Systems and methods for positional license plate character sequence identification in vehicle service facilities

A method, comprising:

• maintaining, by one or more processors coupled with memory, in a database, a plurality of vehicle profiles for a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle profile of the plurality of vehicle profiles including license plate information of a respective vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and one or more vehicle characteristics, wherein the one or more vehicle characteristics includes a color, make, or model of the vehicle;
• capturing, by the one or more processors, via at least one image capture device directed towards a gate or a tunnel of a car wash, one or more images of at least a portion of a vehicle positioned within a region of interest of a service facility;
• identifying, by the one or more processors, using the one or more images, a string of characters of a license plate of the vehicle and one or more of a vehicle color, make or model of the vehicle;
• determining, by the one or more processors, one or more characters of the string of characters satisfy a character replacement schema;
• generating, by the one or more processors, a first sequence of characters by replacing the one or more characters in the string of characters that satisfy the character replacement schema with one or more corresponding replacement characters;
• determining, by the one or more processors, that the first sequence of characters of the license plate does not match any license plate information of the plurality of vehicle profiles;
• performing, by the one or more processors, responsive to determining that the first sequence of characters of the license plate does not match any license plate information of the plurality of vehicle profiles, a first truncation operation by removing one or more characters from the first sequence of characters to generate a first truncated sequence of characters;
• executing, by the one or more processors, a first search against the database using the first truncated sequence of characters;
• determining, by the one or more processors, that the first search using the first truncated sequence of characters does not produce any matching license plate information in the database;
• performing, by the one or more processors, responsive to determining that the first search using the first truncated sequence of characters does not produce any matching license plate information in the database, a second truncation operation by removing one or more additional characters from the first truncated sequence of characters to generate a second truncated sequence of characters;
• executing, by the one or more processors, a second search against the database using the second truncated sequence of characters;
• determining, by the one or more processors, that the second search using the second truncated sequence of characters produces a plurality of matching license plate information in the database;
• identifying, by the one or more processors, responsive to determining that the second search using the second truncated sequence of characters produces the plurality of matching license plate information in the database, a vehicle profile of a vehicle corresponding to the matching license plate information and based on one or more of a vehicle characteristic, color, make, or model determined from the one or more images matching at least one of the color, make or model of the vehicle in the vehicle profile;
• and
• transmitting, by the one or more processors, i) to a car wash controller, instructions to cause the service facility to provide a service corresponding to the vehicle profile of the vehicle, or ii) to a gate actuator, a control signal to cause a state of a gate coupled to the gate actuator to change.

A non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• maintain, in a database, a plurality of vehicle profiles for a plurality of vehicles, each vehicle profile of the plurality of vehicle profiles including license plate information of a respective vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and one or more vehicle characteristics, wherein the one or more vehicle characteristics includes a color, make, or model of the vehicle;
• capture, via at least one image capture device directed towards a gate or a tunnel of a car wash, one or more images of at least a portion of a vehicle positioned within a region of interest of a service facility;
• identify, using the one or more images, a string of characters of a license plate of the vehicle and one or more of a vehicle color, make or model of the vehicle;
• determine one or more characters of the string of characters satisfy a character replacement schema;
• generate a first sequence of characters by replacing the one or more characters in the string of characters that satisfy the character replacement schema with one or more corresponding replacement characters;
• determine that the first sequence of characters of the license plate does not match any license plate information of the plurality of vehicle profiles;
• perform, responsive to determining that the first sequence of characters of the license plate does not match any license plate information of the plurality of vehicle profiles, a first truncation operation by removing one or more characters from the first sequence of characters to generate a first truncated sequence of characters;
• execute a first search against the database using the first truncated sequence of characters;
• determine that the first search using the first truncated sequence of characters does not produce any matching license plate information in the database;
• perform, responsive to determining that the first search using the first truncated sequence of characters does not produce any matching license plate information in the database, a second truncation operation by removing one or more additional characters from the first truncated sequence of characters to generate a second truncated sequence of characters;
• execute a second search against the database using the second truncated sequence of characters;
• determine that the second search using the second truncated sequence of characters produces a plurality of matching license plate information in the database;
• identify, responsive to determining that the second search using the second truncated sequence of characters produces the plurality of matching license plate information in the database, a vehicle profile of a vehicle corresponding to the matching license plate information and based on one or more of a vehicle characteristic, color, make, or model determined from the one or more images matching at least one of the color, make or model of the vehicle in the vehicle profile;
• and
• transmit i) to a car wash controller, instructions to cause the service facility to provide a service corresponding to the vehicle profile of the vehicle, or ii) to a gate actuator, a control signal to cause a state of a gate coupled to the gate actuator to change.