ANPR cameras help protect your premises

ANPR or automatic number plate recognition is starting to attract some serious interest from business across the UK right now. It has always been a hit with car parking management companies . They have effectively deployed and used ANPR cameras and software to generate some handsome revenues for themselves and their clients in recent years. Car parks and private parking areas that for years have been abused by motorists are now very effectively policed using cameras and software to mean that stays of two hours or over are generally punished with fines automatically generated and distributed to drivers by integrating ANPR software in conjunction with with the DVLA database. Parking in your local B&Q while you watch your local team playing football is now effectively a thing of the past. ANPR has exposed several scams where local security guards would take cash in return for allowing parking. We have heard of one guard who effectively lost his £40,000 worth of cash income per annum the minute an ANPR system was deployed at the company he was guarding.

ANPR camera

It’s not just parking though that ANPR is being deployed for now. Hotels can welcome customers and automatically open barriers for them , the channel tunnel has become effectively automated by the use of ANPR systems reducing the need for staff and many trading estates and businesses now use the technology to ensure access is effectively restricted to any unwelcome guests.

Mobile ANPR is also a growing business now. Debt collectors use this technology to “fish” for plates of cars that are  in need of recovery and this business will grow and grow. Finally of course the police can use mobile ANPR to help them enforce the law and ensure all vehicles on the road are legal. Again this possible by integrating their mobile ANPR systems to the DVLA database.

 

So how does ANPR work ? Well clever software is able to turn a captured CCTV image into text, This is then easily used to integrate into software that can then be used for a number of different purposes, many listed above. With accuracy levels in the order of 96-99 % an ANPR system needs little human intervention. With pulsed infra-red illumination the number plate becomes highly reflective and the camera can easily read that plate day and night , even when headlights are shining directly into the camera. The cameras can also be fitted with instruments capable of measuring speed adding to the control the system gives for site management or safety on public roads.

 

So if you need to control access to your site or vehicles while on your site, open barriers ,operate welcome signs ,control speed or generate revenue through parking fines an ANPR system is the way forward.

 

Essen 2012

The bi-annual Essen Security exhibition has now closed for another 2 years.

Boasting a huge array of Halls and technology to visit, surely Essen has now rightfully claimed its title as THE Security Exhibition to visit ahead of rivals such as IFSEC?

Essen security show

Spread over 11, yes that’s 11 Halls, Essen needed a transport system of its own inside just to get us from hall to hall !

Talking of transportation, the travel system, namely the hugely efficient DB Train system, delivered us on time every day – if the platform board showed 1 minute until the next train, 1 minute it was!

Anyway, back to the show.

Notable massive stands (or booths as our European friends referred to ) were Bosch, Honeywell, Siemans.

Bosch had their representation of an aircraft, complete with actual airline seats to sit and listen to the presentations! Rumour has it (and only rumour because we weren’t invited!) that all visitors to their stand (oops, booth) were taken out to the back of the Bosch area and treated to a full 3 course cooked lunch!!! Now that is customer care!

security shows

Interesting that their flagship new MIC 550 was represented by one, solitary lonely looking model on top of one of their product podiums…….

The British contingent were represented in the BSIA section by the likes of GJD with their HD CCTV lighting solutions, Elmdene and NVT. Also present for the first time at ESSEN was 360 Vision Technology, brave guys taking their range of Predators into the back garden of Bosch MICS!!!!

Talking of 360 Vision, they certainly flooded their stand with multiple-coloured Predators! Gold, orange, green and JCB Yellow ensured that sun glasses were needed for this UK manufacturer!

Into Hall 2 and the mighty Geutebrueck had an amazing stand – packed with staff and visitors it seemed for the full 4 days!

Some great video Analytics were observed over at the UDP Technology stand – fully expecting these guys to be taking the UK by storm real soon with their very clever technology!

MP was represented amply by the usual guys – Arecont and Avigilon had excellent displays.

We spotted  Todd Rockoff  at the show as well spreading the word about HDcctv . Keep watching this space for more news from Todd soon.

Visitors attending the show were from far flung regions – talking with some of the exhibitors, they had seen good quality leads from US, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East and of course the main Euro regions – affirming Security Essen’s status as a truly International show.

It therefore must beg the question, with such a high quality show held only every 2 years, is there now room for a smaller, certainly less well presented IFSEC anymore in the UK? We paid fairly low airline fares to Dusseldorf, stayed in a clean, functional but inexpensive hotel (compared to London or Birmingham hotels) and travelled effortlessly, cheaply and efficiently on excellent transport to and from the halls.

Our opinion? Security Essen is the show that is worth visiting……and waiting for!

ANPR cameras

Buy ANPR cameras.

When looking to purchase ANPR cameras there are several features you should ensure that they include before you buy. Remember, picking up number plates is a pretty tricky task and all sorts of considerations need to be taken into account. The speed of the car, the the lighting conditions , sunshine and reflection. The position of the number plate on the vehicle and so on.

ANPR cameras
ANPR cameras

To set up ANPR cameras correctly, the position of the camera in relation to the vehicle number plate is crucial so the first thing we would recommend that you ensure your ANPR cameras include are a zoom lens feature. There is generally two accepted distances you should position the cameras from the target number plate. These are 3-12 metres and 8-20 metres. To ensure a capture rate of above 98% the camera must be high resolution. The Sony EX view is an accepted ANPR camera module used in most versions of the best number plate recognition cameras on the market. In order to get the maximum reflection back from the number plate itself all the bests ANPR cameras come fitted pulsed IR led illumination. This reflects back from the special material used on number plates and means that even when you try to capture the the numberplate head on with the vehicle lights on full beam, the camera is able to filter out the white light and home in on the number plate text itself. This is called optical filtering.

The golden rule of  ANPR cameras and they key to their set up  is that the a full on view is is the best . If you have to set the camera off to one side and create an angle then the number plate in relation to the camera becomes distorted  making it far more difficult to read. As a result the rule is that the camera should be no more than 35 degrees off set from the number plate. The simple reason for this is the IR will not reflect back into the camera lens if there is an any greater angle.

ANPR cameras can also come in many guises, one of the most popular though is the bollard camera ,  the ANPR cameras will sit in a weatherproof housing and capture number plates with a high performance  unit that has anything up to a 1/10,000th of a second shutter speed this ensures that captured plates appear razor sharpe.

 

Of course the ANPR cameras are useless unless running in the background we have some highly efficient ANPR  software. This software is generally run on a PC that will sit in a cabinet adjacent to the ANPR camera system . This ANPR software can be networked and programmed to hold 10’s of thousands of number plates within its database .The software can be used to manage speed, overstay, non returned and banned vehicles.It can open gates , integrate to weighbridge software or time and attendance packages. ANPR software can be modified to welcome customers or used as a defence against terrorism. It is a very powerful tool and one that is finding more and more applications especially here in the UK.

So in summary if you want an ANPR camera system make sure you ask your provider about all the issues outlined above.

 

 

 

 

ANPR cameras, Automatic number plate recognition comes of age.

ANPR cameras  the future of surveillance systems?

ANPR camera

ANPR is one of the few security solutions that has seen growth during the last couple of years. Not just growth but exponential growth! Why is this? Well the technology has improved dramatically and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is no longer a hit and miss affair. Software advances have seen plate capture at around 97-99% and this means that it’s not just the police who are making use of this technology.

So how does it work? Well firstly you need a specialized camera. High shutter speeds and pulsed IR mean that even at speeds of up to 120 miles an hour a clear image of the numberplate can be captured. At this point the software takes over processing the image into usable data and stores this onto a database.

ANPR

So what applications can this relatively new technology be used for?

Of course crime prevention comes immediately to mind. The ability to network a series of ANPR cameras across the transport network means that vehicles can be accurately tracked this information tends to get used in anti terrorism operations and murder investigations.

We then of course know that ANPR cameras and software are remarkably brilliant at issuing us speeding fines most people will have seen the images and realized that it is pointless appealing against you fine…very frustrating.

However ANPR cameras are now being used for commercial gain and this has seen an explosion in their popularity.

Have you seen the signs now in the big car parks such as Tesco, Asda, B&Q and the list goes on? These car parks are controlled by ANPR cameras that capture your plate on the way in and capture it again on the way out. If you have overstayed the stated time on the signs your plate is queried with the DVLA and a fine automatically issued to your address. Car park management is now big business. Big organizations such as Welcome Break, Tesco, Macdonalds etc all use ANPR to control traffic stays within their carparks the reasons are simple, either a) They receive money for people parking beyond two hours in the form of fines or b) at the very least keep their car parks clear for customers that are actually at their premises spending money rather than those who have abandoned their cars in the car park in order to hitch a lift from a colleague into work. It’s a win win situation for anyone who offers parking for their customers and the car park management  companies who administer and profit from the ANPR induced fines.

Access control.

Access control is also another use for ANPR camera systems. The ability to open a barrier for only those number plates on the database restricts access and controls security. Access can be given for set periods of time meaning out of hours access is also restricted.

Mobile ANPR cameras are the going to be the next big thing especially amongst asset recovery services so watch this space on that one.

So it seems that ANPR cameras are on the increase and legislation is fairly loose in terms of who can use the data. So for now we will all have to accept that where ever we go someone will be watching our every move!!