Licence-plate recognition (LPR) has evolved and expanded, and its applications now range from border crossing checks to electronic toll collection (ETC) on urban highways. This article discusses how further advances in LPR technology are leading to even more creative uses. Perceptics Corporation is using automated LPR to manage increased traffic flow and relieve overworked monitoring systems with little rebuilding or expansion. LPR is an essential component of many Intelligent Transport System (ITS) applications. Licence plates are the only universal identification device from vehicles to roadside. Automatic LPR can immediately identify violators of speed, toll, and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane laws, many of whom have been found to be repeat offenders. Several companies offer automatic LPR products; the features that best define the performance of these products are the time taken to read the licence plate and the system's accuracy. The evaluation of system accuracy is the most important measurement of an automatic, real-time LPR, and needs great care and several calculations; it cannot be determined only from character accuracy. The best LPR-based vision systems are time-tested and versatile enough to make non-stop, almost perfect vehicle monitoring a possibility.
Samenvatting