License plate recognition (LPR) technology helps improve security, boosts operational efficiency, and increases community safety. It works day and night, capturing more data than a human eye could ever take.
The magic is in the software that recognizes and catalogs visual information into a database. This process includes removing noise, adjusting contrast, and image resizing.
Deter Crime
The technology can help prevent crime, including identifying stolen vehicles. It can also detect license plate numbers of fugitives and those on watch lists or protection orders.
ANPR uses optical character recognition (OCR) and pattern recognition to read and decipher license plate text. This process separates the characters from each other using edge tracing and pattern matching, which identify changes in pixel values that define the edges of each character. It then verifies the recognized characters against a dictionary of license plate patterns to reduce errors. Character segmentation algorithms are designed to be versatile enough to handle varying font styles, sizes, and slant angles of license plates across different regions.
how to License plate recognition software can provide security professionals with real-time alerts when specific license plates cross their cameras’ paths by ingesting and analyzing private license plate scans. This is particularly useful for parking lot surveillance, where a disgruntled employee or someone trespassing on the property could be a threat. In addition to identifying individuals, these systems can store and share images, dates, times, and GPS coordinates of all successfully recognized plates.
Prevent Fraud
The technology helps to prevent fraudulent activities such as car theft by capturing the license plate of vehicles that have been stolen. This data can then be used to track the vehicle and alert authorities.
An LPR system works by combining a high-speed camera that captures images of a license plate with software that can decipher and read those alphanumeric characters. The camera often uses an Image of a vehicle’s license plate to reduce noise or unwanted details that may interfere with recognition.
These systems can be installed in various locations, including parking lots and city streets. They can be paired with existing security cameras to create an integrated solution that can quickly and automatically identify vehicles entering or leaving specific areas. It can speed up customer service and expand the capabilities of a police force or other organization without adding staff. It can also manually reduce the time required to log traffic and vehicle movements in a logbook. It allows police forces and other organizations to concentrate on more critical issues that need their attention.
Monitor Parking Lots
Often used in the law enforcement context, license plate recognition software can be deployed in parking garages and lots to monitor vehicles that enter or exit. It helps prevent theft and can help with traffic flow monitoring as well.
LPR can create a more comprehensive security solution by combining it with other technologies like video analytics. This technology allows security teams to focus on the highest-priority situations and work more efficiently than manual methods.
LPR works with specialized cameras to scan the front of a vehicle’s license plate and send that data to a computer. Whether stationary or car-mounted, these devices operate around the clock and are highly reliable. They can be placed strategically in your parking garage or lot at entry and exit points, ensuring your staff is the only one who can get in or out.
These cameras can also be placed in QSRs to accelerate drive-through orders for regular customers and increase efficiency. It can decrease wait times for everyone and allow your employees to be more productive.
Track Vehicles
License plate recognition software can help prevent traffic jams with other surveillance technologies. It is because the technology enables law enforcement to monitor vehicles and quickly identify potential problems before they escalate into full-blown traffic. The system captures an image of a vehicle’s license plate, converts it to alphanumeric characters, and identifies its location. The captured data can then be compared to databases such as the National Sex Offender, Wanted Person, Felony Convicted Offender, Missing Person, and other criminal and civil records.
While some law enforcement agencies believe that ALPR is useful for preventing crimes, this data can paint a detailed portrait of ordinary citizens and their movements, and a recent study found that even with the most advanced systems.
Reduce Traffic Jams
License plate recognition software uses cameras to capture images of vehicle license plates and run them through software that deciphers the characters. It’s an effective way to collect real-time data automatically, which can be a game-changer for law enforcement and other security industries.
LPR cameras are often mounted on stationary objects like street lights, highway overpasses, or police cars. They can record license plates from various angles and distances, day or night, using advanced technology. The resulting data is uploaded to a database for further analysis.
Image enhancement techniques are applied during the Image Preprocessing stage to ensure the clarity and quality of captured license plate images. These processes may include normalization for brightness and contrast, edge detection, and character segmentation (separating characters to be ready for OCR).
An essential step in the process is using specialized hardware to accelerate the execution of AI algorithms, enabling high-speed processing of large amounts of license plate data in real-time. It can significantly improve performance for law enforcement, toll collection, and traffic management applications.
