License Plate capture example....

sorka

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Was going to buy a dedicated LPR camera but this tracking Hikvision has been spectacular at LPR. This Maxima was 325 feet away.

27788482_1853104598035411_6987934730838576238_o.jpg
 

chaycock

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Holy crap! That is amazing!. Can you tell me the model of the camera, lens configuration, settings, etc?
Was this at day or night?
Did you use an IR filter on the camera?
I have been trying to do the same thing but have not had any luck.

I have been able to get the plates during the day, but not at night because of the 'bloom' due to over exposure.
If I knock down the exposure, then I am not able to see anything during the day.

Also, out of curiosity, which LPR were you going to buy?
 

Sammy2

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Yes. What camera is this?

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looney2ns

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Holy crap! That is amazing!. Can you tell me the model of the camera, lens configuration, settings, etc?
Was this at day or night?
Did you use an IR filter on the camera?
I have been trying to do the same thing but have not had any luck.

I have been able to get the plates during the day, but not at night because of the 'bloom' due to over exposure.
If I knock down the exposure, then I am not able to see anything during the day.

Also, out of curiosity, which LPR were you going to buy?
Lots of info here: LPR
 

sorka

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Oops. Sorry about that. It's the DS-2DF82346I-AEL.

This was at 3 am in the morning. The camera is in night mode so the IR filter is removed and it's using IR illumination. WDR is set to 82 out of 100 which seems key to getting the LPs to show up without being washed out by headlights and such. At this setting it seems equally good on front LPs that aren't illuminated and rear LPs that are illuminated.

I'm at the bottom of a cul-de-sec on a short street that is about 400 feet long so I'm an ideal situation for this camera.

It's not perfect though. I get a half dozen false tracks throughout the night on things that aren't actually there. About 10% of the actual things track badly and go off into the woods. For true positives, 90% of them are tack on and yield results like this. Apparently IR of this frequency has no problem going through glass either since I often get faces illuminated through the windows as cars pass by.
 

chaycock

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Oops. Sorry about that. It's the DS-2DF82346I-AEL.

This was at 3 am in the morning. The camera is in night mode so the IR filter is removed and it's using IR illumination. WDR is set to 82 out of 100 which seems key to getting the LPs to show up without being washed out by headlights and such. At this setting it seems equally good on front LPs that aren't illuminated and rear LPs that are illuminated.

I'm at the bottom of a cul-de-sec on a short street that is about 400 feet long so I'm an ideal situation for this camera.

It's not perfect though. I get a half dozen false tracks throughout the night on things that aren't actually there. About 10% of the actual things track badly and go off into the woods. For true positives, 90% of them are tack on and yield results like this. Apparently IR of this frequency has no problem going through glass either since I often get faces illuminated through the windows as cars pass by.
How does it perform during the day?
When I tried to do LP reading, I could get it to work in the day or in the night, but not both because the settings had to be so different.
 

sorka

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How does it perform during the day?
When I tried to do LP reading, I could get it to work in the day or in the night, but not both because the settings had to be so different.
This is an example I posted on youtube shortly after getting it:


You'll notice some pixelation around the car but not in the moving object itself. I originally thought this was compression from uploading to youtube, but then I noticed it on others on Blue Iris. It turns out there's a "region of interest" feature which increases the bitrate for the region of interest. You can configure manual regions of interest so that fixed areas on the video always get a higher bitrate but you can also select "dynamic" which makes objects during object tracking a region of interest, so in this video, the moving vehicle has a much higher bitrate.
 

CCTVCam

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This is an example I posted on youtube shortly after getting it:


You'll notice some pixelation around the car but not in the moving object itself. I originally thought this was compression from uploading to youtube, but then I noticed it on others on Blue Iris. It turns out there's a "region of interest" feature which increases the bitrate for the region of interest. You can configure manual regions of interest so that fixed areas on the video always get a higher bitrate but you can also select "dynamic" which makes objects during object tracking a region of interest, so in this video, the moving vehicle has a much higher bitrate.
Yeah I was going to say that looks like bitrate. Most noticeable when the car is going directly away from the camera (rear shot). Here there's the least amount of change from frame to frame, and you can see instantly the picture cleans up and sharpens considerably. I know my views on this might not sit well with some who run a lot of cameras professionally because here storage is an issue, but this is one reason where I would prefer to see manufacturers allowing the option to run a much higher bit rate on DVR's / Blue Iris, so those who want to increase quality in situations like this, or simply don't have the number of cameras to have to prioritise storage over quality, can choose to run a lower compression level or maybe even more suitable, a variable bit rate with a high upper limit so eg 5-30mbs range.
 

CCTVCam

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Holy crap! That is amazing!. Can you tell me the model of the camera, lens configuration, settings, etc?
Was this at day or night?
Did you use an IR filter on the camera?
I have been trying to do the same thing but have not had any luck.

I have been able to get the plates during the day, but not at night because of the 'bloom' due to over exposure.
If I knock down the exposure, then I am not able to see anything during the day.
1st thing that's obvious there is great exposure. Beyond that, the sharpness comes down to pixel density which in turn comes down to the advantages of the camera being able to zoom in for a tight shot. Moral of the story here as I see it, is if you want a great picture at distance, use a powered zoom lens. Don't try to retrieve recognition shots from wide angle.
 

chaycock

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Can you provide a link for that camera? Searching google on the model number you provided only turns up this post.
 

awsum140

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At that price I want it to make coffee for me in the morning! No wonder the video is so good.
 

sorka

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At that price I want it to make coffee for me in the morning! No wonder the video is so good.
I got both mine for $1123 - 5% on my chase card with a valid USA serial number and USA firmware. Not the most expensive cameras I've bought but pretty close.
 

Sammy2

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There's a relatively busy T intersection one house down across the street from me. I'm afraid the servos would be shot in no time if I mounted that!

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sorka

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There's a relatively busy T intersection one house down across the street from me. I'm afraid the servos would be shot in no time if I mounted that!

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That's why you use defined regions to decide where to start tracking activity.
 

Sammy2

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That's why you use defined regions to decide where to start tracking activity.
In the morning, in the afternoon after the nearby school gets out and in the evening this intersection is very busy and there's cars going both ways on our street every few seconds to minutes.

Second screen grab points across the yard the other way so it is busy that way too.

I'm not sure how a tracking PZT would handle this situation bit it'd be nice to catch any cars stopping in front of the house or in the driveway with something like this.

Currently, I have wide coverage of the whole front yard but lack details that this sort of camera would bring.


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