Raspberry Pi ANPR Camera

[farmerfred86]

Im looking to install an ANPR camera (ideally in a car) using a Raspberry Pi. There are several on the internet:

ANPR: Car Spy Raspberry Pi — The MagPi magazine

Who’s that parked on the driveway? Find out automatically using ANPR

magpi.raspberrypi.org

I need it to scan a list of known number plates that I can update monthly. Ideally this would sound an alarm if it recognises one off the list.

Any coding or RPi experts that can help?

 

[Chris F]

That's a great project - please keep us updated. Where is the list maintained of dodgy number plates? We actually sue a similar thing to log spam on forums. If your IP address has already been logged as suspicious - you never get onto the forum.

 

[farmerfred86]

The idea is to alert you when a known hare coursing or problem vehicle has just driven past you.... They're now so common it difficult to spot trouble.
The list could be updated monthyl using local whatapp group or similar to compile the list.
I know this is very easy to do but I don't have the time or want to sit a devlop or code a Raspberry Pi.
Need someone who can help

 

[teslacoils]

This looks very useful. I've looked at a few other pi anpr stuff. I'd like a static one that WhatsApps me if a car on a list goes too near.

 

[farmerfred86]

We had some trouble with a hare coursing vehicle the other day and the police essentially told us that ANPR only really exists on the tv and motorways so they can't ever catch these vehicle because they don't know what to look for and when they do spot something they just drive off over a field.
The idea is that if we have a raspberry Pi on the dash like a dash cam them at least we'll know if they drive past and can alert others...

This is an idea:

But it needs to be smaller and simpler.

Im currently inviting bids from developers, don't think it should be too difficult. I would do it myself if i had the time!

 

[TechWise]

We had some trouble with a hare coursing vehicle the other day and the police essentially told us that ANPR only really exists on the tv and motorways so they can't ever catch these vehicle because they don't know what to look for and when they do spot something they just drive off over a field.
The idea is that if we have a raspberry Pi on the dash like a dash cam them at least we'll know if they drive past and can alert others...

This is an idea:

But it needs to be smaller and simpler.

Im currently inviting bids from developers, don't think it should be too difficult. I would do it myself if i had the time!

Have you thought about approaching a university and proposing it as a student project? Dont' act like you've got a big budget or they'll try to get you to spend a fortune to start a formal research project.

Our department gives 4th year students a £100 budget to do something. 5th year students work in teams of 4 with a larger budget and have to produce something much better. A group last year made a camera setup that tracked a hand then a robotic hand copied everything you did. An ANPR camera shouldn't be too difficult in comparison. I'd try it myself if I had the time.

 

[cquick]

don't think it should be too difficult.

Sadly, nothing is easy when it comes to computer vision.

You'll probably need something with a little more grunt such as a lattepanda in order to process the video stream at a reasonable rate (less than 200ms per frame for 5hz video)
The camera would need to have very high dynamic range and good IR illumination if you want to reliably read numberplates at night.

 

[farmerfred86]

Night time is probably out, but I’m unlikely to drive around much at night and pass these people. But during the daytime should be ok. Videos on the web show people achieveing this with the Raspberry pi’s own camera so seems achievable.

 

[teslacoils]

Night capture of cars, with visible plates, is not tricky. I'd like a courser alert too.