OCR Applied for Identification of Vehicles with Irregular Documentation Using IoT

Abstract

Given the lack of investments in surveillance in remote places, this paper presents a prototype that identifies vehicles in irregular conditions, notifying a group of people, such as a network of neighbors, through a low-cost embedded system based on the Internet of things (IoT). The developed prototype allows the visualization of the location, date and time of the event, and vehicle information such as license plate, make, model, color, city, state, passenger capacity and restrictions. It also offers a responsive interface in two languages: Portuguese and English. The proposed device addresses technical concepts pertinent to image processing such as binarization, analysis of possible characters on the plate, plate border location, perspective transformation, character segmentation, optical character recognition (OCR) and post-processing. The embedded system is based on a Raspberry having support to GPS, solar panels, communication via 3G modem, wi-fi, camera and motion sensors. Tests were performed regarding the vehicle’s positioning and the percentage of assertiveness in image processing, where the vehicles are at different angles, speeds and distances. The prototype can be a viable alternative because the results were satisfactory concerning the recognition of the license plates, mobility and autonomy.