AUTOMATIC NUMER PLATE RECOGNITION SYSTEM (ANPR)

The traffic scenario in Malaysia has always been tumultuous leading to a skirmish not only on the roads but between drivers to obtain parking whether it be on the roadside, shopping centre, office block or even a hotel! It takes nothing less than an average of 10 to 15 minutes to find a parking spot anywhere in Kuala Lumpur on a ‘non-peak’ weekday and double that on a weekend!  

The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system been in existence for quite some time and has numerous applications such as Highway Toll Collection, Red Light Violation enforcement, Border & Custom Checkpoints, Management of parking areas including the display of available space in parking.  

ANPR technology, which initially only allowed for number plate recognition and recording of the data has come a long way since its inception. Accuracy in reading number plates has always been the main issue but new technological advances, coupled with AI, have created systems which now can achieve almost 99% accuracy which is an important prerequisite for this system to be fully functional. What more the ANPR can now make the parking experience a seamless, less time consuming and less frustrating experience for the driver while at the same time enhancing revenue for the operator. The Prisma Smart park experience, next-generation parking using ANPR coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS  

Automatic Number Plate (or License Plate) Recognition systems have been around for quite a while.  Wikipedia defines this technology as “a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data.”  This image processing technology, through the use of CCTV cameras and sensor technology, identifies vehicles via their number plate or license plate. Basically, ANPR is an identification system of vehicle registration number plates via CCTV cameras that allows for enhanced traffic control and access to easier parking by reducing entry and exit time.  

The ANPR technical architecture is simple, it consists of:  

 High definition infrared cameras being utilised to capture the image of the vehicle’s license plate. 
 Processors embedded in the Local Processing Unit (LPU), which is housed inside the boom barrier, utilising  Optical Character Recognition (OCR) via the latest software converts the images to a readable text string
   The data is then sent over to a computer for processing via Wifi or 3G/4G system for processing. 
 The processed data is then used to operate boom gates, toll gates, identify vehicles or used by law enforcement for security purposes.   

THE PARKING CONUNDRUM  

One of the biggest problems associated with traffic and parking is the urgent need for an effective and efficient parking system. Whether a commercial building, residential area, apartment building government building or open-air parking area, parking has become a major issue that has left Town and Building planners, engineers and architects with a challenge.Specifically for parking, the issue is clearly one of the efficient and effective uses of the parking area as a whole. Currently, a person drives up to a parking gate, rolls down the vehicle window, presses a button to remove a parking ticket, drives around the parking lot to find a vacant parking space and parks his/her car. When it’s time to leave, the same person needs to look for a parking payment meter, line up, pay his parking ticket and exit the parking lot. The entire exit operation can take between twenty minutes to half an hour depending on the number of parking auto pay machines available, a number of people exiting at that time, peak hour timing etc.  The amount of time taken for this process is multiplied by the thousands of vehicles entering and exiting a parking lot, especially a large building such as a shopping area or a commercial building, is tremendous. If the time taken for the whole parking experience can be reduced even by a few seconds the savings in terms of fuel wasted running around looking for a parking lot, time taken to stand in line to pay the parking fee, waiting at the entry and/or exit gate for the vehicles to wind down their windows and insert or remove the parking ticket on entry or exit, works out to a remarkable aggregate of time saved. 

THE PRISMA SMART PARK CONCEPT 

Noting that ANPR systems, specifically for parking purposes needed enhancement, Prismabytes along with our IT partners have produced an ANPR system coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide a seamless, next-generation parking system.  

Imagine a shopping centre with 10000 parking lots. If each vehicle only parked in a lot at one time and a savings of just 10 seconds per car using the Prisma Smart park system can be obtained, that building will save a minimum of 30000 seconds or 8 hours. If for example there are 3 sessions of parking (as opposed to 1 session) the savings is 24 hours. This means that parking lots become vacant much faster allowing more people to park (and exit) at a faster rate providing a seamless parking experience for the driver of the vehicle and ultimately increasing revenue for the parking lot and the commercial building as well.   

The parking experience now turns to a major attraction and customer traffic will travel to such places, as customers who can park their vehicles in shopping centres or commercial buildings that constantly have available parking spaces would prefer such locations for both work and social activity.  

The Prisma Smart park Architecture is simple: 

 On entry, your license plate is recorded and you show your preferred E-wallet card to the reader located at the boom gate unit (the camera will have already read your number plate). No tickets to be printed by the ticketing machine.  
 The boom gate opens and your license plate details are sent to the ‘Command Centre 
 You park your car within minutes and go about your business. 
 On exit, there are no lines to stand in, not tickets to be inserted into payment machines and no payment to be made. Just drive out. The camera at the exit will record your license plate, charge your E-wallet and presto, you are out of the parking lot in no time.  

The Prisma SmartPark advantage is that our system utilises detection and reading using deep learning technology. This technology is aided with the use of AI to ensure that the system consistently delivers high accuracy. Our systems use a customisable neural network and coupled with deep learning technology, allows for the reading of various types of number plates including ones that are partially damaged, has non-standard fronts, stickers on the plates and even number plates for motorcycles.  

The advanced CCTV cameras can record number plates of moving vehicles so your number plate will be recorded even before you reach the boom gate. Each CCTV camera located at entrances and exits has a dedicated Local Processing Unit (LPU) allowing for numerous entrances and exits to operate 

FURTHER ADVANTAGES OF PRISMA SMART PARK 

Parking companies whether building owners or car park operators need to enhance their bottom line.  

The Prisma Smart park ANPR system allows for such enhanced revenue in numerous ways such as:

1. With the use of our ANPR system parking, lots become vacant faster and therefore can be filled up faster, which augurs well for revenue.

2. No cash transaction, hundred per cent digital payment.  

3. For high traffic areas, specific parking lots can be demarcated as reserved parking or prime parking lots which can be booked in advance via an app. The person requiring the parking lot can be assured that he /she can avail of a lot at the booked times. Charges for such booked lots will, of course, be much higher than the standard rate adding to revenue.  

4. Data of all vehicles entering and exiting will be available via the ‘ANPR Library’ and specifically for commercial buildings/shopping centres, the data can be analysed in various ways to target customers, especially regular customers for the purposes of advertising, promotions etc. An indirect revenue source. 

5. Prisma Smart park has an AI-based vehicle count and classifier system to detect non- occupied slots in the parking lot and allows for : 

 Highly reliable AI-based library for occupancy detection

  Virtual ROI tool to mark slots 

 Works on marked and un-marked parking slots 

 Vehicle detection accuracy of more than 95%  

 Interface with any CCTV camera ( existing cameras can be utilised)

  Existing infrastructure can be used with correction in camera angle

  Parking guidance

  Intimate open slot located at the entrance to avoid people wandering inside the slots 

 Technology is robust against rain, dust and other falling particles (for external uncovered parking lots) 

 The detection and presence of vehicles even if said vehicle is  parked on two parking bays 

6. Security personnel can become more efficient with real-time data and video on their mobile phones. This allows for parking guidance on vacant lots, assistance for drivers who have forgotten where their cars have been parked and identifying cars that have been parked past their reserved time. 

7. For monthly parking customers, building owners or car park operators need only to enter the vehicle number plate. Registered vehicles can seamlessly enter and exit the barrier gates.  

 8. No longer will there be a need to print cards for monthly parking or season parking. Season parking and visitor parking sections can be controlled by separate boom gates. 

9. Prisma Smart park also works as a security system for parking lots and since our system can be integrated with any currently existing system, it a much less expensive system to install for both parking and security enhancement.     

10. Prisma Smart park is a data-driven technology and all collected data can be analysed for various uses including analysing customer behaviour, analysing real-time data, cutting cost and increasing parking efficiency, aiding in customer loyalty and beating your competitors by providing the best parking experience.  

Innovation is the only way to solve the parking problems that urban centres are experiencing. Parking is limited in not only major but smaller cities as well and as the country grows parking areas are being choked due to excess demand and inefficient usage of parking lots, The parking woes need to be urgently addressed and countermeasures need to be taken to improve the quality of parking in all urban centres. 

Complement and enhance your current parking system with the PRISMA SMART PARK system and experience a seamless entry/ exit cashless payment system and a pre-booked reserved system which can be integrated with your current operating scheme and you have delighted customers who would only be too pleased to use your parking facilities and pay a premium when required, again and again.