Real-Time License Plate Detection in High-Resolution Videos Using Fastest Available Cascade Classifier and Core Patterns

Abstract

We present a novel method for real-time automatic license plate detection in high-resolution videos. Although there have been extensive studies of license plate detection since the 1970s, the suggested approaches resulting from such studies have difficulties in processing high-resolution imagery in real-time. Herein, we propose a novel cascade structure, the fastest classifier available, by rejecting false positives most efficiently. Furthermore, we train the classifier using the core patterns of various types of license plates, improving both the computation load and the accuracy of license plate detection. To show its superiority, our approach is compared with other state-of-the-art approaches. In addition, we collected 20,000 images including license plates from real traffic scenes for comprehensive experiments. The results show that our proposed approach significantly reduces the computational load in comparison to the other state-of-the-art approaches, with comparable performance accuracy.