How to overlay license plate number on Dahua IPC-HDBW7842H-Z (ANPR)?

[victorhooi]

Hi,

I am trying to setup a Dahua IPC-HDBW7842H-Z to do ANPR.

Specifically, my goal is to get license plates as a text overlay on the video footage.

Camera firmware is updated to DH_IPC-HX8XXX-Nobel_MultiLang_PN_V3.000.0000000.2.R.210712, which as far as I'm aware, is the latest version. This is using the new Dahua "5.0" web interface.

I went into the AI section, and enabled the "ANPR" slider, and then clicked "Next"



It then shows me two tabs - Rule Config and Picture.

Under Rule Config, I've set it to show traffic flow statistics as an overlay, so it shows "Motor Vehicle: <integer"> on the video output.

At first, this was stuck at 0, until I realised that you had to use the "Detection area" tool to draw a yellow box over the screen first.


My next step is to go to the "Picture" tab, and tick the extra attributes (e.g. Plate No.) that I also want to overlay:



However, those attributes don't appear on the video output, like the "Motor Vehicle: <int>" counter does.

Is there something I've missed here?

Also, I checked under the "Report" section, ANPR, and there are no license plates listed there - it just says "No Data":



What's involved to getting license plates to appear in the Report section, and also to get overlaid on the video footage?

Thanks!

 

[genelit]

Hi,

A short answer as I'm on the phone now.
I run a similar setup with my 7442H-Z4.

I run Video Metadata instead of ANPR, then you get people as a bonus, still with ANPR capability and plate number overlay.

A note, in the picture of the report you have searched for face recognition. Still the same problem if you search ANPR instead?

Happy tracking!

 

[genelit]

Ok, I'm not sure your goal, to get a text overlay in the video, is realistic with this camera. At least I haven't found a solution to print the plates in the live video.
May I ask why you want it, I don't see the benefit of it?

What the camera does is that it prints the text overlay on the pictures.
I made a short video starting with showing the settings I'm using, then reporting.
You'll see that I'm running Video Metadata and i can use both the ANPR and Video Metadata report.

In the second part of the video you'll also see when I pull the data from the NVR. This is where i easily can search for the metadata, white cars, trucks, plates the start with "ABC" etc.

Edit, the computer i'm on is having a really bad day... slow as f....

 

[victorhooi]

@genelit - Thanks for the video. Very helpful to watch!

However, even after configuring it as close as possible, I still don't seem to see any results in the cameras Results section?

OK, so it seems you can't enable ANPR and Video Metadata at the same time - the system only seems to let you toggle one slider at a time.

So I've disabled ANPR, and enabled Video Metadata:


Then, I hit Next and added a Rule for Motor Vehicle Detection and for People Detection:



Here is the Picture config for Motor Vehicle Detection:


Back in the main screen, I also drew a yellow rectangle for Detection Area, and here is the rest of the rule config:



Now, I went back into the Report function, as per your video. There are sections for Face Recognition, Video Metadata, ANPR and People Counting. However, all of these are showing as empty:


Does anybody know what's going on?

 

[looney2ns]

@Wildcat_1

 

[genelit]

You're right, you need to choose ANPR or Video Metadata, these SmartPlans cannot be chosen at the same time.

The settings looks correct.

I see you have enabled traffic flow statistics, do the counters register any traffic (passing vehicles and people)?

Depending on your view, you could also try to change Snapshot mode from Optimised to Tripwire.

What is the distance to the objects you're trying to catch?

 

[victorhooi]

Yes, the "Motor Vehicle: <integer>" counter is going up:



So the camera does appear to be "seeing" cars - it's simply that I can't seem to retrieve any number plate data at all, or it's not seeing any number plates.

This is currently monitoring a driveway - in the above photo, it's a very brightly lit area, but the area directly before the camera you can see number plates clearly:



I would estimate it's maybe 3-4 metres from the camera to the cars below?

What does changing snapshot mode from Optimised to Tripwire do?

Under Camera, Image, this is what I have set under Exposure:

 

[Wildcat_1]

@Wildcat_1

Thanks for tagging me in @looney2ns. @victorhooi I should be able to help you get this working. Will review your posts and reach out tomorrow (will also follow up with DM). In the meantime YES do use Tripwire instead of optimized snap (I mentioned this in my review too, much better to use this) and based on your FOV place it horizontally across the entire image from the left (door handle of the door with red sign) to the right. Make that change (the simpler one) now and then I will reach back out. If you're open to it then I can also jump on your system remotely and dial in to see what I can pull from that FOV for you.

What I need to understand first is ARE you actually capturing plates ? In other words if you look at your back end NVR OR SD card do you see plate info and associated metadata captured in those places ? If not then you're not properly set to capture the plates in the first place.

There are a couple of things that get confused by people looking to 'overlay' when it comes to metadata / ANPR. There is the 'cutout' view as I shows in my ITC traffic cam review HERE where it will capture the vehicle, record the plate onscreen in table + if you want also capture a close up view of passenger or driver. Then there is the AI Live / Live View that is offered by a number of cams (the ITC can also do this processing live as you will see in that review) and the 7x42 Ultra's offer a sub-section of this too. Specifically it can show the image captured in real-time on the right side of the screen with the ANPR (if captured) underneath the image. Make sure you have an SD card in cam too . However remember that is 'live' only not to be confused with burned into the stream. If you send the stream to an NVR then the metadata for the vehicle capture is sent with it, read by the NVR and then searchable for things like make, color, plate etc and can also be used in white/black lists. Remember the 7x42 Ultra's are different from true traffic cams like the ITC in that they cannot do white / black listing nor do they have on-board plate databases like the ITC's.

For an example of the Live view processing, check out my 8442 review HERE and specifically the video section in this post HERE

I'll also embed the vide below. Take a look at position 3 minutes and 37 seconds where I show how the cam processed the AI live and you will see the pic caps + metadata. In this case I show Face Recognition but same applies ANPR etc but again in Live View.


HTH to get you started. Let me know the answers to my questions above, try tripwire then we'll talk further too

 

[victorhooi]

@Wildcat_1 Thanks for the detailed response/info!

OK, I've changed Snapshot Mode from Optimized, to Tripire - here is a screenshot of my current settings:



At this stage I just have this standalone camera - I was hoping to see the number plate data either overlaid on the footage somehow, or showing up in the "Report" section in the camera's web UI.

How do I verify if the camera itself is picking up plate data? You mentioned SD cards - I didn't see any settings for that in the web UI - but it's possible I missed it in the new fancy web UI =). I will need to get up on a ladder, and install a SD card as well, haha.

Also - do you have any theories why the plate data might not be coming through? (I included the camera shutter configuration in the previous post as well, in case that helps).

 

[Wildcat_1]

@Wildcat_1 Thanks for the detailed response/info!

OK, I've changed Snapshot Mode from Optimized, to Tripire - here is a screenshot of my current settings:

View attachment 102627

At this stage I just have this standalone camera - I was hoping to see the number plate data either overlaid on the footage somehow, or showing up in the "Report" section in the camera's web UI.

How do I verify if the camera itself is picking up plate data? You mentioned SD cards - I didn't see any settings for that in the web UI - but it's possible I missed it in the new fancy web UI =). I will need to get up on a ladder, and install a SD card as well, haha.

Also - do you have any theories why the plate data might not be coming through? (I included the camera shutter configuration in the previous post as well, in case that helps).

Ok good to see you setup tripwire. YES you will need an SD card so you can confirm plate captures if you are not connecting this to anything else. Once you have the SD card installed and formatted, the cam set to ANPR then when you go into Live View IF you get successful plate captures you will see those show up in the Live View as I showed in my video above BUT remember this will only be while you watch it live. However because you will then have the SD card installed, you can then go to Playback menu and in there when you select JPG (snapshots) for the selection you can then choose CarDetect as the type. Any cars with plates successfully tagged will show up in the resulting list of SD card captured events.

If you had an NVR you can do the same since the plate and other vehicle related data is meta-tagged into the stream

HTH and ping me back or just DM me when you have the SD card installed. If you want a recommendation on a good one, go for the Samsung Pro Endurance 128G is the one that I use a ton of personally, rated for surveillance, works really well and keeps up