area of the bounding box in that frame by selecting a timeline item then mousing over or tapping the red box.

Object Proportions

min_ratio and max_ratio filter on the ratio of width / height of an objects bounding box and can be used to reduce false positives. For example if a false positive is detected as very tall for a dog which is often wider, a min_ratio filter can be used to filter out these false positives.

Other Tools

Zones

Required zones can be a great tool to reduce false positives that may be detected in the sky or other areas that are not of interest. The required zones will only create events for objects that enter the zone.

Object Masks

Object Filter Masks are a last resort but can be useful when false positives are in the relatively same place but can not be filtered due to their size or shape.