Attention squirrel lovers and others. The squirrel cam is returning. Please stand by, it won't be long before those feisty squirrel antics can be viewed via the "best quality squirrel cam on the internet" ;)
I'm writing new software for squirrelCam.org that will be more reliable and also have better indication of when a squirrel is present. Last spring I was using a motion detection scheme. That involves looking at a difference metric between two consecutive frames. However that is not always very good measure of squirrel presence becuase there are other motions in the image that can trigger a detection such as wind blowing tree branches or changes in the lighting due to a cloud blocking the sun. Currently, I'm making a detection algorithm that will look at the statistics within a small region of the image (ROI) where the squirrel will be present. So, when this is completed I will put the camera online again. Shouldn't be too long now.
There is food at the feeder and a squirrel visited it but they seem to be so much more interested preparing for winter gathering nuts that they are not taking the time to sit and eat. Anyone know anything about squirrels habits?
