Create a motion mask using Motioneye tool as needed for the purpose of camera view privacy
Copy the created file (mask_1.pgm) with a new file name (privacy_mask.pgm) as -
cp /data/etc/mask_1.pgm /home/ftp/sdcard/privacy_mask.pgm
Then add this line to video device Extra Motion Options as -
mask_privacy /home/ftp/sdcard/privacy_mask.pgm
Setting up my webserver using Motioneye on a Raspberry Pi Zero W
I installed the MotionEyeOS complete system image using the tutorial by Julian Silver as per the link below
https://randomnerdtutorials.com/cctv-raspberry-pi-based-system-storage-motioneyeos/
of particular use was the instruction at section 2 -
"2. Installing MotionEyeOS on the RPi Zero W boards"
This points to the base MotionEyeOS image applicable to the Pi Zero W - "raspberrypi-xxxxxxxx.img.gz".
Of particular note is the important step of creating the Wpa_supplicant.conf file to set the country code "AU in my case" and the wireless network credentials.
Having setup my system and connected the camera, I then configured the ftp to upload images to my Weather underground PWS site. That is address webcam.wunderground.com port 21 and location /.
So the next step was to create a privacy mask so as not to indrude on any of my neibours in the camera field of view. Even though the camera has a very wide angle lens and the upload image is not high resolution I felt it important to black out any sections of the image that might captured the neighbours backgarden.
So to create the privacy mask
I read a description on github that suggested using the motion mask for this purpose. See-
https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/issues/1910
Sounded easy, but for a relative novice like me it took a while to implement.
So in motioneye under motion detection I switched on Mask
Then chose Mask type editable
and selected "Edit Mask"
I then tagged the squares in the image at locations I wanted to screen and pressed save.
I then initiated an SSH connection to my Pi and logged in. Then used the command line to perform the tasks required.
After much reading and testing I found the newly created motion mask at file location -
/data/etc/ with file name mask_1.pgm
I then copied this file with a new file name (privacy_mask.pgm) to the preferred location for the privacy mask
cp /data/etc/mask_1.pgm /home/ftp/sdcard/privacy_mask.pgm
Then entered the suggested line to video device Extra Motion Options
mask_privacy /home/ftp/sdcard/privacy_mask.pgm
In this way I created my desired privacy mask in Motioneye to be add to all my snap shot pictures before upload to Weather underground.
Usefull commands that I used in Raspberry Pi -
find / -name *.pgm - to find the initial mask file in the first instance when I did not know its location
cp - to copy file with new file name
cd /data/etc/ - Change to the required directory to view the motion mask file
cd /home/ftp/sdcard/ - Change to the required directory to view the privacy mask file
find / -name privacy_mask.pgm - to find my newly created privacy mask file to check it was in the desired location
ls list files
ls -l list files and attributes to check the latest version
rm deletes files
fdisk --l viewing hard disk partitions
