License Plates logger for a LPR-enabled camera

[technet]

We are looking for a tool that logs license plates for a camera that already reads them.

What you guys would recommend? A simple tool to end users, that allows for daily reports.

 

[Sprite]

I personally just started using OpenALPR.com. So far it seems pretty accurate, the only downside is there is only 5 day retention of data on their 5 dollar a month plan. I'm looking into setting up my own web server so I can host my own data.

 

[DLONG2]

The OpenALPR 'watchman' service has a 5 day retention means we have 5 days to manually download the CSV file for permanent storage. GymRatz and myself wrote a Windows program which effects the downloads automatically and stores them in a database. There's a thread on the forum for directions.

 

[technet]

For us to locate here, what's the program's name?

Any other recommendation would be welcome, also.

 

[DLONG2]

Here's a link to the article:

OpenALPR Tool - Save and Query CSV Exports

Updated 2021.08.20 Both Downloader and Viewer have been updated. Most changes relate to being able to pull from the local web-server as well as the cloud CSV to allow much faster imports and thus alerts. Tied into this improvements made to alerting, searching, backups, etc. Please see This...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[wittaj]

It sounds like you are talking about a camera that has the ability to read plates built in. If so, try the free VMS that would be available by the manufacturer and see if it accomplishes what you are looking for.

The methods mentioned above, as well as Plate Recognizer, are a 3rd party and can be accomplished with a camera that does not have the ability to read plates built in.

If you have a camera that has the ability to read plates as part of the system, they you should try to find a solution that will not cost you additional money, or return that camera for a cheaper one and use one of the 3rd party platforms.

 

[brianegge]

What are the uses for having a long record of license plates? In addition to the plate, do you record an image of the vehicle?

I have a short list of known plates, so when someone I know arrives in the driveway I can have Alexa announce the person's name.

 

[DLONG2]

With OpenALPR, there is a local image which gets stored for as much hard drive space you allocate for, and the image can be referenced by plate ID in subsequent searches. One purpose in storing plate records over time would be the ability to focus on new plates in the neighborhood, especially if a criminal event occurred.

 

[wittaj]

Usually when we have criminal activity in my neighborhood, I find out when a neighbor down the next street approaches me and is like "two weeks ago a car came through here and they broke into my car, but my arlo couldn't get any details". Now none of us are surprised about that statement and arlo LOL.

By having local and longer retention, I can now look that up. Further, I can then do a search in the file and see if that plate came through prior. Many times you find that they drove through the neighborhood during the day to scope out the houses and I can simply pull up the daytime image and video if it still exists to capture more details to provide to the police. It would take forever to watch weeks or months of video to see if that vehicle had come through before.

I use Plate Recognizer as it easily integrates with Blue Iris and every plate is stored in the log file, so I can simply open it in excel and do search and queries and sorts and quickly find the plates that have only been through here less than 5 or 10 times.

 

[technet]

It sounds like you are talking about a camera that has the ability to read plates built in. If so, try the free VMS that would be available by the manufacturer and see if it accomplishes what you are looking for.

The methods mentioned above, as well as Plate Recognizer, are a 3rd party and can be accomplished with a camera that does not have the ability to read plates built in.

If you have a camera that has the ability to read plates as part of the system, they you should try to find a solution that will not cost you additional money, or return that camera for a cheaper one and use one of the 3rd party platforms.

The VMS from the camera manufacturer has a heavy impact on a system that already runs Blue Iris, and that's one of the reasons why we are looking for clean, lightweight alternatives.

 

[technet]

What are the uses for having a long record of license plates? In addition to the plate, do you record an image of the vehicle?

I have a short list of known plates, so when someone I know arrives in the driveway I can have Alexa announce the person's name.

Security, vehicles tracking, etc.

In our scenario is a commercial use, with trucks and other heavy machines.

 

[wittaj]

The VMS from the camera manufacturer has a heavy impact on a system that already runs Blue Iris, and that's one of the reasons why we are looking for clean, lightweight alternatives.

So the question is do you have a camera that has the built in capabilities to read and log plates and if so, is it new enough you could return and purchase a cheaper camera that can read plates but not analyze and then use Plate Recognizer with Blue Iris to log the plates? I am sure there are other programs intended for commercial installs that can pull that data from a camera, but they probably are not cheap.

If you go to a third party like Plate Recognizer or OpenALPR and you have a camera that natively can read and log plates, then you have a camera with a feature that is not being utilized and could use a cheaper camera. Most here use this camera for LPR purposes - Amazon.com: Loryta IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E IP Camera 2MP Starlight WDR IR Bullet AI Network Camera English Version: Electronics

 

[technet]

Returning is not an option, and it is overall a great camera.

User's demand are just a simple way to view detected license plates, in a fashion like this:

 

[wittaj]

So if you use Plate Recognizer or OpenALPR, you will get similar results and will be available on a website for 5-7 days and then it is gone. That may fit your needs or it may not.

Any retaining of information any longer would require a local way to pull that information as people have done here with what was shown in Post #5. The problem with that method as you read through that thread is occasionally something changes and then if you are not watching it constantly, you will be missing data from whenever that change occurred. If you want something that is turn it on and forget about it, that method will not be it.

Plate Recognizer is integrated with Blue Iris and would be more of a turn it on and forget about it, and you would retain the plates in the BI log. They have a free demo that you can do right in Blue Iris and see if it fits your needs before deciding to go with a monthly plan. I highly recommend opening up the camera settings in BI for that camera and select Artificial Intelligence and select Plate Recognizer and let it do its thing for a couple of days and see if that accomplishes what you are trying to do. You can also view the captures for 7 days on their website.

With that said, if I had a camera that had the capabilities built in, I would not go to a monthly subscription plan and would pull it from the camera or write code to pull it into another format. But as a business, you may not care about paying for a 3rd party monthly prescription, but then you are under-utilizing the capabilities of that camera.

 

[Sprite]

This may sound like a roundabout way, but would this work..?

I currently have my LPR connected to my Lorex NVR. Could I install blue iris on a computer and setup an rtsp feed from my LPR camera to blue iris and use Plate Recognizer and log the plates?

I know ideally I would use BI to connect directly to my cameras and that's the plan for the future, but for now would the setup I'm talking about above work?

 

[wittaj]

I believe that would work as it would simply show up as a camera in Blue Iris. Blue Iris offers a 14-day trial, so you could try it on a laptop and confirm it works before purchasing anything.