CodeProject.ai with License Plate Reader module - HowTo?

[jeremycolvin]

Yes try that.

Are you on manual shutter and if so what is your gain number?

Manual / 50 - seeing the vehicles /plates isn't the issue... figuring out how to trigger them is... I think the reason the crossing didn't work is because from the back it basically only sees the taillights / plate... I just used the zone you suggested and luckily a vehicle came through, headed towards and it seemed to trigger pretty well... but there no plate on front... so jury is still out.

 

[wittaj]

I know seeing the plate isn't the issue - you are trying to knock down headlight bounce and early trigger.

Try lowering the gain and see if that knocks it out.

 

[jeremycolvin]

I know seeing the plate isn't the issue - you are trying to knock down headlight bounce and early trigger.

Try lowering the gain and see if that knocks it out.

ahhh, gotchya... will try that, thank you

 

[jeremycolvin]

brb... going to go make 1 more loop in the truck for tonight with the new zones. Wish me luck

 

[jeremycolvin]

brb... going to go make 1 more loop in the truck for tonight with the new zones. Wish me luck

Nope... no dice... on the right it triggered the video ok, but no plate. On the left it was late on triggering video. Oh well, It's 1:15 am and I have church in the morning... to be continued... tomorrow. Thanks for your help

View attachment License-Left-22.20230813_010254_1.mp4
View attachment License-Right-21.20230813_010437_1.mp4

 

[jeremycolvin]

I have it working pretty well in daytime now... changed the zones and lowered the trigger time to 1 sec and max trigger to 1 sec. - it's working almost every time now... other than annoying vehicles like this that have that stupid plate cover designed to beat readers (i think):

 

[CCTVCam]

I put the two license cams on continuous. I have them on a 10TB drive... How many days do you think I'll get out of that?

I'm not doing LPR, but doesn't make any difference to recording anyway.

I have a 4tb drive and 2 cameras. Both cameras have high settings - main at 4K and 16,000lbs, sub continuous at 1080P and 4,000kbs. On CPU alone, AI times are @250 ms average (i5-11400).

It's the 14th August and my clips go back as far as 7th July, so 6 weeks. I don't have that many alerts though, around 20 a day. Reading Licence plates you may have a lot more, it depends on how busy your road is. However, I would expect at least a couple of weeks on my size drive unless there was a major road outside my house so I'm going to say you should get a month or more.

 

[wpiman]

ok, changed that... just waiting for a car to come by now.... like watching paint dry...

You can watch old videos and turn on AI analysis. You don't need to debug in real time...

 

[jeremycolvin]

ok cam wizards... this is what's happening now, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

During the day, I'm getting great shots, and great responses. License plates are clearly in focus, are set to manual focus, and all is good. But at night time, it's like the cameras shift their focus, which is strange, because the cam is set to manual focus. I know these cams are very capable at night because previously the plates were in clear focus at night.

Left cam is set to 1060 zoom and 1356 focus
right cam is set to 1020 zoom and 1475 focus

But look at the day/night comparisons... am I missing something here?









View attachment a1.mp4

View attachment a2.mp4


View attachment 4a.mp4
View attachment 4b.mp4
View attachment 4.mp4

 

[wittaj]

As I mentioned previously, you need to run the day and night profile on the camera and you need to manually focus the camera at night as for many people the focus number can be different for infrared versus color.

So at night you need to stop a car in the middle of the field of view and set the focus for night.

My one camera has a 10-point difference in focus between day and night.

And then it is just a matter of making minor tweaks to brightness, contrast, etc. based on your field of view. Nobody here has the settings the exact same as someone else. Shutter gets the ability to freeze frame and then the other settings help clear up the image.

 

[jeremycolvin]

As I mentioned previously, you need to run the day and night profile on the camera and you need to manually focus the camera at night as for many people the focus number can be different for infrared versus color.

So at night you need to stop a car in the middle of the field of view and set the focus for night.

My one camera has a 10-point difference in focus between day and night.

And then it is just a matter of making minor tweaks to brightness, contrast, etc. based on your field of view. Nobody here has the settings the exact same as someone else. Shutter gets the ability to freeze frame and then the other settings help clear up the image.

The cams Are on manual focus.

Left cam is set to 1060 zoom and 1356 focus
right cam is set to 1020 zoom and 1475 focus

I guess I assumed that the "focus" wouldn't change... I'll go out tonight and check focal points and see what the #'s are. tweak tweak tweak and some more tweak... can't wait till it's all dialed in and I can go on with regular life! lol thank you for your help!

 

[wittaj]

Here is a great older post that goes into detail how the focus for daytime and nighttime can be different because of IR. For some they are the same, but for a lot of people, it is different:

Infrared focus shift - explanation

 

[wittaj]

Many of us use this utility, either the stand alone or within BI, to force the focus and zoom for day and night as well so that we are not relying on the camera itself to do it. And keep in mind this may shift over time as well and you need to re-adjust.

Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

I wanted to use stronger noise reduction at night and weaker during the day, but Dahua seems to have made a mess of the profile management. On most cameras, there doesn't seem to be a way to have the camera switch automatically between Day and Night profiles when the camera changes between...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Vettester]

I guess I assumed that the "focus" wouldn't change.

As @wittaj mentioned the focus does change.

And keep in mind this may shift over time as well and you need to re-adjust.

I'm using Hubitat to change focus, zoom and profile based on the illuminance data from my weather station. It actually works really well for sunrise and sunset lighting by utilizing the camera's general profile.

 

[CCTVCam]

Picture looks a bit light. I also wonder if the IR is at the limits of it's range given the plates are quite dark. Maybe an external IR illuminator is required. Try turning the shutter speed up further to sharpen and darken the image. If the plate becomes sharper and too dim, then I'm going to call IR issue.

I can't rememeber what the plate reading guys on here use, but I believe it's around 1/3000th of a second around 0.33ms anyone?

 

[jeremycolvin]

Many of us use this utility, either the stand alone or within BI, to force the focus and zoom for day and night as well so that we are not relying on the camera itself to do it. And keep in mind this may shift over time as well and you need to re-adjust.

Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

I wanted to use stronger noise reduction at night and weaker during the day, but Dahua seems to have made a mess of the profile management. On most cameras, there doesn't seem to be a way to have the camera switch automatically between Day and Night profiles when the camera changes between...

ipcamtalk.com

Thank you for posting this, I was just about to come on with an update and ask how to force the focus change for day/night as I don't see the option in my cameras settings ...

Left Cam (Zoom 1060): Day Focus = 1356 / Night Focus = 1370
Right Cam (Zoom 1020): Day Focus = 1475 / Night Focus = 1487

With the night time focus at that, I'm picking up plates well.

Now to look into that utility you posted to handle the day/night focus switch. Thanks!

 

[wittaj]

Thank you for posting this, I was just about to come on with an update and ask how to force the focus change for day/night as I don't see the option in my cameras settings ...

Left Cam (Zoom 1060): Day Focus = 1356 / Night Focus = 1370
Right Cam (Zoom 1020): Day Focus = 1475 / Night Focus = 1487

With the night time focus at that, I'm picking up plates well.

Now to look into that utility you posted to handle the day/night focus switch. Thanks!

There is an option in the camera to set up a Day profile and a night profile - don't you have different contrast, brightness, etc. for day and night or are using the General Profile?

 

[jeremycolvin]

 

[wittaj]

View attachment 170136

Under the settings gear icon you select camera and then you have all the different profiles to set up:



I see you have the camera with the new GUI, so the utility and APIs in that thread I posted will not work.

I think someone figured out the API for non full color cameras, let me see if I can find it.

 

[jeremycolvin]

That's what I thought too... but as soon as I change that setting to "day" - then go to "Live" to adjust the zoom, when I return to "camera" it's back to "night" - I'm assuming it's getting switched automatically because it is night time... maybe tomorrow during the day I'll be able to set the daytime settings? or I guess I could switch it from day/night to "customized scene" - I'll try that real quick... brb