"I want to see everything...with only one camera."
Our team hit the highway to help an end user evaluate their ability to capture as much identifiable information about vehicles entering a campus as possible...with only one camera.
The expectation is to be able to capture make, model, color, and license plate number of cars coming to the campus.
Common challenges:
- Camera mounting locations
- Vehicle speed
- Angle of approach
- Blinding headlights
- Low ambient light levels
- Higher resolution = More lighting required
Our team set up an array of camera systems ranging from specialty license plate camera to 4K Ultra High Definition camera to high performance pan-tilt-zoom cameras.
Proof of concept is absolutely necessary in a situation like this. Every situation is slightly unique. Learn more here about "try before you buy" options.
The areas of vehicle entry in this case are ideal: funnel points where vehicles must travel at reduced speed.
In order to capture license plate details with high reliability, we regularly recommend a specialty license plate camera system, the Bosch series of Dinion Capture LPR cameras. LPR cameras have specific mounting specifications related to height and angle of approach. The challenge in this case is that a specialty license plate camera utilizes an infrared illuminator that reflects off of the retro-reflective properties of license plates. This means that the recorded image played back on the security monitor very obviously display the license plate information, but offer only limited information about the vehicle, even when well lit during mid-day hours.
In this example, the expectation is to provide both a license plate number AND other characteristics unique to each vehicle with only one camera.
Fortunately, the ambient lighting in this example is sufficient enough for a Bosch Dinion Starlight 8000 5-megapixel camera to remain in full color mode, minimize motion blur, and capture significant detail while still maintaining up to 30 images per second for optimal evidence collection.
The limitation is that the blooming headlights on the front of vehicles over-powered the Starlight camera, so capturing maximum identifiable information will be performed with high reliability from the rear of vehicles approaching the campus.
Our team's final recommendation for this specific site is to deploy a Bosch Dinion Starlight 8000 5-megapixel camera with 40mm SR lens in an outdoor housing at each vehicle approach point. Camera model details here
Check out this video to better understand the challenging circumstances:
Capture the License Plate Information You Need
License Plate Capture Cameras (also known as LPR or LPC cameras) are specialty cameras designed to utilize a monochrome high resolution camera in conjunction with active infrared illumination. The FOV (Field of View) is targetted to a very specific area, usually no more than about 12 feet wide as shown below. The image below depicts a Dinion Capture 7000 system which features a LPR camera and an overview camera. The LPR camera depicts a monochrome, high contrast image while the overview camera depicts a color image of well lit scenes and may turn to monochrome depending on night time scene lighting. LPR cameras are available in both IP and analog versions. Here's what you see with an LPR camera:
3rd Party software manufacturers offer software and hardware solutions that use the Bosch Dinion Capture video output feed to analyze the characters of the license plate for comparison against a variety of databases and other software programs that draw attention to unauthorized or authorized vehicles entering a location. Below is an example called iRecord by Streaming Networks. Contact this 3rd party LPR company, Streaming Networks, here.
License Plate Camera Online Demo Page
