On one of the FAQ pages for the Blink Mini, the range of the Mini camera’s motion detection is around 20 feet.
But there are several factors that influence just how far your Blink camera can detect motion and these include the app sensitivity, camera position and object size- which I examine in my own series of tests. Before I go into that though, I want to look at how this camera detects motion.
How does the Blink Mini detect motion?
It might surprise a few of you, but the blink mini doesn’t have a motion sensor embedded within it. Instead it uses software to detect motion the fancy name of the software is pixel difference analysis or PDA for short. This software compares individual frames of video and then identifies differences between them.
How well does my Mini camera detect motion?
I ran several motion detection tests with my Mini camera and I focused on three elements: lighting, motion sensitivity and video quality.
I set my camera up on a chair at one end of my living room so that the camera had a clear view through my living room and into my kitchen- a distance of about 8 metres away.
My tests involved me (a 6 foot bloke) walking across the camera’s field of view at different distances.
Video quality
If the software is comparing individual video frames with one another then any factor that improves the image quality is good or so you would think.
But in my tests, I found that this made no difference. I used two different video qualities- standard (720p) and best (1080p.) No matter what quality I used, the motion detection capability was the same.
Lighting
In my test with my Mini I ran some motion detection tests in a room on a grey day. I want to see if putting the lights on in the room improved motion detection.
And guess what? I found that lighting made very little difference. Motion was detected at the same distance regardless of whether the lighting was on or off.
Motion sensitivity
In terms of the range of motion detection, the biggest impact that I have found was this setting. The motion sensitivity of the Blink Mini is a scale from 1-9, with one being the least sensitive and nine the most sensitive.
I used two sensitivities- 5 and 9. No matter what the video quality or the lighting, when the camera was set to 9, motion was detected further away than when the Mini was set to 5.
Does the Blink Mini detect motion at night?
The Blink Mini can detect motion at night and things that affect how well it does it include infrared illumination and the temperature of the object.
In a set of tests I ran related to night vision, my Mini camera struggled with detecting motion at night. I couldn’t get it to detect any motion more than 1 metre away from the camera.
