General information

A privacy mask is an area that hides certain parts of the frame to ensure privacy. For example, when cameras are installed in an office, you can use a privacy mask to cover employees' computer screens to prevent the leak of logins, passwords and other sensitive information. In critical infrastructure, you can use a privacy mask to hide sensitive elements such as control panels and screens containing critical data.

You can apply a privacy mask to the video image:

• when viewing live videos;
• when viewing the archive;
• on exported videos and still frames.

The detectors that support privacy mask:

• Face detector TV;
• Face detector VA;
• Face detector VL;
• Face detector and temperature control;
• Mask detector TV (detection of a medical or similar mask on the face);
• Mask detector VL;
• Mask detector VA;
• Person-based privacy masking;
• People masking (based on data from the pose detector).

Configuring a privacy mask

To configure a privacy mask, do the following:

1. Select the Camera object and click the button.

   The button is inactive, if the text overlay button is active (see Putting a text over the Surveillance window).  For your convenience, you can click the  button and configure the mask on a still frame. To undo, click this button again.

2. In the preview window, sequentially set the anchor points of the closed area that you want to hide when viewing the live video image. 

   

   When an area is being constructed, anchor points are connected by a two-color dotted lin, which outlines the area's borders.

   Action	Result
   Left or right click in the Surveillance window	Create a new anchor point of an area
   Right-click a created anchor point	Delete an anchor point of an area
   Point the cursor to an anchor point and holding down the left mouse button, move the mouse	Move an anchor point of an area
   Click the button	Delete an area

3. You can mask the selected area with black color (by default), or with a mosaic mask. To apply the mosaic mask, do the following:

   1. Click the button inside an area.

   2. Set the Mosaic mask checkbox.
      

   3. Click the OK button.

4. You can specify several areas.
5. Click the Apply button.

Privacy mask configuration is complete. When you view a video image from this camera, the selected area is hidden.