Revolution of Traffic Monitoring: How Did ANPR Cameras Evolve Through Time?

Automatic Number Reading has Evolved Significantly in Recent Years

The automatic number plate reading system was introduced at the end of the 90s’. They were in fact some of the first applications of artificial intelligence in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems. The first of such camera systems could read the license plate of moving vehicles. Their computation capabilities were modest as the hardware and software at the time were basic yet expensive. Though there were cheaper options available, they were not all compatible to be used for access control.

Evolution of ANPR

Over time as more and more development was done in this sector, both the hardware and software technologies rapidly evolved. Since then the possibility to use commercial processing systems with a normal or good quality video surveillance camera became a norm in many countries. As the cost of installing and acquiring them also reduced substantially, these cameras were used in a number of industries and fields. 

Since then these cameras have only seen a growth in demand. With good ANPR cameras, traffic monitoring has been revolutionized. These can provide access control, parking management, border control, toll payments, speed control, and law violation control. The law enforcers can currently benefit from this application as it provides a spread of geolocation technologies as well as a centralized database option. 

Vehicles can be monitored easily in the traffic through a web page as well as from mobile devices. This helps the traffic police officers to get immediate notification if there has been any violation of law by a vehicle driver like crossing the red light, exceeding the speed limit, or bigger crimes like theft of vehicles or hit and run incidents. 

How Does it Work?

The architecture of these surveillance cameras has pretty much remained the same but the software has been updated continuously. The plate recognition takes place with the help of the use of software that is being run on powerful computers. These back-end computers analyze the video streams and distribute them to the front end for monitoring. These systems are limited only due to the high bandwidth demand as well as an increase in the power needed to process the frames. This is because the frames consist of millions of pixels. The company’s that make these cameras then started to miniaturize and increase the power of the processing unit in order to find a solution. 

In some commercial properties, the ANPR is usually placed at the entrance and exit of car parks. They are used for capturing and processing the details of all the vehicles that enter or exit the building. If there is an unauthorized vehicle entering the building, then the license number of that car is identified and stored. The same goes for if anyone exceeds the speed limit on parking lots or parks their vehicle for a very long time in the parking lot and breeches the stay period. In these cases, the license plate number is recognized using specialized LPR software and the driver gets a fine via post or on this mobile. For commercial properties, these give them an ideal solution to solve the problem of everyone who is trying to use their parking lot as a free facility. These cameras can not only capture the details of all the vehicles in the daylight but also in the dark at night. 

Furthermore, when you use these cameras for your business property, then you can decrease the cost of installing a manual parking system as well as labor costs. By providing all the employees with a touch screen pay option as well as display machines, their vehicles will easily be identified by the camera and allow them to enter. As the system is fully automated you will eliminate the need for every driver to display a ticket to enter. 

Future of ANPR

As more and more industries make sure of these surveillance cameras to maintain safety and security on their property, the future of ANPR seems to be bright. There is an ever-growing demand for these as businesses and law enforcement try to maintain control over car park control and management, airport security, journey time management, transport and logistics, and traffic surveys.

While these cameras continuously upgrade the use of their technology to be able to make it more smarted, there are still some challenges that need to be overcome. These cameras have given rise to a new kind of criminal activity called car cloning. In such crimes, the number plates are copied so that when they are read by such systems, they will identify fake license plate numbers. However, with the innovation and technology galloping at the fastest pace than it ever hard, it won’t be long before these challenges are overcome as well.