Cyclops Technologies offers inexpensive license plate recognition system
PlateSmart uses existing on-board cameras and computers; hands-free technology a plus
Mobile license plate recognition (LPR) software is on many police departments’ wish lists. Used at the U.S.-Mexico border, the technology only recently has become cheap enough, and microprossessors powerful enough, for it to be mounted to the roofs of patrol cars or carried in hand. The typical system uses infrared light to illuminate the plate, a high-speed camera photographs it, and an on-board computer compares the image with a database of stolen cars, registered sex offenders, and parolees. Police like it because it alerts them to suspects they would not have otherwise noticed, and it gives them the ability to search intentionally for any car they would like to find.
As a small segment of the $67 million video content analysis industry, the LPR business has not yet shaken out any industry leaders. The main reason, says Joe Barnes of the National Institute of Justice Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization, is that the image capturing technology being used is the same across the market. What will make the difference is the software and the price.
Clearwater, Florida-based Cyclops Technologies hopes to beat its competitors on both fronts. Unlike other companies that sell bundled systems of cameras, software, and computers for upwards of $30,000 per unit, Cyclops’s PlateSmart uses existing on-board cameras and laptops, driving down the price significantly and minimizing installation hassles. The software also responds to police departments’ desire for a hands-free system.
In the future, police would like to be able to give LPR systems voice commands ordering it to track suspect cars with GPS technology. There is also hope that cameras will get better at dealing with rainy weather and distinguishing between plates from different states. As it is now, LPR systems can only read the numbers and letters. Once alerted to a suspect vehicle, the officer must still call into his dispatcher to confirm he has tracked down the correct state.
-read more in this company news release
