
ParkIT System
Your 21st century gatekeeper and parking solution – using the convenience of license plate recognition.
- ANPR-based vehicle access control
- Automatic barrier opening
- Built-in blacklist and whitelist
- Camera-independent solution
If you have an ANPR-based parking system, that’s great. If the ANPR is not accurate – that is even worse than having a system without ANPR.
We see and use more and more ANPR-assisted parking systems – where the technology of Automatic Number Plate Recognition is applied to identify incoming and exiting vehicles (an automated way of pay-by-plate parking).
It is absolutely great on one side, as we all know its practical advantages: how it makes the parking automated, offering a smooth drive-in experience and requiring much less manual work – both from the driver and the parking operator. So that is not a question…
But when technology is applied in a wrong way, it can do more harm than good. A similar thing happened the other day when one of our managers parked in a Hungarian shopping mall – its parking system worked with ANPR (not by us), but its ANPR software was not accurate enough or the system was not properly calibrated: his license plate was recognized with an error: HLV-108 read instead of the real MLY-108.
Such misrecognized plates can not only disturb the entry/exit management of a vehicle access control system, but may imply future issues as well. Just thinking out loud: what if the security staff would like to check if a given vehicle has ever been in the area? What if its time of arrival is needed… or what if, for any reason, the specific vehicle should be put on blacklist and be blocked from future entry? Does the system fail to read the plate the same way every time – or does it recognize it as a different plate in each case?
As we see, several questions and concerns come up – so the best choice is having a system with a high accuracy ANPR component. Being in the development of such technology for 30 years, we can certainly say, it is not an easy job. So let’s dive in the details and see how many factors contribute to a successful ANPR system!
Of course, no matter how good an image you get of a vehicle if the ANPR software is not accurate – if it makes recognition errors or misreads characters. Also, you can have the very best ANPR engine – but if the image is too blurry, too distorted, it will not result in proper recognition.
One thing is sure: the ANPR performance starts at the imaging… and ends at the ANPR engine itself. Let’s see those factors that contribute to successful recognition.
So what went wrong in the mentioned system? It is a complex question and may be a result of one or multiple of the factors above. Maybe the camera did not provide an appropriate input for the software. Maybe the software simply did not have the best OCR algorithm. Maybe it was too dark and the system did not have the required illumination. Or maybe even further reasons.
When designing a parking system, you need to minimize the possibility of errors, from every aspect: deal with the imaging, the illumination, the software – all the components that will define the final outcome.
To set a good example, let us show you some of the projects we are proud of – ANPR systems around the world, like at the Vilnius Airport, in this automated car wash system, on the Colombian highways or in these 5-star Dubai hotels.
Back to the original idea – ANPR can take your parking system to the next level, if it works properly. It makes sense to use it, but how it is possible – you may wonder. Here, we explain some scenarios – ways to start using ANPR:
All the mentioned products are available from us – and our experts are happy to answer your questions if you look for such technology.
If you like this article, why don’t you subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page, so we can keep you posted with similar contents in the future?