Creating a Detection Area
Introduction
Detection Areas are where you want the radars to look for targets. You can define one or more areas and apply tracking parameters to optimise the detection of people or objects within those areas. You can also over-lay one or more areas to create exclusion and partial tracking areas. You can add as many detection areas as you need, they do not need to be adjacent and using multiple areas provides the benefit of using custom detection settings in each area. This can help when fine tuning the system to get the optimal detection performance with minimal false alarms.
The creation of new Detection Areas is generally achieved in two stages:
Create rough initial outlines for the Detection Area(s).
Use live radar data to fine tune the area outline according to how the radar sees the surrounding environment. For example the radar can see trees, hedges and buildings. So you can use this information to ensure your detection area is optimal for your site.
Remember that all Navtech radars offers centimetre accuracy so you can refine the placement of your detection areas to the same accuracy.
Contents
Creating a Detection Area
Enable the Configuration Function, then select Areas in the Configuration Tree.
In the Configuration Panel, select New, then select Area to activate the Create New Area Wizard.
In the Create New Area Wizard, select 'Detection' from the Type drop-down list. Configure the rest of the options, and select Finish.
Use standard Creating and Editing to edit the shape and orientation of the Detection Area and position the label. Creating and Editing Entities
Edit any other details through the area configuration form as required.
Select Save.
Radar Detection Area Setup
There are two approaches for easily configuring detection areas for the radars on your site. The global approach and the per-area approach. The global approach is great for a quick, fast setup but the per-area method is more appropriate when you want to apply your detection area to specific radar and where you want to use different tracking parameters for each radar.
Global Radar Detection Area
This method will configure all available radar that overlap with this detection area to use it combined with the selected tracking parameters. This is a quick and simple method to configure all radar to use your detection area. Further configuration with additional detection areas and alternative tracking parameters may be required on more complex sites.
When using this global setup option be aware that it will replace any existing detection area and tracking configuration setups you have on your radars.
Select the site in the Configuration Tree, then select Radar Detection Area Setup in the Configuration Panel.
The Radar Detection Area Setup window will open. Choose a Tracking Parameter to apply to your Detection Area from the drop down list, then select Finish.
Your Detection Area has now been assigned the selected Tracking Parameters. Tracking Parameters determine how and what the tracker detects and tracks. Learn more about Tracking Parameters here: Tracking Parameters.
Learn how to manually assign Tracking Parameters on the Detection Areas page: Detection Areas
Assigning a Detection Area to Selected Radar
This approach allows you to assign your detection area to only the radar you want and also allows you to select different tracking parameters for each radar.
Long left click the detection area to open the Radial Menu and select the Radar Parameter Modification:
This will open the Radar Parameter Modification screen. This will display a list of all available radar:
Select the desired Tracking Parameter from the drop down list for each radar and select Apply.
If you do not select a tracking parameter then the detection area will not be assigned to that radar. This allows you to choose which radars you want to configure for the selected detection area. If you wish to remove this detection area from a previously configured radar then select the remove (X) button.
Video
Demonstration of creating a new detection area and using the per-area option to assign the area to selected radar.
Fine Tuning Detection Areas
Once each radar sensor has been aligned and valid data is being received, it should then be possible to see the objects such as fences, hedges, trees, buildings, road boundaries and the surroundings. You can now use these images to ensure that the rough outer areas created earlier are shaped as tightly as possible around the area(s) that they need to monitor.
If your radar are not aligned, you will need to align the radar data to your Background Image before you start the fine tuning process. For more information please visit this page: Radar Alignment.
To fine tune an area:
Within the map or in the radar group select the relevant Radar.
Within the Selected Entity Info Panel, select Radar Data, to overlay the live radar signal within the site map. It is possible to simultaneously overlay the output from two or more radar sensors. However, this uses a sizeable amount of processing power so it is advisable to show no more than two or three sensor overlays at a time.
Select the source Raw.
Ensure you can see the raw data where you want to apply the detection on the map.
Click on the Detection Area to select it, then configure it following the information on the Creating and Editing Entities page: Creating and Editing Entities. Use the Raw Data to shape the Detection Area around visible objects and boundaries. In this example the detection areas is being redrawn around the tree line to ensure we achieve maximum detection but without extending the area into the trees where the radar cannot see.
When the area has been fine tuned, select Save to store the new area shape.
For parts of the area that are further from the radar sensor, any given object will produce a wider trace due to the beamwidth of the sensor. Therefore, it may be necessary to widen the area as it stretches away further from the sensor.
Area Mini Control
Clicking on an area will activate its Area Mini Control:
The Area Mini Control will display the Area Name, the Area Type and the Current Coverage of the radar.
The Current Coverage is a percentage of the area that is covered and is calculated based on the radars which have been set up to track within that area. Area radars are based on the radar tracking parameters set on the area to determine if a radar is being used for coverage.
Calculating Normal Coverage:
The system will combine all radars covering the area; adding all of their contour areas together to form a combined coverage area (if no contour area has been specified then this is the entire radar coverage ring).
If there are Exclusion Areas, then these are subtracted from the combined area,
Calculating Current Coverage
This calculation is similar to that for Normal Coverage, however, the system will only combine healthy radars covering the area. It then compares the healthy area covered against the area covered when all radars are healthy to determine the percentage of area covered.
The example below shows that the area is a Detection area. Hovering your mouse over the Current Coverage will display a tooltip showing the Normal Coverage of the radar and it’s Current Coverage. The red text within the battery icon indicates that the radar/s are unhealthy.
In this example, both Normal Coverage and Current Coverage are at 100%. The green text within the battery icon indicates that the radar/s are healthy.