Reading Red License Plates

A Guide for Adjusting Illuminator and Camera Settings to Read Red License Plates at Night

Reading license plates at night is a challenge that road operators have had problems dealing with for many years. Thanks to the advancements in automatic number/license plate recognition (ANPR/LPR) technology, the appropriate software and/or cameras now allow operators to accurately capture license plates even in complete darkness—provided that the right illumination sources are also used. This way, all number plates can be properly read and recognized, even those that contain red characters on a white background or white characters on a red background.

This short FREE handbook explains what makes the task of reading red plates at night challenging and how you can use the appropriate settings in your illuminators and Adaptive Recognition ANPR/LPR cameras to overcome them.

By downloading this material, you get:

• a list of the main challenges of red license plate reading
• an introduction to the concept of illuminators and how they make plates visible at night without blinding drivers
• the proper settings for Adaptive Recognition’s Vidar cameras for reading red plates while using illuminators at the same time.

It’s worth adding that this guide mainly refers to how to configure and read red number plates using an 850nm (infrared) illumination device. Admittedly, there are other cameras using 760nm near-infrared (NIR) illumination or white LED lights—including some of our ANPR/LPR camera models—that can adequately illuminate red, blue, or even green license plates. Even if your illuminator isn’t using infrared, it will still give you useful advice on how to achieve the desired results.

To download the FREE e-book, please fill out the form on the right.