ANPR Cameras

[smcctv 0]

Hi all,

 

Any recommended ANPR cameras out there to cover around 40 foot?. Looking for 700TVL if possible.

 

Links to site or make\model would help greatly.

 

Many Thanks and have a good weekend.

[buellwinkle 0]

What is you goal? To be able to read a plate number in a recording or to record the plate number to act on a plate match or search video by plate number.

[smcctv 0]

Hi there,

 

The goal is to purely read and record number plates as well as monitoring who walks by....

 

Many Thanks

[cctvmann 0]

Hi there,

 

The goal is to purely read and record number plates as well as monitoring who walks by....

 

Many Thanks

well when i did my number plate camera mounted in our own lampost at the end of our driveway i mounted it approx 30 inches from the ground this is the ideal height for number plates i used a varifocal bullet type cam

[buellwinkle 0]

What is your budget? I use Milestone LPR software, it's mid-priced at about $1,500 for one camera + the NVR license which is $99 per camera. It works pretty well at recording plate numbers, searching them and records the video of the car passing the plate camera. if you are a C++ developer, you can use routines from http://www.openalpr.com that are quite good.

 

The camera itself, whether it's labeled LPR/ANPR is only a camera, in it of itself does not process plate numbers. I did an article on this recently. I just used an ordinary box camera, the Axis Q1604 and it produced a very clear plate image, day or night. I used it with a 5-50mm lens. To make it readable for LPR software, you need to have a minimum number size of about 15 pixels. To achieve that, at least with US plates, you need have a tight capture, about 8' wide at the plate. Capturing more makes it hard to get proper exposure. Also, resolution does not matter. I have a 720P IP camera for this, but run it in VGA mode (640x480) and 4 fps and capture plates up to 30-40mph.

 

I did look into the Geovision LPR camera, about $900ish, but I found the plate too dark for LPR software to read. It's good enough to view a plate, but not good enough for software to convert.

 

If this is too rich for you blood, you can do with ordinary cameras that work well in low light. First get as tight capture as possible, ideally with a box camera and a telephoto lens or even a regular bullet with 12mm lens as long as you are close to the plate, maybe 15' away. Then set the max exposure to the point you can read the plate number and nothing else as it will be black. For me it's between 1/90 to 1/250 of a second. Yes, the image will be worthless for anything other than seeing the plate and head or tail lights. In this low-buck scenario, I use a high voltage landscape bullet spot light with an LED spot R30 bulb that focuses the light on the plate area. It's not perfect but will let you read the plates.

 

If the plates look like a white rectangle and can't see the number it's not because you have too much light as many would believe, it's because your max exposure is not short enough. It's all trial and error as every camera and lighting situation is different.

 

There is a company in Hungary, Carmen that is coming out with embedded software to record plate numbers, very cool. Not sure it's ready for prime time but Carmen is the LPR engine used in Milestone LPR. It's supposed to work with most Linux based cameras. Also, IPConfigure does this now with certain cameras like the Axis Q1604 but I was not happy with it and it's about $1,500.