Frequently Asked Questions

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ALPR+ FAQ

  • ALPR, aka Automated License Plate Recognition, is the process of finding and capturing license plate information. ALPR software is responsible for finding any/all license plates in a scene and performing recognition on each to collect real-time information, often to identify a vehicle. For organizations like police departments, city governments, and vehicle-related industries, ALPR technology can provide information and insights that help communities and optimize processes.

  • Mostly businesses. ALPR capabilities are important to various organization for unique reasons, but no matter what a specific business needs, key considerations of software selection always includes:

    • Price

    • Speed

    • Accuracy

    • Geographies covered

    • Image requirements

    • Derived data points

  • The following industries use ALPR software for a variety of use cases:

    • Automated Parking

    • Traffic enforcement

    • Tollbooth

    • Access control

    • Law Enforcement

    • Consumer Safety

    • Insurance

  • ALPR+ is Sighthound’s license plate recognition system. Offered at a competitive price with additional data points collected with every image, organizations can quickly and accurately collect vehicle and license plate information from a single solution.

    Sighthound ALPR+ stands out from other ALPR solutions in more ways than an extra symbol. So what does the “plus” mean? It comes down to four words: Make, Model, Color, and Generation (MMCG for short). Standard ALPR software will collect information on just the license plate. MMCG capabilities mean more data points are collected per license plate–and that increases the confidence rate in vehicle identification.

  • Can be deployed on:

    • Linux (preferred)

    • Windows

    • Mac

  • Following are some hardware recommendations for running Sighthound’s ALPR+:

    • CPU: Intel i7, i9, or Xeon (9th generation or newer). Optimized for Intel but can work with AMD as well.

    • RAM: 16GB+

    • HD: any (SSD recommended) with sufficient capacity to store your videos

    • GPU: NVIDIA GPU w/ 4GB+ RAM (not required, but recommended for improved performance)

    Some of the above-mentioned hardware specs are recommended but not required. The better the hardware, the better the ALPR+ performance.

  • Although Sighthound’s ALPR+ can work with any resolution, it is generally recommended to use at least 1080p resolution or higher for best performance.

    For license plate detection and recognition, we recommend at least 75 pixels-per-foot (ppf). However, the recognition will work with as low as 50 ppf.

  • Sighthound does not provide vehicle owner information against the vehicle data.

  • Sighthound’s ALPR is responsible for processing images or videos and does not provide location information.

  • Our motto is: “If a human can look at an image or a frame and read the license plate, so will Sighthound’s ALPR+”.

    Accuracy is dependent on several factors (distance/size of the license plate, camera to license plate angle, lighting conditions, occlusion, etc.) so it can vary given the scenario. We are however confident that it can achieve above 90% accuracy in almost all scenarios.

  • For images, it can work with: png, bmp, gif, jp2, jpeg, jpg, png

    For videos, it can work with:

    • Containers - MP4, TS, AVI, MKV, MOV, and MPG

    • Video - h264, mpeg-4, VP8, VP9, mpeg1video, mpeg2video, msvideo1

  • Yes, it can be integrated into a VMS. Our technical team is available to discuss several options for integration license plate recognition or other Sighthound computer vision solutions like objection detection and redaction.

  • Yes. Sighthound ALPR+ offers a comprehensive SDK and tier 1 support for developers to build custom workflows and integrate redaction into their own applications.

  • With small business and enterprise offerings, Sighthound can create affordable pricing plans that match your budget and the volume of videos that need license plate recognition. Your plan can also be customized to tailor just the vehicle information you need. To explore plan options, contact us for a custom quote.

  • Better product, better people, and better price. We have a team of problem solvers and computer vision experts that want to understand your business need and develop a solution that realizes optimal outcomes.

  • Sighthound ALPR+ is an API that can be deployed in a variety of environments, including, but not limited to a Docker-based service or iOS SDK.

  • You can email support@sighthound.com or call +1-407-974-5694, and one of our team members will be happy to help.

  • Our ALPR+ experts are ready to help. Simply, schedule a meeting here, join the meeting and we will show you all the great features and benefits.

  • Sighthound’s ALPR can find, recognize and track vehicles and license plates in videos.

  • We are always here to help and most answers can be found in our Documentation. If you can’t find the answers you are looking for, please contact us directly.

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