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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Article published in "SECURITY TECHNOLOGY"Vehicle
Identification System Impresses By
Lindsay de Villiers Acquiring
efficient parking systems that can be interfaced with the latest security
technology is what parking operators and property owners strive to attain.
Vehicle Identification Systems (VIS) or automated vehicle number plate
recognition is a relatively new development in South Africa. Local
Company, Software and Electronics Laboratories, has recently perfected a
functional system that exceeds overseas VIS technology by incorporating the best
international VIS algorithms in locally proven digital video and systems
technologies and was the first in the world with digital video surveillance.
Towards the middle of 1999 the company installed an automated vehicle
numberplate recognition and face imaging system at Potchefstroom University
integrating their Van der Bijl Park Campus into the system. Software
and Electronics Laboratories is a highly sophisticated technological company
that has decades of experience in providing turnkey solutions. With 15 years
experience and development incorporated into the VIDEX system, VIDEX is today
recognized as one of the world’s leading digital security management systems. VIDEX
can handle a large variety of integrated security systems, including: digital
video recording and image transfer, access control systems, wire and wireless
video monitoring products, video face recognition, biometric fingerprint
identification, voice
authentication, automated vehicle numberplate recognition, asset tracking and
perimeter protection as well as building management and fire detection.
Videx is fully modular and can be expanded from a sophisticated alarm
control panel for private residences to the most sophisticated all encompassing
system imaginable. Rollo
Venter, of Software and Electronics Laboratories, assures that the company had
no aspirations of reinventing the wheel. They realized that developing their own
numberplate recognition software would be time consuming and costly. Hence,
Software and Electronics Laboratories purchased the leading international
software module for this purpose. Rollo
Venter explains that the VIDEX digital security management system is based on an
extremely stable ‘UNIX/LINUX’ based data warehouse integrating with
‘WINDOWS’ user interfaces which are configured in such a way as to easily
interface with any conceivable software or hardware module or product.
Integration of the software module was done in a few hours.
Although days were spent in testing and proving the complete system this
proved to be unnecessary as the performance far exceeded specification from the
start. The
system functions as follows: once the video server has captured the face and
numberplate images, it is transferred to the specific software modules to
identify the numberplate and person. This then sends the recognition strings via
network to the warehouse in the VIDEX UNIX computer, which will send an
instruction to open the gate or boom, display a textual message to an operator
if required and play audio messages to the operator and vehicle driver as
required. When the car exits the same process is repeated with the gate only
opening if the driver ID and vehicle registration match. Optionally
the host computer locates the vehicle from the database of stored numberplates,
and calculates the parking fee. The
parking fee is displayed for payment to either a parking attendant or an
automatic pay station. When the correct amount has been paid, a signal is sent
to the mainframe computer which opens the gate. In the case of membership
parking, the gate will simply open. Further
options include a ticket parking system where payment is made using the ticket
(‘Pay on Foot’) and the boom only opens if the ticket and vehicle
numberplate correlate. An added
advantage of this system is that the history of all cars entering and exiting
the parking area is stored on the system. This information can be used for
profit-checks, marketing information and statistics. This data can also be
utilized to further enhance security: the list can be compared with the cars
parked in the parking lot at any given time and vehicles can be correlated with
images of the drivers. When
access control identification cards are used, the user presents the card to a
card reader, which automatically triggers the cameras to record images of the
vehicle numberplate and the face of the driver. This information is stored as a
“transaction package”. On exit, if the access control identification and the
number plate recognition match those of the entry transaction, the gate or boom
will open. If not, an alarm will be activated at one of the user interfaces. Rollo
Venter explains that the system at Potchefstroom University allows for both
students and visitors to use the entry and exit lanes. When a student arrives
and swipes a card, two cameras are activated: the one in front of the vehicle
records the number plate and the camera built into the ticket dispenser captures
the face of the driver. This information is digitized and stored in the
database. On exit the driver’s face is matched to the recorded numberplate and
if synchronized the boom opens. Initially
Software and Electronics Laboratories installed only one automated number plate
recognition system at Potchefstroom University’s busy west gate since the
University had a bad experience with a previous system for a number of years.
However, Venter said that the university was so impressed when Software and
Electronics Laboratories’s VIDEX system was fully operational within three
weeks and when experiencing its operating abilities that they immediately placed
orders for automated number plate recognition systems to be installed at their
Van der Bijl Park Campus as well as the four points of entry to and exit from
the main Potchefstroom Campus. All
these gates are integrated and cross-linked with reporting to any Videx computer
on the University network or with telephone access. Asked
about the speed of the system, Venter said typical reaction time is less than
half a second, which is experienced as immediate for allowed transactions.
Approximately 16 000 students enter and exit the campus on average twice daily
and the system is coping with this load easily. Obviously the central server
needs to be powerful, and Software and Electronics Laboratories opted for a UNIX
operating system for the warehouse with a separate computer to drive the
automated vehicle numberplate recognition and face imaging systems for which the
algorithms at that stage still ran under windows. . Why
should a parking operator consider moving across to this technology? Venter
explained that the system automates operations to the extent that savings in
personnel normally more than pays for the system rental.
Removing the human factor in drudgery tasks enhances reliability while
occurrences of vehicle theft are eliminated on current VIDEX sites. Also
because, in almost three-quarters of all car thefts occurring in “secure”
parking lots, the guard is either under threat or in collusion with the
criminals. A powerful motivator in seriously considering removing the human
element.
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