A License Plate Recognition System in e-Government

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a lot of research in license plate recogni- tion, and many license plate recognition systems have been proposed and used. In the past, the license plate recognition system was a key element in many applica- tions such as traffic control and parking lots access control. In this article, the au- thors present current research in license plate recognition, and elaborate on the use of license plate recognition in e-Government. License plate recognition involves three main components: plate detection, character segmentation and character rec- ognition. The authors consider all three components and thoroughly deal with the issue how to apply license plate recognition in e-Government in order to improve performance. Nowadays, license plate recognition is extensively used in traffic management to identify a car whose owner has violated traffic laws or to find stolen vehicles. It is also applied to parking lot access control. Or, in other words, parking lots do not need human resources. When a car enters a parking lot, a computer equipped with a sensor and a license plate recognition system can recognize the license plate number of the car, and record the car data and the entry time. When the car leaves the parking place, the computer can automatically compute the parking cost. The license plate recogni- tion system is automated and convenient. In addition, it is cost efficient due to the fact that less human resources are needed. The license plate recognition system could also be used in e-Government. E-Gov- ernment can apply license plate recognition to car identification. In recent years, a lot of cameras have been installed at the intersections by government or police. These cameras record a lot of images. If license plate recognition systems are installed at police offices, networks can be used to connect the cameras and the police offices. The cameras capture images regularly. When a camera captures an image, it can be