Show HN: Security Camera Lens Calculator

We created Security Camera Lens Calculator with 3D graphics(WebGL) and a built-in camera database.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;calculators&#x2F;cctv-lens-calculator&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;calculators&#x2F;cctv-lens-calculator&#x2F;</a><p>It is a web app (Javascript+React) that runs in a browswer or on a tablet or a smartphone.<p>It took our team more than 1 year to complete the calculator.<p>Calculator functions:<p>- calculate pixel density (PPM&#x2F;PPF)<p>- clearly see dead zones in 3D<p>- check DORI zones (detection, observation, recognition, identification) based on pixel density calculations and IEC and EN 62676 standard.<p>- calculate lens focal length<p>- load a floor map to see camera coverage on your plan<p>- over 9,000 video surveillance camera models embedded in the CCTV Lens Calculator.<p>- 12 languages supported.<p>Today we launched our Security Camera Lens Calculator also on ProductHunt.<p>We would love to get some feedback. Particularly from people using it to solve real world problems.

The link <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;online&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;online&#x2F;</a> redirect to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;calculators&#x2F;cctv-lens-calculator&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;calculators&#x2F;cctv-lens-calculator&#x2F;</a> which doesn&#x27;t have all the functionality of your whole software <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;</a><p>The following is commentary for the web app cctv-lens-calculator (not the whole software).<p>For face recognition applications, taking the picture from a camera too high make the face harder to recognize (even more so when people look down); (And the portrait of the person doesn&#x27;t show the rotation).<p>Some camera have both horizontal rotation and vertical rotation, and depending on whether you mount it on the wall or on the ceiling, and the camera model (and their axis-rotation order), the field of view and the up vector may not be up.<p>Add affiliate links to buy the chosen camera model.<p>Add multiple cameras and their respective field of view to check for blind spots.<p>Allow loading sketch-up or 3d model of the building (I couldn&#x27;t find how to &quot;load a floor map to see camera coverage on your plan&quot; )<p>Bug : Clicking on the &quot;Meter&quot; button scale the person up indefinitely.

I like it and immediately see a secondary use-case... the purchase of cameras and lenses for home broadcast studios and the upper end of vloggers and video conferencing.<p>Meaning... OK, so you&#x27;re going with a Sony and you want a prime lens and you&#x27;ll be x distance from the camera and want to be frame with head and shoulders... which prime lens is the one you should choose?<p>For a single camera + lens you&#x27;d probably experiment and a shop can rent you variations. But as soon as you&#x27;re into the &quot;I&#x27;m setting up a home studio and need several cameras&quot; then you&#x27;d want to spend less time experimenting and get closer to the final configuration on the first pass, i.e. to use a tool to help get it right first time.

Very shiny. I&#x27;ve never bought a CCTV camera in my life, but I understood everything intuitively. I didn&#x27;t see how to change the scene beyond adding the woman &#x2F; car, but it was enough to make things clear. The only minor comment I have is a cultural one – I got a pang of annoyance seeing the flag of the USA by &quot;English&quot; as a language!

About the Italian version:<p>&gt;Calcolare la lunghezza focale dell obiettivo della fotocamera, la densità dei pixel e vedere le zone della fotocamera in 3D<p>In actual Italian that would be:<p>Calcolo della lunghezza focale dell&#x27;obiettivo della fotocamera, della densità dei pixel e visualizzazione 3d delle zone di copertura<p>The current one is understandable, but sounds a bit like native americans talk in old westerns.<p>And - if I may - you have colours &quot;reversed&quot;, I would instinctively expect green to be &quot;good, OK&quot;, red &quot;No good&quot;, yellow something midway.

Your color scheme is the opposite of what I would expect.<p>Worst resolution = Red&#x2F;Orange<p>Acceptable resolution = Yellow<p>Best resolution = Green&#x2F;Blue

Neat tool!<p>Since this discussion is attracting IP camera-savvy folks...I&#x27;m struggling to find cameras to buy&#x2F;recommend. In particular, ones that:<p>* Aren&#x27;t made by the big Chinese companies (Dahua, Hikvision, Uniview, Huawei) that are actively participating in the Uyghur genocide [1] and&#x2F;or are considered a security threat by the US. (Most of those are banned for US government installations by the National Defense Authorization Act [2]; future models won&#x27;t get FCC approval for private use either, according to the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 [3].)<p>* Support direct RTSP use rather than require a fast&#x2F;reliable Internet connection and&#x2F;or proprietary cloud service subscription. (This excludes eg the Nest and Ring stuff, as far as I can tell.)<p>* Are reasonably priced, although not necessarily as cheap as the Chinese vendors.<p>* Have decent night image quality. I&#x27;d be thrilled to find a model with the larger 1&#x2F;1.8&quot; sensors.<p>I know I should renew my IPVM subscription and see what they say. I&#x27;d love to find (other) quality review sites or forums that aren&#x27;t super invested in Dahua&#x2F;Hikvision (like ipcamtalk seems to be).<p>[1] eg <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipvm.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;dahua-uyghur-warning" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipvm.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;dahua-uyghur-warning</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipvm.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;ndaa-guide" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ipvm.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;ndaa-guide</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cepro.com&#x2F;security&#x2F;senate-passes-secure-equipment-act-protect-us-telecomm-industry&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cepro.com&#x2F;security&#x2F;senate-passes-secure-equipmen...</a>

clickable link <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;online&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jvsg.com&#x2F;online&#x2F;</a>

Super cool! I&#x27;ve built something similar and adhoc for an art piece[0] that used cameras. It used a thermal camera which has fixed focal length (due to the optics of heat (technically not accurate, you can do variable focal length for thermal but it&#x27;s way expensive)), and so knowing exactly what I was going to see was critical before dropping a few grand on the camera. A tool like this would have been super useful!<p>One small bit of feedback, the installation height doesn&#x27;t impact the rendered person. I was expecting the rendered person to be a 3D model that was rasterized into the target resolution, but when I put the camera nearly overhead, it doesn&#x27;t show primarily the top of the model&#x27;s head, it still shows a mostly frontal view.<p>0. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.arwmoffat.com&#x2F;work&#x2F;dawn-of-an-old-age" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.arwmoffat.com&#x2F;work&#x2F;dawn-of-an-old-age</a>

More screenshots on our ProductHunt page: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.producthunt.com&#x2F;posts&#x2F;security-camera-lens-calculator" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.producthunt.com&#x2F;posts&#x2F;security-camera-lens-calcu...</a>

Very cool. So often I see poorly positioned CCTV cameras that are effectively useless because the installer has not considered blind spots.

I don&#x27;t currently have a use for this, but it is still very impressive. Incredible amount of complexity exposed with an easy to use UI. I especially liked the mug shot on the right illustrating the level of resolution you&#x27;ll get. I will definitely use this the next time I&#x27;m shopping for a security camera.

Interesting concept. A few days ago I bought an outside camera and seems I choose well for my use case.<p>One thing: the left side menu is not scrollable but should be? On my MacBook Pro with Firefox 94.0.2 I see &#x27;FOV Width&#x27; at the left bottom and I assume there is an input field below it, but I cannot see it.

I tried to use it but it didn&#x27;t seem as user friendly as the one @calculator.ipvm.com which I have used before. Maybe take some ideas from their interface.

If I try to use the mouse to scroll, it zooms out, which is 100% acceptable and fine, except if I zoom out too far I see the scene upside down, which is funny.

The FOV&#x2F;distance from camera at the bottom is not reachable on a 11&quot; screen. (Mac air 11&quot;, chrome)

Heh, setting &quot;distance from camera&quot; to zero causes it to error.

Can you add Amazon&#x2F;Ring&#x2F;Blink camera specs? :)

Congratulations on the launch.