Number Plate Recognition Technology
October 13, 2008
Recent advances in Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technologies have lead to a greater acceptance of the technology by car-park operators. The new digital ANPR technologies present greater read rates than traditional CCTV/PC based technologies and offer far greater flexibility in deployment and customization than previously available. By attaching a unique signature to every vehicle entering and exiting a car park the potential of a car-park management system is greatly enhanced. The signature widely used by vehicle identification technologies is usually the registration number displayed on the front and rear of the vehicle. To robustly read this plate in all weather conditions, day and night and to increase the ability of a system to read dirty plates, Alpha Vision Design has developed a stand alone digital ANPR station that can extract the registration number and automatically present the number for processing. The applications of ANPR technologies can be used for tolling, police enforcement, journey time analysis, average speed violation and access control. Within the car parking domain, most car park operators use ANPR technology as a medium to locate lost vehicles, to calculate occupancy times and to dramatically decrease the revenue loss associated with ticket fraud. ANPR is also finding favour within non-supervised car parks as a means to control access via a white list. This white list contains a list of vehicles with known access rights. Suitable for hotel, apartment and company car parks, this negates the use of disposable paper tickets and wireless FOBs. Companies with large fleets are introducing ANPR as a cost effective method of tracking their vehicles throughout their depots. Large supermarkets and chains are also beginning to utilize the information obtained from their car-parks as a way of highlighting demographic patterns with a view to maximizing profits. For any traffic management system to be a success, the read rate must exceed 99%. Traditionally most operators shied away from ANPR when they discovered that their true read rates were rarely above 60%. In real world applications, this was the limit, not due to poor software but the result of using conventional CCTV systems to obtain the images. CCTV technology is 50 years old and does not lend itself well to computer recognition systems. The common processing core for CCTV based ANPR systems is a PC. CCTV/PC based systems are not robust and are unacceptably high maintenance. To counter this, Alpha Vision Design has developed a self-contained ANPR system designed specifically for the car parking industry. This system includes an integrated illuminator, high resolution digital camera, digital analyser and on-board relays, all contained in one standard security housing. Only mounting and a power cable is required – an industry first! A high resolution camera obtains images that are over sixteen times larger in area size than CCTV images. Combined with a wider field of view, now only one camera is required to capture both the registration plate and an overview of the vehicle, and vehicle placement within a lane is no longer an issue which leads to greater capture rates. The camera /computer unit can in real time adjust the exposure, gain, and the integrated on-board IR lighting to maximise the contrast and readability of the registration plate, including dirty plates, variations in plate reflectivity, strong headlamps and adverse weather conditions. This cannot be done with CCTV/PC based ANPR systems. The setup is easy and is only required once per site, with no re-configuration necessary even after a power outage as the system will reboot automatically. On a typical 800 bay car-park, the system can also store up to five years of data, capturing and time stamping an image of every vehicle entering and exiting the facility. The system is true Plug & Play and can directly control a parking barrier via its on-board database and integrated relays. For configuration, simply use any standard web browser to manage the ANPR station – no third party software is required to manage the entire ANPR network. Our standard systems are shipped in three versions. We have an ANPR station designed for operating at a 10 meter and 25 meter range, and a system for high speed traffic applications. All systems are pre configured and only mounting is required. The ANPR stations can act stand alone or integrate with an existing parking entry ticket/gate system. For remote applications, the ANPR station can also be configured to run over GPRS, TCP/IP and WIFI Networks.
http://www.parkingireland.ie/showart6.htm
Alpha Vision Design
Website: www.ait-traffic.com
Phone+353-1-4640332
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Dallas’ compact-car parking spaces a growing problem
September 6, 2008
Dallas to consider changes as fitness of compact-car spaces shrinks
Like a heavy man wedged into a pair of bicycle shorts, it’s a tight fit and nobody’s too happy with the result.
While more drivers in Dallas are finding it difficult to fit their vehicles in compact-car parking spaces, Joanne Pratt worries that if the city eliminates the spaces, there will be fewer places to park.
Yet compact-car parking spaces seem to be everywhere in Dallas, especially on the day after Christmas when lots are full and the last thing you want to do is decide whether a decent parking spot is worth a door ding or a trip through an open window.
Now, after years of complaints from drivers and developers, the Dallas City Council appears poised to do something next year about the narrow spaces that so often crop up between behemoth SUVs.
“I have a small car, and it doesn’t even fit in these spaces. It’s virtually impossible to get in and out of the car,” said council member Angela Hunt, whose four-door Audi tests the 7 ½ -foot width of a compact space.
A standard parking space is a foot wider. But sometime in the late 1980s, no one seems to recall exactly when, the city adopted a policy that it hoped would help solve growing parking woes and nudge people toward buying smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
Like so many programs that start out with good intentions, however, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“People don’t go into a car dealership and purchase a compact car based on the fact there is compact-car parking,” District 11 council member Linda Koop said.
And as more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids, become more common, even they are proving to be a tight fit.
“The reality of the marketplace is that even the hybrids are big,” said Theresa O’Donnell, director of the city’s Development Services department.
At a recent council meeting, Ms. Koop broached the subject of compact-car parking with an offhanded comment that she would like to see it go away.
Her aside prompted a resounding chorus from fellow council members who, almost to a person, said that changes must be made.
“It hasn’t been as effective as a lot of people thought it would be,” council member Jerry Allen said.
During a recent busy lunch rush at Eatzi’s on Oak Lawn Avenue, the problem was as clear as yellow stripes on black asphalt.
“I’d be curious to see how many people have door dings in spaces like this,” said Russ Plum of Frisco.
Mr. Plum and three friends were grabbing a quick takeaway lunch, but his friend Patrick Garcia had a tough time squeezing his Dodge Durango into one of the compact-car spots.
Mr. Garcia said that when he goes out in central Dallas “you’re forced pretty much to valet.”
The problem might be clear, but a solution could be complicated.
If the council gets rid of compact-car parking but requires developers to provide the same number of spaces per lot, more land will have to be devoted to parking. If it lowers the required number of spaces per lot, there will be less parking to go around. Less parking in lots means more parking in streets, with cars spilling into neighborhoods, such as those along Greenville Avenue.
“In some areas, it’s not as problematic. But again, where you have the restaurant adjacent to neighborhoods, it really does create friction,” said David Cossum, assistant director of Development Services.
Mr. Cossum likely will be in charge of bringing recommendations to the council next year on how to fix the compact-car parking problem.
The issue will have to be reviewed carefully, and easy solutions aren’t likely to be found, he said.
And for those drivers who are hoping to see the narrow spaces disappear at a favorite restaurant or shop, don’t hold your breath.
It’s unlikely that existing spaces will disappear in the short term, Ms. Koop said. Restriping and retrofitting lots would be costly and confusing, city planners agreed.
Neil Emmons, a veteran city plan commissioner who has studied the parking issue, said the most logical solution would be to permit new parking lots to be smaller, with the understanding that in the future, more people in Dallas will be walking or using public transportation.
“If I were going to make a recommendation, I would say reduce the number of spaces required, so that all of the spaces might have a wider stripe but require no more land usage,” he said.
As it stands, the general requirements for developers in the city are: Restaurants must have one parking space for every 100 square feet of interior space. Retail stores must have one space for every 200 square feet, and offices must have one space for every 300 square feet.
For a developer, that can quickly add up to a lot of pricey concrete.
Frequently, a builder will turn to compact spaces to fulfill the parking requirements with less concrete and less land, said Willie Cothrum, a former council member who now lobbies City Hall on behalf of businesses.
Under city ordinances, a builder can have as much as 35 percent of a lot devoted to compact-car spaces in most parts of Dallas, Mr. Cothrum said.
If council members decided to simply do away with compact-car parking without addressing parking requirements overall, developers would have to devote more land to parking, Mr. Cothrum said.
That’s something that neither developers nor council members seem to want.
“It doesn’t make any sense to do that because it’s not a good use of land,” Ms. Hunt said.
So with the new year, new kinds of parking lots are likely to be conceived in Dallas. Expect them to hold fewer vehicles but more comfortably.
“What I really think is going to happen in a lot of our new developments, we’re asking that it be sustainable, more walkable, so you’ll have less need [for] cars,” Ms. O’Donnell said.
THE PROBLEM: Narrow compact-car parking spaces that pose a tight fit even for the fuel-efficient cars for which they were intended.
CURRENT REGULATIONS: Up to 35 percent of a parking lot can be designated for compact-car spaces, which at 7 ½ -feet wide are a foot narrower than regular slots.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: Do away with compact spaces, at least in new developments. New parking lots either would have to use more land to meet current requirements, or the city would reduce the required number of spaces, meaning lots overall could be smaller.
Source: http://www.dallasnews.com
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