Transport Business

Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) is an established technology used in traffic surveillance, which uses optical character recognition (OCR) to automatically read passing vehicles’ license plates at high-speeds. ALPR systems can be connected to data processing units, which perform a wide range of tasks.     
    
Popular with police forces worldwide, ALPR helps support crime prevention. Cameras can be flexibly mounted onto bridges, poles or overhead gantries, or alternatively on tripods for mobile operation. The police use these systems to monitor high-speed, multi-lane motorways, dangerous roads and city centers. License plates are checked against an intelligence database and if a ‘wanted vehicle’ is detected an alert is automatically sent to the relevant authority. This process takes less than a second and it is proving highly effective.
    
In alternative applications the ALPR unit outputs the license plate number to a data processing system, which analyses it and takes the appropriate action (e.g. granting authorized vehicles access to a parking area).
    
The UK alone has spent £32.5 million on developing ALPR technology in the last three years, with a significant proportion of this funding allocated to the National ALPR Data Centre (NADC). Officers have recovered millions of pounds worth of drugs and illegal weapons from suspect vehicles.
    
According to the Home Office; "ALPR is operated as a proactive tool,  with the primary objective of targeting terrorism, serious and organised crime and volume crime (for example as part of the City of London’s “ring of steel”) and anti-social behaviour. ALPR can also detect vehicle documentation offences such as uninsured driving and road tax evasion. Many of those who are stopped for committing routine road traffic offences by the police are, in fact, likely to have been involved in more serious offences."
    
ALPR systems use a triggering device to detect a passing vehicles’ presence. This instructs a fast, auto-focus camera to capture a sharp, high-resolution image of its license plate. There are various types of trigger, but recently developed Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology, based on lasers, is one of the most modern solutions. It targets moving vehicles in multiple lanes and allows the unbroken surveillance of complete road intersections. ALPR units can incorporate LIDAR, removing the need for costly on-site infrastructures. Infrared lighting, invisible to the human eye, allows ALPR systems to read plates at night and in poor weather. This means the complete, automatic monitoring of multi-lane roads, 24 hours a day.
    
Aside from law enforcement, ALPR has a multitude of other applications, such as road user charging, toll enforcement, Journey Time Measurement Systems, average speed enforcement, combating ticket fraud in car parks, securing private residences, bus lane enforcement etc. London’s congestion zone has a network of cameras, which use ALPR to monitor the area’s entrances and exits.
    
VITRONIC, based in Germany, has extensive experience in traffic enforcement. With PoliScansurveillance and PoliScansmart, the company provides two field-tested solutions. In the form of either fixed or mobile systems, they automatically locate the license plates of vehicles in freely flowing and heavy traffic, identify them automatically, and immediately compare them with a previously provided database.
    
PoliScansurveillance
PoliScansurveillance is the ideal solution for demanding search situations. The system covers a large range of possible traffic scenarios over several lanes and at the highest speeds. A special laser based identification unit picks up vehicles in freely flowing traffic. The vehicles can also be detected and their license plates can be read if traveling tightly behind or adjacent to each other, or even if they change lanes. PoliScansurveillance is also used on the Autobahns in Germany, working with speeds in excess of 250km/h. The system is equipped with a high resolution camera and allows for the highest detection and reading rates. It has also been tested extensively in the UAE using color camera recognition.

PoliScansmart
PoliScansmart is specially developed for concealed installation. Thanks to its compact design, it can easily be mounted in vehicles or on a tripod. It is ideal for the surveillance of up to two lanes with normal traffic speeds, for instance, on county highways, in smaller towns and during access control. The system continually takes pictures and locates the license plates.

PolScanin-car
New from VITRONIC is PoliScanin-car, an ALPR system which is installed within a moving patrol car. It can be flexibly installed on the front or side windows to identify moving and stationary vehicles, even on those cars fitted with tinted or reflective glass: alterations to the patrol cars are not necessary. When surveillance is complete, the system can be removed and/or remounted into another vehicle. If a suspicious vehicle is identified it can be pulled over there and then.    
    
ALPR has a rapidly growing list of uses. It plays an increasingly important role in policing and national security. With the next generation of detection technology, this is set to continue.

For more information
Contact Malcolm Smith at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Or visit: www.vitronic.com