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Concept
Automatic number-plate recognition
Summary
Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit television, road-rule enforcement cameras, or cameras specifically designed for the task. ANPR is used by police forces around the world for law enforcement purposes, including checking if a vehicle is registered or licensed. It is also used for electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and as a method of cataloguing the movements of traffic, for example by highways agencies.
Automatic number-plate recognition can be used to store the images captured by the cameras as well as the text from the license plate, with some configurable to store a photograph of the driver. Systems commonly use infrared lighting to allow the camera to take the picture at any time of day or night. ANPR technology must take into account plate variations from place to place.
Privacy issues have caused concerns about ANPR, such as government tracking citizens' movements, misidentification, high error rates, and increased government spending. Critics have described it as a form of mass surveillance.
ANPR is sometimes known by various other terms:
Automatic (or automated) license-plate recognition (ALPR)
Automatic (or automated) license-plate reader (ALPR)
Automatic vehicle identification (AVI)
Automatisk nummerpladegenkendelse (ANPG)
Car-plate recognition (CPR)
License-plate recognition (LPR)
Lecture automatique de plaques d'immatriculation (LAPI)
Mobile license-plate reader (MLPR)
Vehicle license-plate recognition (VLPR)
Vehicle recognition identification (VRI)
ANPR was invented in 1976 at the Police Scientific Development Branch in Britain. Prototype systems were working by 1979, and contracts were awarded to produce industrial systems, first at EMI Electronics, and then at Computer Recognition Systems (CRS, now part of Jenoptik) in Wokingham, UK. Early trial systems were deployed on the A1 road and at the Dartford Tunnel.
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