How to Improve Active Monitoring and Operational Efficiency with License Plate Recognition 

License plate recognition (LPR) technology is a versatile AI-powered analytic that offers greater visibility into the movements of vehicles while enhancing overall security.

This powerful capability enables businesses to quickly locate plates across multiple cameras and locations by searching for full plate numbers, partial numbers, wildcard characters and visually equivalent characters to identify plates of interest and associated video. Additionally, you can trigger alerts from LPR events, create, allow, or deny plate lists, and enable real-time push or email notifications through the intuitive LPR alert interface.

In this article, we’ll explore license plate recognition and how it can be leveraged to benefit the security and operations of your business.

“How Does LPR Work?” – 3 Key Features of This Technology

Since the invention of license plate recognition in the late 1970s, the technology has undergone rapid advancements to its current iteration. Now, leveraging the versatile features of LPR through a cloud-managed video platform is key to getting the most out of this analytical tool. Below, we’ve outlined three powerful features available when integrating LPR with video surveillance.

1. Search Across Multiple Cameras

Reviewing hours, days, or even weeks of surveillance video to clearly identify a specific vehicle is a tedious and time-consuming task that, unfortunately, still vexes many security teams. With license plate recognition, that once meticulous process becomes a thing of the past.

By marrying LPR data with video security, users can quickly plug in any known information about a specific vehicle’s license plate and find relevant footage to match those parameters. Full plate numbers, partial numbers, wildcard characters, and even visually equivalent characters can be used in your search to identify plates of interest and associated video. Leveraging a cloud-managed video platform’s advanced search capabilities helps keep you informed about any potential vehicles that you may be searching for, even if you can’t remember the full plate, or it turns out that character you were certain was a “1” was really an “I”.

2. Centralized Alerting Through the Cloud

Being able to quickly and accurately search through days of footage is a huge benefit of a cloud video solution, and it’s benefitted by the ability to couple that search with centralized alerting, all through the cloud.

License plate recognition software gives users the ability to send out alerts and notifications based on specific license plate numbers when spotted by an LPR camera. From there, that video is managed in a cloud video platform, and an alert is sent to your phone, computer, or other smart device. Alerting can also be used to trigger relays connected to gates as well, creating an easier, more streamlined way to manage your property.

This can mitigate or even eliminate the need for an employee present to let each authorized individual onto your property. It can also reduce the need for badges in order to open gates. Alerts have the ability to benefit multiple sides of your business by reducing any unnecessary expenditure on work, as well as by keeping you up to date throughout your work week. Most importantly, alerts can keep you and your employees safe and help aid in any ongoing investigations.

3. Third-Party Camera Capability

By utilizing an open platform, you can connect third-party LPR cameras and other emerging technology to meet the ever-changing needs of your business. These cameras process LPR events at the edge before sending them to your video security solution so users can view, manage, and act on them in the cloud.

For you, this means an easier, less expensive installation, as you don’t have to worry about replacing your entire system just to take advantage of LPR technology. With cloud-managed video, you can ensure you’re taking advantage of the latest technology, such as LPR, to keep your security advanced and scalable to meet the needs of your business over time.

The Versatility and Benefits of LPR Technology Across Industries

LPR technology has a host of different applications across numerous industries.

Above, we outlined some of the benefits connecting LPR with relays can have for QSRs, banks, retail stores, and property management, but it isn’t limited to just that single application.

License plate recognition can aid in investigations if management or law enforcement is searching for a particular vehicle that has entered or left your property. You can also set alerts based on specific plate numbers in case that vehicle comes back, giving you a stronger network of security around your business and your employees.

In summary, any business could greatly benefit from the wide range of features available in this advanced solution. From being able to quickly search thousands of hours of footage to setting up alerts so you can be notified in real-time, this solution is a must.

Incorporate a Powerful Video Security Solution into Your Business with OpenEye Web Services

If you’re interested in taking your video security to the next level with LPR technology, OpenEye can help get you set up.

OpenEye Web Services (OWS) allows you to leverage license plate recognition to better secure your business. Through the cloud-based system, you can easily search for license plate events or be alerted as they take place. Thanks to the OWS open ecosystem, you can connect to supported Axis and Hanwha LPR cameras. Certain licensing required. More information can be found here.

Interested in learning more? See how cloud-managed video can be leveraged to streamline operations and fortify security.