Laundry detection (no really)

[tjdressel]

So I've got a cam in my basement pointed at my washer and dryer to be able to see when the laundry cycle is over. Once a cycle is complete, both devices have a very easy to see LCD text display that says "END".

That display says several other things during the setup as it progresses through its job. So motion detection isn't really what I'll looking for.

Any thoughts how I can detect this "END" text as a trigger and then send me an email?

Thanks in advance everyone!

Tim

[TimG]

I wonder if any of the car licence plate recognition solutions that work with BI5 would pick up "End". Worth looking for a free trial, but could be costly. The other way I'm thinking of may be even more expensive unless you already have home automation. Homeseer with power measuring z-wave sockets could inform you when the load dropped off below a certain value. Some experimentation is required !

[tjdressel]

Thanks Tim.

I looked briefly at the licence plate solutions and at least one could pull the "end" message, but they all needed to send every identification to a cloud service.

I then considered both Axis and Avigilon cameras that have this built in, using a Python script to look for the message. The cameras were too expensive, and the system seemed fragile.

I've heard through a colleague that there is an Azure AI solution that might be able to do this, haven't gone down that path yet.

I like the idea of looking at voltage. We're already heavily invested in the Google home automation. I'll poke around to see if I can find a point of use solution, but if you have seen any please point me in the right direction.

Cheers,

[Thixotropic]

So I've got a cam in my basement pointed at my washer and dryer to be able to see when the laundry cycle is over. Once a cycle is complete, both devices have a very easy to see LCD text display that says "END".

You might be surprised just how small a change BI can detect. With my sensitivity settings maxed out, BI will reliably detect the numbers changing in the camera's on-screen display, and that's a very tiny fraction of the video area being watched. It would trigger every time that certain time or date changes occurred, so it might work if you trigger on the display (or possibly part of it).

I'd draw a mask around just the display, crank all the sensitivity settings for that zone to maximum, and have it trigger on any change.

[tjdressel]

Hmm, thanks, I'll try that right now!

[MikeBwca]

Thixotropic made a good point. Bi can detect very small changes. Set your motion detection to 'High definition (4x more sampling), then fiddle with the other settings. Should detect the change.

Does the washer/Dryer have a buzzer/beep when it's done? If so, if your camera has a microphone, you could set up an audio alert.

[cosmokaoz]

Maybe point the camera to the window of the washer/dryer and do a detect no motion and put a long period so it does not trigger when there is a waiting minor stop of the cycle and them you can enable detection once you start the cycle but might as well just put a timer on your phone.

[TimG]

Any thoughts how I can detect this "END" text as a trigger and then send me an email?

I think the OP is after a specific "End" text detection, rather than any other text like "Run" that the machines may produce. If these machines are very new, do they have any IOT functionality ? That would open up a whole world of incredibly expensive and time consuming automation possibilities

I do like the buzzer idea though. Can the OP tell us if that is an option ?

[tjdressel]

There is a little jaunty tune that plays at the end of the cycle. Camera does not have a microphone but I could switch to a USB cam because the server is physically in my laundry room as well. How would this work? My cat's litter box is in the same location, and the kids play downstairs so you would hear them as well. Does the system have the capacity to recognize a specific sound?

Had a look at trying to detect the display with finer resolution. The display has a format X:XX and at the end it displays as "E nd". So no way to distinguish between the countdown (e.g. "1:43") timer and the End message unfortunately. It's also only a 720p unit so not high enough resolution to distinguish between the letter "E" and the number "1" in the first digit location.

Cheers,

[MikeBwca]

If there is noise around the laundry room, audio detection probably would not work.

Does the display change position - like from one side to another?