Portable covert license plate reader
DCFirst Claim
1. A surveillance system for monitoring a plurality of vehicle license plates comprising:
- a portable license plate reader including a camera for automatically imaging a license plate and extracting a character string from the image for each of a plurality of moving vehicles that pass through a field of view of the camera without detection by the moving vehicles;
a mobile surveillance unit positioned in proximity to the license plate reader for receiving the extracted character string from the reader, comparing each extracted character string with a list of target plate numbers, and generating an audible alarm and a visual display when a match is found; and
an operations center for communicating with the mobile surveillance unit to receive each extracted character string from the mobile surveillance unit and to update the list of target plate numbers stored at the mobile surveillance unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A surveillance system for covertly monitoring vehicle license plates. A portable covert license plate reader is provided for automatically reading license plate images for each of a plurality of moving vehicles that pass through a field of view of a camera in the reader without detection by the moving vehicles. A mobile surveillance unit is located in proximity to the license plate reader for receiving license plate character strings extracted by the reader, comparing each received image with a list of target plates of interest to law enforcement, and generating an audible alarm and a visual display when a match is found. An operations center is also provided for communicating with the mobile surveillance unit to receive license plate data from the mobile surveillance unit and to provide updates to the list of target plates stored at the mobile surveillance unit.
214 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A surveillance system for monitoring a plurality of vehicle license plates comprising:
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a portable license plate reader including a camera for automatically imaging a license plate and extracting a character string from the image for each of a plurality of moving vehicles that pass through a field of view of the camera without detection by the moving vehicles; a mobile surveillance unit positioned in proximity to the license plate reader for receiving the extracted character string from the reader, comparing each extracted character string with a list of target plate numbers, and generating an audible alarm and a visual display when a match is found; and an operations center for communicating with the mobile surveillance unit to receive each extracted character string from the mobile surveillance unit and to update the list of target plate numbers stored at the mobile surveillance unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A surveillance system for monitoring a plurality of vehicle license plates comprising:
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a license plate reader, mounted in a transportable traffic channelizer device, including a camera for automatically imaging a license plate and extracting a character string from the image for each of a plurality of moving vehicles that pass through a field of view of the camera in the reader without detection by the moving vehicles; a processing unit for receiving each character string extracted by the reader and comparing each received character string with a list of target plate numbers; and a display device for displaying each license plate character string that matches an entry from the target list. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification