Rekor Scout and Tailscale

[wittaj]

Rekor has a monthly subscription you pay regardless.

You only need to spend more on that OpenALPR utility if you want the VIN numbers and year/make/model of the vehicle.

If you only use Rekor, you only get plate retention for 5 days. If that is sufficient for your needs, then go for it!

But with that utility, your retention is as long as you want and gives you the ability to search and query and assign info to it. I can see if vehicles have passed by before and other things that will never be possible using just Rekor.

The instructions are very detailed for even somebody that has zero programming to set up. Took me an hour. You said you have paid freelancers and they could probably get you going in the same time or faster.

 

[wittaj]

Or another option if that area you are monitoring is less than 2500 vehicles per month, is use PlateRecognizer within BI.

2,500 images per month are free and the plate number is then put into the BI log so that you could search that way.

 

[Sonnie]

That might be better since I don't think we have 2500 vehicles pass by monthly. If we've ever had more than 25-30 in one day, I'd be surprised. Maybe on a good day with ATVs and Side by Sides, we might get 50-60, but I'd venture to say it's never hit 100 in one day.

With OpenALPR, the instructions are all over the place. You start, and then you need to visit another link to do this or that. I couldn't even figure out what needed downloading and how to install it on Windows. There were pretty much zero instructions for it. It's assuming whoever uses it already understands this stuff. Even in the instructions, it states you need to be familiar with C+ language (or something to that effect). For you, yes... probably very simple to follow. For me, and probably most folks who are not familiar with it or not very tech-savvy, it's a nightmare and something that would consume way too much of my time. I'm looking for simple things to do first... then maybe one day I might give the more complicated things a go.

 

[wittaj]

Whoops! I meant to link the one below instead, but there was a link in that other thread to this thread that is a VERY DETAILED thread and PDF file created by someone that had ZERO programming experience.

I have zero experience in that stuff and followed the detailed step by step instructions in the PDF file and took about an hour. Zero C+ knowledge known on my part.

OpenALPR Tool - Save and Query CSV Exports Steps I took To Get Mine Working. ZERO Programming Experience.

The LPR_Viewer and LPR_Downloader are free Windows programs designed by @Gymratz & @DLONG2 which allow you to automatically collect, store, view and manage plate data from your IP cameras. It does require a $5 a month subscription to the 'Watchman' plan available at OpenALPR.com. Also there is...

ipcamtalk.com

https://ipcamtalk.com/attachments/guidev1-7-updated-on-11-15-2020-pdf.74983/

 

[Sonnie]

I think Plate Recognizer will work fine in my situation.

To confirm... it would replace Rekor... and OpenALPR would not be needed?

I should create zones in Blue Iris for Plate Recognizer versus using IVS in the camera AI?

 

[wittaj]

That is correct. Plate Recognizer will take the place of OpenALPR and runs in conjunction with BI, so it isn't a separate system/program you need to run.

The "disadvantage" to Plate Recognizer is that each image sent for a reading counts against that 2500 per month total.

So you need to really nail down the motion in the camera so that it only sends when a plate is in the image.

You can use IVS during the day, but because of the dark image IVS doesn't work at night, so you need to use BI motion.

Here is mine where I have a zone drawn such that cars going right to left I get the front plate, and the cars going left to right I get the back plate. You can see in my alert images that the vehicles are all centered in the frame doing this approach.



Prior to AI in BI, it took a lot of messing around with motion zones to make it happen.

Now with CodeProject you can have it create the image with the plate in it and send that image instead.

BTW - I run PlateRecognizer, Rekor/OpenALPR, and CodeProject ALPR, so I am familiar with them!

 

[Sonnie]

You run all three on the same camera?

We don't have any front-plate vehicles in these parts of the woods. Although a front-plate car here would likely be a sign of a mob hit. lol

All of tag will be captured on cars going left to right. So I just need one line going across the road on the east side of the image.

 

[Sonnie]

This is what I have right now... increased exposure so I could see where to draw it.

 

[wittaj]

In your case you will probably want to make two zones - left side up to that green line say Zone A and Zone B from that green line to the right and then a rule that says only trigger A>B

 

[Sonnie]

Good point... no reason to trigger anything coming from B to A

 

[Sonnie]

Does Codeproject AI need to be running for this?

Plate Recognizer hasn't recognized anything other than our mailboxes. I likely don't have it setup correctly

Rekor is still capturing the mailboxes, even after excluding them.

I'm going to move the camera to exclude the mailboxes. I'm not sure why I have them in there anyway. The PTZ includes the mailboxes.

 

[wittaj]

I am using Plate Recognizer without any BI AI and doing it just thru motion zones.

I am guessing maybe suns shadows causing the mailbox to trigger?

 

[Sonnie]

It's working better now that I moved it, but still showing a lot of motion due to the bushes at the top of the bank casting a shadow with the wind blowing. It did catch the last two tags correctly.

 

[Sonnie]

OTOH... Plate Recognizer hasn't done anything.

 

[Sonnie]

Possibly because I had this unchecked per the recommendations of others using the camera AI.

 

[Sonnie]

Should I uncheck this box?

 

[wittaj]

Plate Recognizer will work with either IVS or BI motion.

 

[Sonnie]

I can't seem to get it right for Plate Recognizer... keep getting false readings. I've got A>B set up as shown below.

Rekor got two plates this morning. PR missed both... although got a partial on one of them.

 

[Sonnie]

I have the motion turned off for now... getting way too many alerts.

 

[wittaj]

You need to make the zones larger to catch the whole vehicle - that is barely catching the wheels and at that zoom it will be problematic for motion detection.

Yeah you will get an occasional something else trigger it.

Or go to CodeProject to only trigger when it sees a plate.