License Plate
Scan capability overview
The License Plate plugin can be used to scan license plates from the following regions: Europe, the United States, Canada and Africa.
Different scanModes can be configured in the SDK to reflect which Countries/Areas shall be captured
-
auto: European countries -
unitedstates: US states and territories -
canada: Canadian provinces and territories -
africa: African countries
Further details can be found in the PluginConfig schema.
It includes license plate localization, perspective transformation and scanning of the license plate number, the license plate country and the license plate area. For supported countries and areas, please check out the region specific information below.
Scanning License Plates from Europe
When scanning license plates from Europe, the plugin supports the extraction of the license plate number as well as the country or territory, if supported.
License Plate Number
The follwing characters are supported for the extraction of the license plate number:
0-9, A-Z, Ö, Ü, - and whitespace
Country/Territory
The following countries and territories are supported for automatic country extraction provided that they are located inside a blue euroband on the license plate (additional support for Switzerland’s coat of arms and non-blue eurobands in Iceland, UK and Ukraine).
| Country/Territory | Code |
|---|---|
Albania |
AL |
Austria |
A |
Belgium |
B |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
BIH |
Bulgaria |
BG |
Croatia |
HR |
Cyprus |
CY |
Czech Republic |
CZ |
Denmark |
DK |
Estonia |
EST |
Faroe Islands |
FO |
Finland |
FIN |
France |
F |
Georgia |
GE |
Germany |
D |
Gibraltar |
GBZ |
Greece |
GR |
Hungary |
H |
Iceland |
IS |
Ireland |
IRL |
Italy |
I |
Kosovo |
RKS |
Latvia |
LV |
Lithuania |
LT |
Luxembourg |
L |
Malta |
M |
Moldova |
MD |
Montenegro |
MNE |
Netherlands |
NL |
North Macedonia |
NMK |
Norway |
N |
Poland |
PL |
Portugal |
P |
Romania |
RO |
Serbia |
SRB |
Slovakia |
SK |
Slovenia |
SLO |
Spain |
E |
Sweden |
S |
Switzerland |
CH |
Turkey |
TR |
Ukraine |
UA |
United Kingdom |
UK |
Limitations
-
Limited support for small two-line license plates for light motorized vehicles such as mopeds
-
Limited support for special characters (Ö,Ü and Ä in German license plates are supported)
-
Limited support for non-standard mounted or bent license plates
-
Limited support for black license plates
-
Limited support for Hungarian and Danish Temporary License Plates
-
Limited support for country detection on blue multi row license plates (e.g. Austrian dealer plates).
-
Limited support for non-standard license plates
Scanning License Plates from the United States
When scanning license plates from the United States, the plugin supports the extraction of the license plate number, the country as well as the state or territory.
License Plate Number
The follwing characters are supported for the extraction of the license plate number:
0-9, A-Z, -, & and whitespace
| Limited support for the character '&'. |
State/Territory
The following states or territories are supported for automatic area detection.
| State/Territory |
|---|
Alabama |
Alaska |
American Samoa |
Arizona |
Arkansas |
California |
Colorado |
Connecticut |
Delaware |
District of Columbia |
Florida |
Georgia |
Guam |
Hawaii |
Idaho |
Illinois |
Indiana |
Iowa |
Kansas |
Kentucky |
Louisiana |
Maine |
Maryland |
Massachusetts |
Michigan |
Minnesota |
Mississippi |
Missouri |
Montana |
Nebraska |
Nevada |
New Hampshire |
New Jersey |
New Mexico |
New York |
North Carolina |
North Dakota |
Ohio |
Oklahoma |
Oregon |
Pennsylvania |
Puerto Rico |
Rhode Island |
South Carolina |
South Dakota |
Tennessee |
Texas |
Utah |
Vermont |
Virginia |
Washington |
West Virginia |
Wisconsin |
Wyoming |
Scanning License Plates from Canada
When scanning license plates from Canada, the plugin supports the extraction of the license plate number, the country as well as the province or territory.
License Plate Number
The follwing characters are supported for the extraction of the license plate number:
0-9, A-Z, -, & and whitespace
| Limited support for the character '&'. |
Scanning Best Practice
For all regions license plates need to be fully visible inside the cutout and angles of up to ~40° vertically and ~50° horizontally are possible for scanning.
For optimal scan results, ensure there is some space around the license plate when placing it inside the cutout. See examples below.
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
image::lpt/scanning_best_practice_eu_good.png[Scanning Example Europe Good, width=200, link=self] |
image::lpt/scanning_best_practice_eu_bad.png[Scanning Example Europe Bad, width=200, link=self] |
image::lpt/scanning_best_practice_us_good.png[Scanning Example US Good, width=200, link=self] |
image::lpt/scanning_best_practice_us_bad.png[Scanning Example US Bad, width=200, link=self] |