I. What is ANPR

ANPR(Automatic Number Plate Recognition) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates. For Milesight, the ANPR algorithm is embedded in cameras, which allows the cameras to recognize, capture and upload license plate images all alone and intelligently. 

II. Why Milesight ANPR Solution

• Quick Capture & Accurate Recognition

• Accurate License Plate Identification Under all kinds of conditions

• High-reliability License Plate Recognition with more than 95% high performance accuracy

1. Up to 4 Detection Regions

2. AI-based Vehicle Attributes Recognition

3. Vehicle Speed/Direction Recognition

4. License Plate Serial Format

• Intelligent Analysis & Efficient Management
• White and Black List Management
• A Stand-alone ANPR Solution
• List Scheduling Management
• LPR Smart Search 
• Fully Integrated with Milesight NVR/CMS/VMS Enterprise
• 3rd Integration: CGI/APIs
• Adaptable to Most Operation Requirements

• Max recognition speed 120 km/h
• Over 80 countries and regions
• Various options 
• Road Traffic Series Intelligent Traffic|ANPR Security Camera (milesight.com)
  
• Entrance & Exit Series Intelligent Traffic|ANPR Security Camera (milesight.com) 

III.Countries/Regions that support ANPR

Backed up by strong R&D strength and accumulated expertise in LPR applications, Milesight Intelligent Traffic solution can be well applied to broad regions and countries worldwide. We've now covered a wide range of areas including:

IV. How to set ANPR with Milesight Network Cameras

The following introduction is based on the latest version of LPR 45.8.0.3-LPR_AP-r5;

Before setting it up, you can update your device to the latest version.

You can download the latest firmware in the link below：

http://www.milesight.com/support/download 

1.General

Step1: Go to “Traffic” -> “LPR”，after log in the web.

Check the “Enable LPR” checkbox, and you can draw the screen to select the interested areas. There will be shown in the blue box below. 

[Country / Region]: Select a country within the appropriate region.

[LPR Image Mode]: In order to recognize the attributes of vehicles and license plates in different environments, [LPR Image Mode] can be enabled, a special exposure mechanism for license plate recognition that can effectively suppress the exposure of car lights at night for night license plate recognition.

Achieve the best effect of LPR night recognition by adjusting different parameter levels.When LPR picture mode is enabled, backlight, exposure and day/night switching parameters will be set to special values.Minimum shutter for each level: 1- 1/250, 2- 1/500, 3- 1/750, 4- 1/1000, 5- 1/2000.

The picture below shows the night recognition effect after turning on the LPR Image Mode. 

Note：

For the firmware version of camera which is T_61.8.0.4-r14 or above, please go to “Media” -> “Image” -> “General” to choose Traffic in Scence Parameters as shown below.

Step2: Detection Region

[Set LPR Detection Region]: You can set up to 4 ROI areas by drawing the screen. It is recommended to draw the ROI detection area at the center of the screen to ensure the recognition of the vehicle after it fully enters the screen and the integrity of the vehicle screenshot.

Step3: Detection Settings

[Detection Mode]: If you choose the “Plate Priority”, the camera will first capture the license plate information of the vehicle entering the screen.If you select the “Vehicle Priority”, the camera will first locate the target vehicle and then recognize the license plate to avoid some false detection.

Note:

1. Vehicle priority mode can identify vehicles without license plates.

2. Vehicle priority: Adopt the "vehicle priority" vehicle identification method, mainly based on the appearance characteristics of the vehicle for automatic identification, such as model, body color, vehicle logo, etc., this method can be applied to many different types of vehicles;

3. License plate priority: The vehicle identification method of "license plate priority" is adopted, and the automatic identification is mainly based on the license plate information on the vehicle, so the accuracy of license plate recognition is high.

[Detection Trigger]: If you choose “Always”, camera will always detect the license plate. If you choose “Alarm input”, camera will only detect the license plates when Alarm Input is being triggered.

Alarm Input trigger can be used in entrance & exit management for gate control, parking lot management and other scenarios. The Alarm input interface of the LPR is usually connected to the Ground loop coil. When a vehicle passes by, the Ground loop coil will be triggered and transmit a signal to the Alarm input interface of the LPR Camera, thereby triggering the IPC to recognize the license plate information.

[Repeat Plate Checktime]: Set the time interval for repeatedly reading license plates to effectively avoid duplicate identification of parking vehicles.

[License Plate Serial Format]: License Plate Serial Format function supports formulating identification rules and can automatically do further processing, filter license plates in non-compliant formats to achieve more intelligent and accurate license plate recognition.

Through the License Plate Serial Format, you can set special rules to filter out the corresponding license plates, and only the license plates that meet the rules will be automatically displayed and displayed on the real-time view interface.

For example, we can set the number of license plate characters to 7 characters, and the format is "A*****". When we enable "Filter number of characters", only license plates that match the 7 characters of the license plate and start with a letter will be pushed and displayed.

Note:It supports up to 10 license plate characters.

[Attributes Identification]: Check Plate Color, Vehicle Type, Vehicle Color, Vehicle Brand, Detection Region, Direction, Country, Region or All to enable Attributes Identification, it will display the corresponding information on the logs interface.

Step4: Schedule settings.Set the effective time of license plate recognition.

Step5: [Data Transmission]: Check the checkbox to enable LPR Message Post. It will push information to some third-party devices or software that are compatible with ours. Information can be transmitted by RTSP, TCP or HTTP.

Note：

1.If you need to add LPR Camera to Milesight NVR/CMS/VMS Enterprise, you must select the TCP type to transmit data to the back-end software and enable Original mode in Data Settings.

2.if you add LPR Camera to MS NVR/CMS/VMS Enterprise through mapping, then TCP ports also need to be mapped.

3.If your LPR Camera’s firmware version is later than 61.8.0.3-r10 and model suffix has -E, you can enable Automatic Retransmission which allows for automatic re-upload of LPR data during network reconnection after disconnection. The resumed data include regular LPR and Traffic events, ensuring the integrity of device data and meeting data security requirements.

SD card insertion is necessary for this feature to work. 

More information about LPR Message Post, please refer to Milesight-Troubleshooting-Integration between LPR Camera and NVR(VMS).

Step6: Don’t forget to click “Save” after finishing all settings.

2. Advanced

In the interface, you can set display information on snapshot of license plate recognition and also customize the file name of snapshots which are uploaded via FTP or Email or stored on local LPR Picture File Path.

[Snapshot OSD]:Set the screenshot OSD options.

Each time when an item is checked, the list will add the item row, including the item name and sorting operation.  You can click  and button to sort these items and choose separator to connect these items name. Also, the content of Position and Device lD items can be customized. When you check all items,the function interface will show as below.

[Snapshot File Name]:Screenshot file name configuration.

Once license plate is recognized, and the snapshot will be uploaded via FTP or Email or stored on your local LPR Picture File Path. Then, You can see the snapshot file name which you customize as shown below:

3. List Management

Add the license plates to this interface as Black or White type (Black/White List), and then you can set the alarm action for these license plates in the corresponding Black list mode or White list mode interface. When these license plates are detected, the camera will respond to your settings accordingly. 

[Add License Plate]: click the “Add” button,select the license plate type as black or white, enter the license plate number, after selecting the valid time of the license plate and entering the remark information, the license plate number will be added successfully.

[Batch Upload]: You can add a csv file of the license plates you want to add, click the “Browse”

button to import the form to this interface, click the “Upload” button, the license plates will be added successfully.

[List Search]: Select Plate Type or directly enter the license plate number, click 

the “Search” button, the corresponding license plate will be displayed in the list as below.

[Export List]: Click the “Export List” button to export the license plates in the current list as a csv 

file locally.

[Delete List]: Click the “Delete List” button to delete all the license plates in the current list.

4. List Event

Step1: Select the List Type, Black list, White list or Visitor.

Step2: Schedule Settings. You can draw the schedule by clicking “Edit” button.

Step3: Set Alarm settings.

Table 1 Description of the buttons

After that, when a license plate marked as“Black”,“White”,“Visitor”is detected, the camera will respond accordingly to your settings.

5.No Plates Event

When enabled, LPR switches to vehicle priority mode.

[Detection Region]:Up to 4 ROI area detection can be selected.

[Schedule Settings]:You can draw the schedule by clicking “Edit” button.

[Alarm Action]:Set the relevant no-license plate event alarm action. 

For details, refer to List Event alarm action.

6.Evidence

The Evidence function is often used at traffic intersections or parking lot entrances. With this feature, LPR cameras can be linked with other cameras to take full-view snapshots to help substantiate violations. For example, when a vehicle is driving on an illegal lane, the LPR camera will only take pictures of the license plate or vehicle, but the evidence camera can take background photos so that we can know whether it is illegal or not.

Add an evidence camera to trigger the capture. Whenever the license plate recognition is triggered, the evidence camera can be used to capture scenes from different perspectives.

[Evidence Camera]:Enter the username, password, Address of the evidence camera to add the evidence camera.

Note:

①Up to 2 evidence cameras can be added.

②Evidence camera captures primary stream picture by default.

③For the Address, input evidence camera IP directly for Milesight camera, and snapshot 

URL is supported for third-party camera.

7.Professional LPR Live View Interface

Milesight LPR camera supports professional LPR Live View interface. You can see the real-time

license plate recognition results.

Note:

①Upgrade your device to corresponded firmware version.

Camera: V45.8.0.3-LPR_XX or above.

Firmware download link: Firmware Download|The Latest Innovation|Milesight

②If there is no SD card or NAS as the storage space, the snapshots of license plate will be 

temporarily stored locally on the PC, cleared after logging out, and do not support Smart Search

 which will be introduced in the next part.

③If a Evidence camera is added, after the license plate information is recognized, click  button 

to view the vehicle identification information and the pictures captured by the Evidence 

camera.The second picture is the picture captured by the evidence camera.

8.Smart Search

Step1: Select Plate Type or directly enter the license plate number.

Step2: Select the corresponding recognition attribute, as well as the start time and end time, and click the "Search" button to realize the license plate search that meets all conditions. The corresponding license plate or the license plate  containing the search keywords will be displayed in the log, and the complete video and license plate will be displayed on the left side of the interface. 

Step3:If there is an evidence camera added, then after searching out the relevant license plate information.

Click the button in the red box in the picture to see the picture captured by the evidence camera.

There are two methods to backup LPR logs.

①Backup license plates you want.

Step1: Tick license plates you want to backup and click “Backup” button ;

Step2: Select the export file type, video stream type and video file format, then click “Export” button.

②Backup all.

Step1: Click “Export All” button;

Step2: Select the export file type, video stream type and video file format, then click “Export” button.

You can also click the "Auto Export" button to automatically export the logs to FTP, SMTP or Storage.

Note:

①Insert available SD card or add NAS to camera as storage. Otherwise, you can’t check the 

LPR recording and snapshots.

②Upgrade your device to corresponded firmware version.

Camera: VXX.8.0.3-LPR_XX or above.

Firmware download link: 

http://www.milesight.com/support/download#firmware]

V. How to set ANPR with Milesight NVR

1. Preparation

Here are some notes you should notice before using ANPR function.

①Insert available HDD or add NAS to NVR as storage. (Otherwise, you can’t check the 

recording and logs.) 

②Upgrade your device to corresponded firmware version.

Camera: VXX.8.0.3-LPR_XX or above.

NVR: V7X.9.0.7-r7 or above.

Firmware download link: Firmware Download|The Latest Innovation|Milesight

③Ensure your device support LPR/ANPR function.

Model of NVR:

l MS-N1009-UT / MS-N1009-UNT/MS-N1009-UPT

l MS-N5008-UT / MS-N5016-UT

l MS-N5008-UPT / MS-N5016-UPT

l MS-N5008-E / MS-N5016-E / MS-N5016-NE

l MS-N7016-UH / MS-N7032-UH (16 ANPR Channels)

l MS-N8032-UH / MS-N8064-UH (16 ANPR Channels)

l MS-N7016-UPH / MS-N7032-UPH (16 ANPR Channels)

Name of LPR Camera:

l Road Traffic Series 

Intelligent Traffic|ANPR Security Camera (milesight.com)

④Ensure that NVR can get license plate information. Please set TCP as Post Type which is 

the default mode. It can be set in Camera web page -> Traffic” -> “LPR” ->  “LPR Messsage 

Post Settings”

2.Settings

Step1: Go to “Smart Analysis” -> “Analysis Settings” -> “ANPR”, select a channel and enable ANPR function.

[License]: A license will be automatically assigned to each device.

[License Status]: This column is used to display the status of the license, “Valid” or “Invalid”.

[Country/region]: The current region and country selection will be automatically synchronized.

[LPR Image Mode]: Achieve the best effect of LPR night recognition by adjusting different parameter levels.

Step2: Set ANPR function effective time. You can draw the schedule by clicking “Edit” button. Draw the schedule and then click “OK” or “Apply” after finishing setting. 

Step3: Set Detection Settings.

Detection parameters includeRepeat Plate Checktime, License Plate Format and Attributes identification.

[Detection Trigger]: Always and Alarm Input are available. It will only detect when alarm input is triggered if you select Alarm Input.

[Repeat Plate Checktime]: The same license plate information won’t be received on NVR within the time you set.

[License Plate Format]: Formulate identification rules and automatically filter wrong license plate information to achieve more intelligent and accurate license plate recognition.

[Attributes Identification]: Select Region Direction, ROI_ID, Plate Color, Vehicle Type,Vehicle Color, Country/Region, Vehicle Brand or All to enable Attributes Identification,it will display the corresponding information on the logs interface.

Step4: Set the detected ROI region which can be up to 4 regions. License plate will only be detected in the ROI regions.

3.List Management

Make a license plate list for your own NVR ANPR system. 

Upload license plates and set them with different license type here. 10000 License plates can be added at most. 

Kindly note that the list is exclusive for NVR, working with all LPR cameras you add. It won’t synchronize with the list on camera side.

There are two methods to add license plates:

①Add one by one.

Step1: Click Add button .

Step2: Input the license plate and select license type.

Step3: Click OK and then the license plate will be added into the list.

②Batch upload by importing template.

Step2: Input all license type and license plate number as Template shows.

4.Black/White/Visitor List Mode

We provide you three modes for better event management.

Black List Mode: Manage event for license plates in black list.

White List Mode: Manage event for license plates in white list

Visitor Mode: Manage event for those license plates do not have license type.

Steps for settings:

Step1: Enable Black List Mode/White List Mode/Visitor Mode as your demand.

Step2: Set effective time for the mode to work.

Step3: Set actions you need including Audible Warning, Email Linkage, Event Popup, PTZ Action, Alarm Output and Trigger Channels Record.

Note:

Do not forget to enable these modes, set effective time and record action for corresponded mode, so that you can get real-time video when license plate is detected (Effective time and record action is enabled by default.). You can refer to How to check ANPR record part for detailed record settings.

5.Professional LPR Live View Interface

At the beginning, you need to switch the preview mode to ANPR mode.

There are two methods to enter live view ANPR Mode:

①Right click the mouse and select ANPR Mode as preview mode.

②Select ANPR Mode on live view bottom tool bar.

After entering ANPR mode, the real-time license plate information will be shown on the left of the interface once it get detected.

License plate information includes Plate Snapshot, Channel Name, License Plate Number, Detected Time and Plate Type.

Two License types:

No License plates type will be shown if the license plate does not exist in Black/White list.

However, you can right click the license plate information to quick add it to Black/White list or delete it from Black/White list.

Besides, you can click the license plate information to check the latest X seconds (10s~20s) video.

l Make sure that HDD is available on NVR and correct record settings is made, so that you can check the record on live view. Please refer to How to check ANPR record part for detailed record settings.

l Make sure that NVR can get the license plate information. Please set TCP as Post Type which is the default mode. It can be set in Camera web page -> Traffic” -> “LPR” -> “LPR Messsage Post Settings”.

6. Set/Check ANPR Record

Before checking recording files, please make sure that you have proceed correct settings to make record action work.

①Set Recording

Step1: Set Smart Analysis as Record Type in Storage -> Video Record -> Record Schedule interface.

Step2: Enable Black List Mode / White List Mode / Visitor Mode as your demand.

Step3: Set Effective time and Trigger Channels Record action of your selected mode (Full effective time and trigger channel record are set by default). 

Then NVR will record when license plate is detected.

Note:

Generally, record action is triggered by event. If you just enable ANPR function without enabling Black List/White List/Visitor modes nor setting record action, it means you just enable the function while record action is not set. 

Then no record will be triggered. So it is necessary to do all above three steps if you want to trigger record action.

②　Check recording 

Ø In Playback

Step1: Entering Playback -> Event Playback -> Smart Analysis interface. 

Ø In Live View

Click the license plate information to check the latest X seconds (10s~20s) video.

l Make sure that HDD is available on NVR and correct record settings is made so that you can check the record on live view interface. Please refer to How to check ANPR record part to check if record action is correctly set.

7.Check/Backup ANPR Logs

①Check ANPR logs

Step1: Search on Smart Analysis -> ANPR interface. 

Step2: Input corresponded information and click search button  to search.

Then you will get a whole ANPR logs list. 

License plate snapshot will be shown on the logs list while the complete image video and license plate information will be shown on the left of the interface.

②Backup ANPR logs

Two methods are available after searching ANPR logs out .

Ø Backup license plates you want.

Step2: Select the export file type, video stream type and video file format, then click export button

Download link: Surveillance Software Download |Milesight

[License]: A license will be automatically assigned to each device.

[License Status]: This column is used to display the status of the license, “Valid” or “Invalid”.

[Set LPR Detection Region]: You can set up to 4 ROI areas by drawing the screen. License plate will only be detected in the ROI regions.

Step3: Set detection Settings:

[Detection Trigger]: Always and Alarm Input are available. It will only detect when alarm input is triggered if you select Alarm Input.

[Repeat Plate Checktime]: The same license plate information won’t be received on NVR within the time you set.

[Feature Identification]: Check Direction,Detection Region or All to enable Feature Identification, it will display the corresponding information on the logs interface.

3.List Management

Make a license plate list for your own NVR ANPR system. 

Upload license plates and set them with different license type here. 10000 plates can be added at most. 

Kindly note that the list is exclusive for NVR, working with all LPR cameras you added. It won’t synchronize with the list on camera side.

There are two methods to add license plates:

Step3: Set action including Audible Warning, Email Linkage, PTZ Action, Alarm Output.

Step2: Enable Black List Mode / White List Mode / Visitor Mode as your demand.

Step3: Set Effective time and Trigger Channels Record action of your selected mode(Full effective time and trigger channel record are set by default). 

Then NVR will record when license plate is detected .

Note:

Generally, record action is triggered by event. If you just enable ANPR function without enabling Black List/White List/Visitor modes nor setting record action, that means you just enable the function while record action is not set. Then no record will be triggered. So it is necessary to do all above three steps if you want to trigger record action.

Step3: Set Detection Region

You can set up to 4 ROI areas by drawing the screen. If you choose Normal Mode, it supports configuring the LPR detection regions for the current area. 

Step5: Set Detection Settings and Snapshot OSD

② LPR Camera Setting

Here the configuration of the camera web side will be automatically obtained. If the camera web side is not configured, you can configure it in the interface of VMS. After the configuration is completed, it will be synchronized to the camera web side.

Step1: Select a camera in the devices list tree, then click  button to enable Detection.

Step2: Select Country/Region and Process Resolution.

Step3:Image Settings.

Step4:Set Detection Region.

You can set up to 4 ROI areas by drawing the screen. If you choose Normal Mode, it supports configuring the LPR detection regions for the current area. 

[Detection Trigger]: If you choose “Always”, camera will always detect the license plates. If you choose “Alarm Input”, camera will only detect the license plates during Alarm Input is being triggered.

[Repeat Plate Checktime]: Set the time interval for repeatedly reading the license plates to effectively avoid duplicate identification of parking vehicles.

The license plate information includes Plate Snapshot, Device Name, IP, License Plate Number, Detected Time and Plate Type. 

Two License types: 

Besides, you can click the license plate information to check the 20s video. (20s = the pre 10s + the post 10s of the license plate event)

Note:

Make sure that correct record schedule settings is made or the ANPR event rules are set to trigger recording, so that you can check the record in the ANPR Preview Panel.

You can select the plate types including Group Type (Black List and White List), 

or directly enter the license plate number, and click the “Search” button, then the corresponding license plates will be displayed in the list below. 

Note: The text searched is a case-insensitive contiguous string.

②Set related events and alarm trigger actions.

Step1:Select the Trigger type as: Smart Analysis Event;

Step2:Select the event type as: ANPR Event;

Step3:Select the camera that needs to set related events;

Step4:Set up event scheduling;

Step5:Set the alarm trigger action.

Alarm actions include recording, APP/HTTP notification, sending email, recording log, previewing screen changes, and IoT Sensor control, etc.

Step6:Set the alarm settings.

Enable the trigger alarm, select the relevant user after selecting the ANPR alarm priority and action interval.

Then the replay interface will only display videos related to ANPR events.

Note:With the addition of the back-end algorithm, both the ANPR Preview and ANPR Result Search interfaces can receive license plate related information from both the front-end and back-end ANPR algorithms. If it is back-end algorithm recognition, then the AI icon will be added next to the license plate number in the picture, and the Analytics Mode in the Details will be displayed as VMS Analytics, while the opposite is Camera Analytics.

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