Cyclops Technology and Total Computer Group strike license plate imaging deal

Clearwater, Florida-based Cyclops Technology, a strong contender in the license plate recognition (LPR) field, announced today a new partnership with Melville, New York-based Total Computer Group. Total Computer, whose flagship product Total Enforcement Records Management System contains a trove of criminal and automobile records, is expected in the near term to distribute free trials of the Cyclops’s PlateSmart LPR software as an optional module to its customer user base. “We are extremely excited about what this partnership represents,” said Cyclops president Richard Demartini. “Adding our advanced license plate imaging technologies to their suite will create a ‘super tool’, that can run 24/7 hands free. The potential application of the combined technologies is immense.” The deal permits both companies to sell their own lines individually, but this is a particularly good chance for Cyclops to show off its technology. Many companies are rushing into the LPR field, and the race will go to the swiftest — the swiftest in rolling out usable products, and the swiftest in building partnerships with data providers.

BLUE BOX

State of the market:

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 microprocessors 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 essentially the same across the market. What will make the difference is the software interface to improve reliability and ease of use, and the price.”
In the future, police would like LPR systems to be integrated with voice activated hands-free communications capability, as well as GPS technology to precisely isolate and record the suspect vehicle location. 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 ; company Web sites: Cyclops |Total Computer Group