Most ticketing systems for car parks have several serious defects. Daily number plate inventories improve revenue control at car parks, but many enforcement gaps still remain. This article describes ALPHATEC's Digital Image Inventory System (DIIS), which captures images of vehicles entering a given area. DIIS enhances ticket systems by providing true Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI). It combines: (1) modern digital video cameras; (2) computers; (3) image compression technology; and (4) optical character recognition (OCR) software. When a vehicle enters a car park, a digital picture of the vehicle is transmitted to a central Database Computer, with the date, time, lane number, and ticket number. After the computer has received the pictures, its OCR software reads the number plate images automatically. When the exiting driver has a ticket, he presents it to the cashier, who compares computer pictures of the car entering and exiting, and charges the appropriate fee. Optionally, pictures of exiting vehicles can be saved. To implement a Digital Image Inventory, each entry lane has a: (1) CCD video camera; (2) floodlight; and (3) vehicle sensor. DIIS's advantages include: (1) true AVI; (2) elimination of ticket swapping; (3) centralised number plate reading; and (4) elimination of car theft.
Abstract