BQT Solutions U.K. Limited

The Cobra Automatic Number Plate Recognition Image Capture system has been designed to read vehicle licence plates day and night, in the most demanding conditions. The Cobra system can be supplied with a range of different internal camera and IR illumination options offering unmatched flexibility - suitable for any ANPR application including mobile, fixed and long range ANPR.

A principal feature is the use of high resolution optical zoom cameras – both for ANPR and high definition overview/contextual imaging. Zoom functionality means the Cobra system can be rapidly optimised to suit differing plate and environmental conditions at ANPR capture points. The Cobra can be easily moved from one location to another and the settings simply adjusted – avoiding the needfor time consuming, risky and costly re-lensing.

Globally, number plates have widely differing characteristics and contrasts. TheCobra overcomes this problem by having a choice of IR wavelengths available -810,870 and 940NM. Zoom functionality enables the cameras field of view to beoptimised to local plate sizes. Additionally, both IR pulse duration and illuminationpower can be adjusted by the user. In its long range dual illuminator configurationthe camera has a range of up to 45 metres (subject to wavelength).

Obtaining high confidence recognition results in bright sunlight, when plate characters are partly shaded is a significant challenge. At night time the effect ofbright headlights needs to be suppressed to improve the accuracy of recognition.The Cobra has a number of features designed to combat these problems, includingimproved processing gain and narrow band IR filtering.