Detections
When your camera wallpaper is hidden behind open windows, you still don't have to keep an eye on it. When a camera sees a person or an animal, PanoPaper tells you: a quiet line at the top of the screen, a soft chime, and outlines around them on the wallpaper - and, if you like, a notification in Notification Center. One click shows the camera in Full Screen.
Detections work in the free version too; the picture in a notification then carries “UNLICENSED”, like every camera picture. See The free version.
How it works
Your UniFi cameras detect people and animals themselves, as set up in UniFi Protect: what each camera looks for; which animals, UniFi's documentation says. PanoPaper follows what the cameras track as it happens - on every camera, not only the one on your wallpaper - and tells you about a person or an animal once it moves. Things the camera takes for a person but that never move, such as a post or a pedestal, are left out - and so is someone standing still from the moment they come into view, until they move.
A camera without an NVR that reports its own detections over ONVIF tells PanoPaper too: a person, an animal, or - if that is all it reports - Motion, as set in the camera's own app. While the camera reports something, PanoPaper looks at its video too: it outlines the people and animals it finds and names them, so "Motion" becomes "Person". With 'Motion' off in Settings ▸ Detections, plain motion alone doesn't tell you anything - only a person or an animal does.
A 360° camera sees people far away as tiny figures near the edge of its round picture, and can miss them. So when a display shows a 360° camera flattened, PanoPaper also looks for people and animals in that view itself - the part of the room you chose - and tells you about them like any other detection. Detection there is not as reliable as on a regular camera, because the flattened view is somewhat distorted: people and animals may be detected later, or missed.
How quickly a detection arrives depends on the camera, because the camera decides when it has seen a person or an animal. UniFi cameras usually report one within a second of it coming into view. Many inexpensive IP cameras take several seconds, and may miss someone who passes quickly. PanoPaper tells you the moment a camera reports it.
Everything happens on your own network - on your cameras, your NVR if you use one, and your Mac. Nothing is sent to us or to any cloud service.
The detection overlay
A small box at the top of the screen with the pointer - the detection overlay - names what was seen and where: "Person · Front Porch". A line goes a few seconds after the person or animal has left the picture - or has stood completely still for a minute. With several cameras seeing someone, each has its own line; a line that has been there for two minutes dims. In Full Screen, every camera's detections still show; the camera you are watching (with All Cameras, every camera in the grid) gets its line with "(watching)" after the camera's name, and no chime.
- Click a line to watch that camera in Full Screen. If no display shows that camera, the display with the pointer switches to it for the moment; Esc brings your usual cameras back. Choose another camera meanwhile - with 1 to 9 or in the menu bar panel - and that choice stays.
- Or press your Full Screen shortcut while the detection's line is at the top of the screen: it shows that camera too. Once the line is gone, the shortcut shows your displays as they are. If a display already shows it - alone or in the All Cameras grid - Full Screen shows that display as it is.
A soft two-tone chime plays when someone new is seen - for a group walking by, once, and again for the next people to come along half a minute later. The camera you are watching in Full Screen does not chime: you see them already.
Recent detections
Missed one? The menu bar panel lists the last five people and animals your cameras saw in the past hour - also the ones you watched in Full Screen, which did not chime. Click one to watch that camera in Full Screen. The ✕ next to the list's title clears it.
In Notification Center
With 'Show in Notification Center' on in Settings ▸ Detections, a macOS notification arrives too each time someone new is seen, as with the chime: "Person at Front Porch", with the camera's picture of them. The notifications make no sound; the chime is enough. Each camera's notifications are grouped together, so you can look back at what happened while you were away.
- Click a notification to watch that camera in Full Screen.
- The first time you turn it on, macOS asks whether PanoPaper may send notifications. If they are turned off for PanoPaper, it offers to open System Settings.
- Whether they show as banners that go away by themselves or as alerts that stay until you close them is up to you, in System Settings ▸ Notifications ▸ PanoPaper. There you can also keep them off the lock screen, or turn them off. If you turn them off there, 'Show in Notification Center' turns off too.
Outlines on the wallpaper
When the wallpaper shows the camera that sees someone, PanoPaper marks the corners around everything the camera is following - each person (light blue), face (green) and animal (purple), and anything else in UniFi Protect's colors - the way Protect's own live view does, with a small tag showing what it is and how sure the camera is - for example 88%; a very small box gets its corners only. The outlines follow them smoothly as they move - behind your windows too, and in Full Screen. On a flattened 360° view they stay on them as the view turns.
Choosing what and how
In Settings ▸ Detections you turn detections on or off, choose people, animals or both, choose which cameras count, and whether you get the detection overlay, notifications in Notification Center, the outlines and the chime (and how loud).
