Autonomous Wide-Angle License Plate Recognition
OwnerJames Simoninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system in a moving surveillance vehicle operates in background mode to capture images of license plates of neighboring moving vehicles, which may occupy lanes other than the lane in which the surveillance vehicle is moving. The images are used to determine the license plate numbers of the moving vehicles, which are then checked against a database to determine whether there are any potential law enforcement-related problems that require the attention of the operator. If so, the system alerts the operator using an audible tone, visual prompt, vibration, or in some other suitable manner. The entire process, including generation of the alert can occur autonomously of the operator.
Claims15
A system for alerting an operator of a surveillance vehicle moving in a first lane, with respect to (a) a first license plate on a first target vehicle traveling in the first lane in front of the surveillance vehicle, (b) a second license plate on a second target vehicle traveling in a second lane to the left of the surveillance vehicle, (c) a third license plate on a third target vehicle traveling in a third lane to the right of the surveillance vehicle, and (d) a fourth license plate on a fourth target vehicle traveling in the first lane behind the surveillance vehicle, comprising:
- at least a first camera mounted on the surveillance vehicle, collectively configured to autonomously capture images of each of the license plates;
- and
- at least one processor carried by the surveillance vehicle that applies character recognition to the images to determine corresponding license plate numbers, and to autonomously alert the operator when any one of the license plate numbers matches an entry in a database relating to a possible law enforcement-related problem.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.