What am I doing wrong?

[processedmeat]

Hi all, we had a rash of break-ins and mailbox robberies lately on our cul-de-sac.

I had thought my 5mp Amcrest camera connected to my Blue Iris server would be good enough to help out our street security. When the police came to ask if I was able to get footage of the perp's license plate, I thought I could help out but as seen from the screenshot below, it's just blurry. The perp's vehicle is leaving the cul-de-sac in that direction. And this is pretty much an ideal scenario e.g. broad daylight.

So is the ideal setup to get a higher resolution camera? To add another camera angled more so the license plate is more perpendicular to the camera? I'm looking at the highly rated EmpireTech cameras like the IPC-T54IR-ZE but their specs seem similar to my Amcrest IP5M-T1277EB-AI. Am I configuring my Blue Iris 3 server incorrectly? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[bigredfish]

Look at the LPR forum.
Generally speaking LPR requires a separate dedicated camera, with special tuning/settings to get plates in the day and night.

Placement is key, and you'll need two of them

 

[wittaj]

Wrong camera and wrong angle. A 2.8 or 3.6mm focal length will NEVER capture a plate on the street at that distance.

Has NOTHING to do with BI.

More MP will not help you. Most of us are using 2MP cameras to capture plates.

The 54IR camera is way better than the camera you have as it is on the ideal MP/sensor ratio, but at that distance it wouldn't work either for plates.

The ZE is good to about 20 feet, the Z4E to about 60 feet and the 52IR-Z12E to about 150 feet.

Digital zoom only works on TV.

You would have to set the camera up specifically to read plates. You need the proper camera with OPTICAL zoom for the distance you are covering and the angle to get plates.

Keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to OPTICALLY zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP 5241-Z12E camera (that is all that is needed for plates):



See the LPR subforum for more details.

 

[bigredfish]

... and you'll need two of them

 

[samplenhold]

As everyone has stated, you need a cam that is zoomed in to the road that will get you a large plate capture.

See these threads:

New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin

Thought I would throw together a post on my experiences so far with LPR in an effort to help others that are considering running down that rabbit hole. There are some practical considerations you should know about LPR. I am approaching this from the position of using Blue Iris and Plate...

ipcamtalk.com

LPR Case Study: Scoping, Planning, Proof of Concept, Installation, & Results

Introduction This thread is about my journey into LPR (License Plate Recognition) after having about 18 months of experience with IP cams and having quite a bit of my system finished. I am not an expert on LPR, or IP cameras either. But I have spent a lot of time working with my system and...

ipcamtalk.com

Use of Overview and LPR Cams to Document Midnight Vehicle Distributing Offensive Flyers on Lawns

We were out of town and I was checking my cams remotely one morning and noticed one of the Deputies that regularly patrol my subdivision had been at my front door. She has come to me a few times requesting video as she knows I have fairly good coverage of the streets at my corner. I noticed that...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Flintstone61]

this is what I'd use in your scenario EmpireTech 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Vari-focal Bullet Network Camera IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3

RE:I'm looking at the highly rated EmpireTech cameras like the IPC-T54IR-ZE but their specs seem similar to my Amcrest IP5M-T1277EB-AI.

They are quite different in clarity and tuneability. that Amcrest is basically an overview cam or an indoor cam. the ZE is good but you need a Z4e from an angle to catch a plate from that position.

 

[Flintstone61]

YouTube is uploading them at 360P maybe the 1080Pwill be available later. But if you can't read the plates blames YouTube....on my console they are sharp enough to hand over to the PoPo.