Should You Use Auto-Tracking PTZs?

Though available for many years, Auto-Tracking PTZs are generating renewed interest with Axis' recent release of their 233D camera.  The claim is that "auto-tracking enables a single PTZ dome camera to cover a large area and to automatically detect, follow and record video of moving persons or vehicles."

Auto-Tracking has never become an widely adopted feature despite its introduction and marketing by various manufacturers.  The question then becomes: should you use it and where should you use it?

Below view a video of Axis demonstrating auto-tracking PTZ functionality or download the clip.  After, we will consider its value.

The demo provides a very honest portrayal of the key issues involved in setting up and using auto-tracking PTZs. Essentially, the tracking is designed to track the object with the most movement or greatest size.  There are some major drawbacks including:

• The feature can track irrelevant objects like flags or other uninteresting moving objects.
• The feature can switch tracking from a relevant to an irrelevant object simply because the second object was bigger.
• These problems increase as the size of the area and the amount of activity increases.  For instance, this would likely work extremely poorly in a football stadium parking lot during game day as hundreds of cars and people move around.