SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTICAL LICENSE PLATE MATCHING

• US 20110194733A1
• Filed: 02/11/2011
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Amtech Systems LLC (Roper Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TC License Limited
• Inventors: Wilson, James
• Application Number:
  US13/025,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20110194733A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/987 with the intervention of an operator
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates

Abstract

An automated system and method are disclosed for reading license plate characters and associating the image with a vehicle by comparing to existing images and supplementing the automated system with manual review, comprising: capturing a first license plate image; processing the first image with optical character recognition equipment to produce an OCR result; associating the OCR result with a confidence level. If the confidence level is above a predetermined threshold, determining whether the OCR result matches a previously-obtained OCR result and if the confidence level is not above the predetermined threshold, presenting the first image for a manual review to produce a manual result.

Claims

1. A method for reading license plate characters, comprising:

capturing a license plate image

processing the image with optical character recognition equipment to produce an OCR result;

associating said OCR result with a confidence level;

presenting said image for a first manual review to produce a manual result without displaying to the reviewer said OCR result;

if said manual result matches said OCR result, determining that said OCR result is correct;

if said manual result does not match said OCR result, presenting said image for a second manual review by a different reviewer than said first manual reviewer to produce a second manual result;

if said second manual result matches said OCR result, determining that said OCR result is correct;

if said second manual result does not match said OCR result, presenting said image for a third manual review by a different reviewer than said first and second manual reviews;

if said third manual result matches said OCR result, determining that said OCR result is correct;

if said third manual result does not match said OCR result, presenting said image for a supervisory review by a different reviewer than said first, second and third manual reviews.

2. A method for reading license plate characters, comprising:

capturing a first license plate image;

processing said first image with optical character recognition equipment to produce an OCR result;

associating said OCR result with a confidence level;

if said confidence level is above a predetermined threshold, determining whether said OCR result matches a previously-obtained OCR result and

if said confidence level is not above said predetermined threshold, presenting said image for a manual review to produce a manual result.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in the case where said confidence level is not above said predetermined threshold, providing at least one additional image for manual review of said image.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether said first image contains multiple license plates.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether said first image shows a vehicle straddling more than one traffic lane.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in the case where said confidence level is above said predetermined threshold, determining whether said OCR result for a previously analyzed image was verified by manual image review.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, in the case where said confidence level is above said predetermined threshold and where said OCR result for a previously-analyzed image was verified by manual image review, determining whether said confidence level is above a second predetermined level, and if so, associating said OCR result with a video toll transaction.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising, in the case where said confidence level is above said predetermined threshold but where said OCR result for a previously-analyzed image was not verified by manual image review, associating said first image with a first identifying flag and presenting said first image for manual review.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising, in the case where said confidence level is above said predetermined threshold and where said OCR result for a previously-analyzed image was verified by manual image review, determining whether said confidence level is above a second predetermined level, and if not, associating said first image with a second identifying flag and presenting said first image for manual review.