OpenALPR Tool - Save and Query CSV Exports

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
Yep - I followed that for NSSM last night and confirmed they were running in the background as a service.

Go figures with Windows LOL - going through Task Manager to get to the Services pulls up different items than going straight to services app.

So why would we select "Restart the Service" instead of "Restart the Program"? Does the user interface need to be open?

I just did a reboot of my machine, so I will see if it still uploads when I do not have the interface open.
 

tech101

Known around here
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
1,472
Reaction score
2,125
Location
SF BayArea, USA
I had mine set that way so if the services were to fail so it can attempt restarting the service which is associated basically to run that program so it should run so mine has been working so far non stop.

Yes if the program is not open it should still be running in the background once you have services configured properly. Which sounds like you do.

So if you now launch viewer you should be seeing some latest plates as they come in.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
So something still isn't right.

I rebooted the computer at 12:44pm and then let it sit for well beyond the 30min timer I have it set to import for.

I log in to the computer at 1:45pm and the first thing I do is confirm service is running:

1611601211642.png

I also confirm in Task Manager to be total OCD:

1611601270093.png

Then I open up the LPR_Viewer and it hasn't updated:

1611601318208.png

Then I open up the LPR Downloader and it shows an import at the exact time I open the user interface:

1611601382664.png

So what am I missing or doing wrong?

If I leave the interface open it works, but that doesn't help if the computer restarts or the programs bugs out and restarts as a service.
 
Last edited:

tech101

Known around here
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
1,472
Reaction score
2,125
Location
SF BayArea, USA
When installing it as service did you make sure the Exe location was fine and exe has not moved from that location since ? Also make sure the account which you are using to run that service which is windows local user id Is correct .. That is the only thing i can think off..


If your windows is Azure joined basically I think if you create a Microsoft online ID during OS install. Logon ID sometime its looking for email in that case you wanna make sure you are using a local account and you can force windows to use local account if you do .\Whateverthelocalusername
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
Yeah, I haven't moved the directories. I am going to remove NSSM and try again.

Hmm I don't recall how the account was set-up, but let me look at that again.

Thanks! Will keep everyone posted.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
OK - so I removed NSSM and rebooted and then re-set up NSSM and rebooted and let the computer sit. Logged in and it is working as intended. Must have been some bug since it was clearly showing running as a service before!

Now that is out of the way LOL, what are your thoughts on my question about importing in the plates I have in Blue Iris logs from Plate Recognizer. If I opened up the CSV file and pasted in the like columns like plates, time, etc. could I pull those in under the manual update button. I recognize that the pictures wouldn't be there, but it would build my historical up quickly in this tool. Would the tool go BOOM if I tried that as many of the columns will be blank? I so want to take advantage of that history, but I don't want to blow this tool up either!
 

tech101

Known around here
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
1,472
Reaction score
2,125
Location
SF BayArea, USA
Ah, On that I am not sure how that can go... I would wait until either gymratz or dlong2 or someone with some sql experience can give you more depth answer ..
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
So I found the case for why we should let OpenALPR store some video footage!

I had put that at zero because I was so impressed with the way OpenALPR uses a video stream and didn't miss a plate, plus I have Blue Iris recording so I figure I could just look at that.

So I get on this morning and see a police vehicle came through here, so I was eager to go into this tool and tag it as public services - OpenALPR didn't register the plate as a plate, so nothing picked up at that time.

It would be nice to watch the OpenALPR video and see why it didn't pick it up. The question is, is there anything to do with that information other than seeing that it didn't acknowledge the plate? Has anyone had something similar happen and sent the results to OpenALPR?

Interestingly enough, somehow Plate Recognizer picked it up.
 

biggen

Known around here
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
2,539
Reaction score
2,765
The video that OpenALPR would record and BI does record are identical. I'm not sure I understand your reasoning on why it would matter if OpenALPR recorded it vs BlueIris. You mean it would be nice to send in the recorded video on OpenALPR to OpenALPR tech support and ask for an explanation on why it missed it?

I've had OpenALPR miss plates that I could read with my own eyes. They are usually pretty dim/faint plates though and its at night if that occurs. No, I've never emailed support and asked why it missed the plate. I'm sure they would respond with a canned answer of "Well there are lots of variables...".
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
Would the video in OpenALPR on playback show the little box trying to find the plate? That is more at what I am getting it - would we see that the attempt was made but it didn't register or acknowledge it as a plate and would OpenALPR be interested in that to improve their AI search engine?

If the video doesn't record the box trying to register if it is a plate or not, then yes there is no advantage to saving the video in OpenALPR.

I just checked now that the video is recording and I do not see a box showing it trying to register the plate, so yes, scratch my idea LOL. Go with no video recording on OpenALPR...
 

biggen

Known around here
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
2,539
Reaction score
2,765
Not it would not show the box because the AI didn't recognize a plate.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
It isn't showing the box on the recording for the plates it recognized either, so like you said, saving a recording there is no different than in Blue Iris.
 

tech101

Known around here
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
1,472
Reaction score
2,125
Location
SF BayArea, USA
Yes, that does happen every now and then dont know the reason but I usually can re visit those plates by playing back video in BI if needed.

Also to add to that is .. I have had openalpr pickup garbage truck plates which even for me are hard to read at times... and there are times plates are so clear I can even read it from the sub stream lol and those can get missed..

It does not happen a whole lot .. Which is fine as No system can be 100%
 

biggen

Known around here
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
2,539
Reaction score
2,765
Yeah I have seen it pick up plates that even I can't hardly read but then others (again, really at night) it misses when I thought they were clear enough to get. I've also seen it read a plate too early that just came into the frame and it only read half the plate because the other half is hanging out side the frame still. But that is very rare.

Still a pretty good product for $5/month. Very happy with it.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
Yeah, I totally get the it will not get 100% of the plates. Just a little surprised because as you said, this thing has got plates that were total rust-jobs and hard to read looking at them in person, but this nice bright reflective plate didn't get picked up - I suspect it must be because it probably doesn't follow a format from any other state plates. Yet it picks up phone numbers as plates on some of these commercial vehicles LOL.
 

tech101

Known around here
Joined
Mar 30, 2015
Messages
1,472
Reaction score
2,125
Location
SF BayArea, USA
haha, Yes I have had the system even pick up people as plates with It reading NIKE, Adidas lol and so on haha
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
So I have been running OpenALPR and this tool for a couple days and really like it. I spent some time today tagging the neighbors vehicles and using BI to make sure I had the correct vehicles to the correct neighbors.

My PC is a dedicated machine to Blue Iris (well now runs this too) and I was running around 10-15% CPU and jumps to 20-25% when I have the BI interface open. I was shocked how it would spike to 100% when a vehicle came by because of OpenALPR.

Without a vehicle, my computer is basically running the same CPU usage, but was shocked how much it jumped up when analyzing a plate. I am running two cams for OpenALPR that are 2MP at 15FPS. Does bitrate impact the stream into OpenALPR or is it just resolution and FPS?

Has anyone found any tweaks that still provide a high percentage of plates - maybe less resolution or lower FPS?
 

biggen

Known around here
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
2,539
Reaction score
2,765
Bitrate has an effect as does resolution and fps. I run 16000kbps @1080 and 20fps for my LPR camera. During the day, my Watchman VM runs about 35% CPU usage average across all 4 cores. At night I run about 15% CPU usage average since there just isn't anything to see until a car drives by.

You can also setup masks in the OpenALPR Watchman site that will force the agent to ignore masked areas. That will also help with CPU usage.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,431
Reaction score
47,552
Location
USA
Yeah, we had some wind today and was sending the one camera off like crazy with OpenALPR and tree movement, so I tried the ignore mask zone, but at the angle I was at, it was then missing plates depending on where the car was driving or the plate location, so that wasn't ideal either, but I will play with the two zone detection settings and see if I can get that worked out. The agent uses basically zero when there is no motion, which is awesome.

Am I going about cores correctly. I set mine up initially using 2 cores, but maybe that is like dropping cylinders off an 8 cylinder engine? Should I run 4. It appears I have an 8 core system. Or is running 8 better or would that crawl the entire system?
 

biggen

Known around here
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
2,539
Reaction score
2,765
So I don't know if it even honors the "cores" in the Watchman agent area of the dashboard because I've seen it tax the CPU way above the 2 default cores at times that are assigned to it from the dashboard. I just leave it at 2 cores there but I have 4 cores assigned to the VM out of 12 on my CPU. It spikes to 90% (of my 4 cores assigned to the VM) when a car rolls through as you have found out, but only for a few seconds.
 
Top