ANPR, or Automatic Number Plate Recognition, is a technology that reads and understands vehicle license plates. It can find and recognize license plates and send the characters to the right channels for interpretation.
This technology can be used in several industries, from law enforcement to security, safety, and traffic management. If you would like to learn everything there is to know about ANPR, this article breaks it down to its roots. Find out about the benefits of ANPR to several industries and the significant challenges faced.
What is ANPR?
ANPR, or Automatic Number Plate Recognition, is a system that identifies license plates without input from operators. The intelligent system scans an image or video and picks out, reads, and identifies license plates and their characters.
Other systems can use this collected data to track stolen cars, improve car parking lot systems, and more. It’s just there working tirelessly to keep track of every license plate that goes by. It is much more precise than humans and can save time for other productive activities.
However, the accuracy of this technology is dependent on several factors, such as weather, camera quality, vehicle speed, angle of capture, and more. We will discuss these in more detail in other sections. For now, let’s understand how it all started – the history of ANPR.
READ ALSO: Developing Automatic License Plate Recognition using OCR API
History of ANPR
The roots of ANPR can be traced back to 1976 in the United Kingdom, where it was first invented by the Police Scientific Development Branch (now the Home Office Scientific Development Branch) for the easy identification of vehicle registration numbers on license plates through cameras and CCTV.
The first systems were produced for use in 1979, and the first arrest linked to ANPR detection of a stolen vehicle occurred in 1981. Since then, ANPR has evolved into a standard traffic control and law enforcement technology in many countries worldwide.
How Does ANPR Work?
ANPR systems work by capturing high-resolution images of vehicles using specialized cameras. These images are then processed by software algorithms that locate the license plate, identify the characters, and use OCR to convert the plate number into text.
The recognized plate number is then checked against databases to identify the vehicle and trigger various actions depending on the application.
In short, these are the key steps in the ANPR process:
- Image capture by ANPR cameras
- Image preprocessing to enhance quality
- License plate localization within the image
- Character segmentation to isolate plate characters
- Optical character recognition (OCR) to convert plate to text
- Database query to identify vehicles and trigger actions
ANPR can trigger alerts when stolen cars are found on the road and send findings to the authorities. This recognition system can also play a significant role in security, safety, crime prevention, and more.
READ ALSO: How Does License Plate Recognition Work?
Benefits of ANPR Systems
Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems offer a range of benefits, but they also have their share of challenges. They are:
Highly accurate vehicle identification
You can trust ANPR systems to deliver when it comes to identifying license plates and their characters. The Police, DVSA, and local authorities are now entirely dependent on ANPR because of its accuracy.
24/7 operation without human intervention
The A in ANPR stands for automatic, which means it doesn’t need human intervention to do its job. This saves several businesses time that can be used in other business activities.
Ability to monitor large traffic volumes
Number plate recognition and recording take time. It takes even more time if you need to send penalty notifications to people who break traffic laws. With ANPR solutions, industries can manage large volumes efficiently.
Quick response times to criminal activity
One of the fantastic benefits of this system is its extremely fast response time to criminal conduct, theft, etc. This makes it easy for criminals to be intercepted, and the law remains unbroken.
Challenges of ANPR Systems
Now let’s find out about the challenges that come with ANPR systems
Controversy
Many people don’t like the idea of machines issuing speeding tickets or accusing them and not even getting to confront their accusers since machines are responsible. Others are worried about their data being stored in databases and the safety of the data once mined. This poses a huge challenge in the ANPR field.
Vulnerability to plate masking techniques
One major challenge is vehicle owners or criminals trying to evade ANPR systems by making license plate characters less readable or identifiable. They try to reduce the reflective properties of the plates by using plate covers, sprays, or any other means they can think of to mask the plate, which is a big challenge.
Limitations in low light or poor weather conditions
ANPR has high accuracy, no doubt, but in low light or poor weather conditions, it becomes challenging to identify license plates and numbers.
Plate inconsistency
Many ANPR systems are trained to match plates from a single region and may fail to identify plates from other areas. Using a specific ANPR system/brand in several states and countries may provide inaccurate results, which is challenging.
What Businesses Use ANPR Today?
ANPR has a wide range of applications across various industries. Some common areas are:
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement is one industry that has been using ANPR for a long time for good reason. Many countries have integrated this system as part of their security measures and has helped in solving many cases today.
ANPR allows law enforcement agencies to identify and track vehicles regardless of their location, track down stolen vehicles, identify unregistered vehicles, spot speeding cars, issue tickets, and monitor vehicles of interest.
Traffic Management
Many cities have developed traffic control systems to monitor vehicle movement on the road, and ANPR plays a crucial role in this. Traffic control centers can make real-time traffic management decisions with live data.
ANPR helps monitor traffic patterns, identify congestion points, enforce speed limits and red light violations, detect uninsured or untaxed vehicles, and optimize traffic signal timings based on real-time data.
Parking Management
With ANPR, parking space allocation can be automated, and with a smart parking system, payment can also be made easier. With ANPR in a parking lot, there’s faster entry and exit for vehicles, automatic license platelet-based billing, quick detection of parking violations, and even more benefits.
Security and Surveillance
ANPR is also taking over the security sector to handle major security concerns. For example, private sector industries, including casinos, hospitals, museums, resorts, and other businesses, can control access and monitor movement in government facilities, military bases, corporate campuses, seaports, airports, and other transportation hubs.
Logistics and Fleet Management
In the logistics and fleet management industry, ANPR can be used for:
- Tracking vehicle movements and routes in real-time
- Monitoring driver behavior like speeding and harsh braking
- Automating fuel tax reporting based on vehicle location data
- Improving fleet utilization and reducing operational costs
Some other applications in industries include:
- Border crossings: To keep track of vehicles crossing the border, cross-check with databases, and identify potential illegal activities.
- Petrol stations: To identify vehicles that don’t pay for their fuel.
- Analysis of travel behavior: To study and understand the travel patterns and habits of drivers.
- Police and auxiliary police: For electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads to ensure compliance and manage traffic flow.
- Hotels: To manage parking facilities and enhance security.
The potential for application of ANPR is wide, and now you understand why.
ANPR VS OCR What is the difference?
The difference between ANPR and OCR is quite clear. While both ANPR and OCR use optical character recognition technology, ANPR is a complete system that captures vehicle images, processes license plates, and interfaces with databases.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the underlying technology used within ANPR to convert the plate images to text. OCR can be used on its own for general text recognition, while ANPR is specifically designed for vehicle license plates.
License Plate OCR API by Vehicle Databases
If you want to get started with the ANPR technology but don’t know where to start, Vehicle Databases offers a License plate OCR API that can be integrated into your systems to get you started with this piece of technology almost instantly.
Our license plate recognition API is designed to recognize license plates in images and extract relevant information with impressive accuracy. With the API, you can get the following:
- License plate number
- Vehicle’s state in seconds
No matter what industry you are in, if you need a solution for accurate license plate recognition and capture, this API is for you. Sign up now and enjoy 15 free credits to try out our APIs. You can also book a demo to discuss your business use case.
Conclusion
Automatic Number Plate Recognition is a powerful technology that enables the automated identification of vehicles using their license plates. With its ability to capture, process, and match plate information in real-time, ANPR has become an invaluable tool for law enforcement, traffic management, security, and many other applications.
As ANPR continues to evolve with advancements in AI and machine learning, we can expect to see even more innovative uses of this transformative technology in the years to come. Make sure to sign up and improve your business operations with this API.
