This article describes the development in the Netherlands of a system of automatic licence plate recognition. This arose from a now-terminated congestion charging project based on the registration of vehicle licence plates. A video picture database was obtained by collecting sample pictures of back and front plates which were then read and judged manually. The licence plate reader could recognise 98 per cent of pictures correctly. A second database included exceptions such as manually unreadable plates, motorcycles (with only one plate) and foreign plates. Tenders were then called for suppliers to provide a recognition system and two companies were able to provide up to 95 per cent recognition. Identical double errors (both front and back plates being mis-identified in the same way) were a particular problem. For the covering abstract see ITRD E118381.
Samenvatting