- May 17, 2017
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Huzzah! My Z12 camera captured the plate of a local porch pirate after a neighbor had posted Xfinity video on NextDoor.com of her stealing. She has a prior conviction for the same offense while driving in the same car.
Prowling Porch Pirate Plate Procured - Pilfering Plunderer Pinpointed
- Thread starter DLONG2
- Start date
Please post porch pirate's plate plainly, preferably promptly.
Persistent porch pirate plainly prefers prison.
Preferably prison purposely prohibiting penetration protection
Please post the Xfinity video so we can all laugh at the poor quality of it LOL.
Preferably prison purposely prohibiting penetration protection
Proposterous proposition! Possibly, package poachers privately prefer posterior poking. Perhaps penetrative punishment promotes parcel pilfering.
Flintstone61
Known around here
Hello DLONG2
Would you mind sharing a few night pictures and setup of your LPR? We're in the middle of installing cameras at a small non-profit boat club (we're about halfway done) and want to install an LPR pointed at our gate as an LPR. I'm looking at the IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E based on the varifocal range and the distance. I want to mount it under the eave of the raised clubhouse (probably about 15' high) which is about 150-200' from the gate. There is a street light at the gate unless there is a power outage (the camera will be on a UPS so we'll at least have some coverage during an outage). Do you think this would work for that (cars are never going more than 10mph in that area).
I believe you use OpenALPR. What are your thoughts on that and what is the cost (as I said, we're a small non-profit with a TIGHT budget - took me years to get the cameras approved)?
Currently we are installing N42BD32 and N42BJ62 (depending on the location) and a couple IPC-HFW4239T-ASE's that we originally installed. But we want something that we are sure can grab a license plate. Thanks for any help you can give!
Would you mind sharing a few night pictures and setup of your LPR? We're in the middle of installing cameras at a small non-profit boat club (we're about halfway done) and want to install an LPR pointed at our gate as an LPR. I'm looking at the IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E based on the varifocal range and the distance. I want to mount it under the eave of the raised clubhouse (probably about 15' high) which is about 150-200' from the gate. There is a street light at the gate unless there is a power outage (the camera will be on a UPS so we'll at least have some coverage during an outage). Do you think this would work for that (cars are never going more than 10mph in that area).
I believe you use OpenALPR. What are your thoughts on that and what is the cost (as I said, we're a small non-profit with a TIGHT budget - took me years to get the cameras approved)?
Currently we are installing N42BD32 and N42BJ62 (depending on the location) and a couple IPC-HFW4239T-ASE's that we originally installed. But we want something that we are sure can grab a license plate. Thanks for any help you can give!
@johnstjs - As you have found, the go to camera is the 5241-Z12E as it has enough zoom to make the plates large and you would need that to cover that distance.
Because you have to run a fast shutter (1/2000 but you might be able to do 1/1000 if they are stopping or slow), the camera has to rely on the IR light and the reflectivity of the plate. At night the image will be completely black except for the headlight/taillight and the plate. So the street light being there or not isn't really an issue. Look at this subforum for all the details:
LPR
Here is my plate capture from 175 out. My angle is about 40 degrees vertical, 45 degrees horizontal. Camera is 35 feet above street at this location. No street lights at this location.
Because you have to run a fast shutter (1/2000 but you might be able to do 1/1000 if they are stopping or slow), the camera has to rely on the IR light and the reflectivity of the plate. At night the image will be completely black except for the headlight/taillight and the plate. So the street light being there or not isn't really an issue. Look at this subforum for all the details:
LPR
Here is my plate capture from 175 out. My angle is about 40 degrees vertical, 45 degrees horizontal. Camera is 35 feet above street at this location. No street lights at this location.
Also, how would you compare that camera to the DH-IPC-HFW5831EN-Z5E? Much less optical zoom but more digital zoom?
sebastiantombs
Known around here
It's not the digital zoom, it's the amount of light needed for a good capture. The 8MP will need much more light to get a good capture. Four times the pixels translates to one quarter the light per pixel when compared to a 2MP of half the light per pixel compared to a 4MP. If you can get enough IR on the target, yes it can work.
Yes, that is the Z12E. Digital zoom sucks with security cameras as the sensors are so small. You need optical zoom.
The Z5E is about half the zoom of the Z12 and you cannot stretch a digital zoom for the rest of the distance you are trying to cover.
Many people here got the Z4E that is comparable zoom to the Z5E and returned for the Z12E. The Z4/5E will max out around 80 feet or so being able to read plates.
OpenALPR and Plate Recognizer are the two leading 3rd party programs that can read plates and turn them into a webpage or use a 3rd party app folks created here to be able to save the plates as text. But there is a cost with those. If all you need is a record of the plates and can look at them manually if needed, then you don't need a 3rd party. Many here just go with being able to visibly read the plates on the recordings.
The Z5E is about half the zoom of the Z12 and you cannot stretch a digital zoom for the rest of the distance you are trying to cover.
Many people here got the Z4E that is comparable zoom to the Z5E and returned for the Z12E. The Z4/5E will max out around 80 feet or so being able to read plates.
OpenALPR and Plate Recognizer are the two leading 3rd party programs that can read plates and turn them into a webpage or use a 3rd party app folks created here to be able to save the plates as text. But there is a cost with those. If all you need is a record of the plates and can look at them manually if needed, then you don't need a 3rd party. Many here just go with being able to visibly read the plates on the recordings.
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- May 17, 2017
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HI John, the OpenALPR service offers a Watchman tier which costs $5 per month per camera, which is what I subscribe to. It allows for 5 days of plate records within their download able CSV file. Their local image database kept on your own PC has as much storage as you wish to set for it.
Thanks for the info guys! As for OpenALPR or Plate Recognizer - I notice that each of those has output data for make, model, color, etc of the car. Does that tie into a database somewhere where it pulls the info from the plate or does it just use it's own detection database? The reason I'm asking is that is something I might be interested in, but only for the occassional nightime plate being read (where I can't see the car very well). If it was a serious case, I just plan to send the plate to the local police but I'm talking about checking on internal matters within our club.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
- May 17, 2017
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The member GymRatz wrote a Windows program which pulls CSV files from OpenALPR and stores them in a database. His program also uses a plate lookup to pull the make, model, year, VIN, etc. Everything except color. The OpenALPR will add color for the more expensive plans, but this won't work at night. The free VIN lookups are done from the plate, whereas OpenALPR uses their image algorythm to guess the make and model, but not the year, and of course not the VIN.
Yeah, do not pay for the the make/model type stuff as mentioned that it will not work at night as @DLONG2 states - look at my picture example above. Unless you know a car just by headlights LOL, you cannot tell what that is or color. If you never have vehicles at night, then probably not a big deal.
Plate Recognizer offers 2500 lookups/month free. Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. My little dead-end subdivision of 50ish homes was tagging it at 450 plates per day. OpenALPR Watchmen is intended for home use at $5/month, and the Commercial license is $49/month but does add the car attributes.
The program GymRatz wrote is awesome. I was a little slow to go to it as I was using PlateRecognizer as that is integrated with Blue Iris, but I have been using his for the last month or so and it is AWESOME!
Plate Recognizer offers 2500 lookups/month free. Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. My little dead-end subdivision of 50ish homes was tagging it at 450 plates per day. OpenALPR Watchmen is intended for home use at $5/month, and the Commercial license is $49/month but does add the car attributes.
The program GymRatz wrote is awesome. I was a little slow to go to it as I was using PlateRecognizer as that is integrated with Blue Iris, but I have been using his for the last month or so and it is AWESOME!
Forgive me for all of the questions - I'm an old school computer network guy, but new to the video surveillance world. If I'm reading you right, the program written by GymRatz does a lookup from the plate based on info from OpenALPR correct? If that's true, then it should be able to identify the car based on the nightime pic posted by Wittaj. That's what I'm looking for more than anything. As for the 2500 lookups per month - this is only monitoring the parking lot of the club so I may be able to limit the lookups to less than that. If not, I'll look into paying. Thanks again!
Yes, the program written by GymRatz works with OpenALPR and pulls the data and puts it into a program that saves it to the computer for as long as you want (or have storage for).
OpenALPR and PlateRecognizer limit the days you can view the plates on their websites to anywhere from 5+ days depending on what offering you purchase, so you can pay them for longer retention, or use this program.
Or like I said, simply let the camera store the images and then you manually look up if there is an issue.
OpenALPR and PlateRecognizer limit the days you can view the plates on their websites to anywhere from 5+ days depending on what offering you purchase, so you can pay them for longer retention, or use this program.
Or like I said, simply let the camera store the images and then you manually look up if there is an issue.
- May 17, 2017
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For the make/model/year/VIN/etc. look up, use this JSON query. Just substitute the "PLATE" and state values within the URL with real values . . . and of course remove the extra spaces placed here so that the text can be read . . .
https: / / www. autocheck. com/consumer-api/meta/v1/summary/plate/PLATE/state/CA
GymRatz's program includes this lookup automatically and adds the data. It works for maybe 90% of the plates, as apparently the data is a collection from dealers, repair shops, insurance companies, banks, etc. and not all plates are in their database.
https: / / www. autocheck. com/consumer-api/meta/v1/summary/plate/PLATE/state/CA
GymRatz's program includes this lookup automatically and adds the data. It works for maybe 90% of the plates, as apparently the data is a collection from dealers, repair shops, insurance companies, banks, etc. and not all plates are in their database.
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