ANPR Camera Setup (IPEL-B20V-LPR, IPEL-B40V-LPR)

This article will explain how to set up your ICRealtime ANPR camera and configure it to an NVR for  Automatic number-plate recognition and search.

• Prerequisites
• ANPR Quick Setup (on IP camera)
• NVR Allow list/ Block list Setup
• ANPR License Plate Search  (on NVR Local or Web Interface)
• ANPR Plate Search (via ANPR Camera web GUI)
• IVS Lights and Siren Setup (IPEL-B40V-LPR1)
  • Event Broadcast Settings
  • (Vehicle Passing) Voice Broadcast Settings

Prerequisites

• IC Realtime ANPR and B2012X cameras are recommended to be installed 3-19ft high (1-6 meters) and no more than 90 feet from the target license plate (65 feet for IPEl-B40V-LPR). The optimal height is between 4-6 feet, and the optimal distance is 30-50 feet. While the camera can capture plates up to 35mph, the recommended speed is 5-20mph. See below for the Installation Diagram:
  
  
• PC (with ANPR camera and NVR on the same network)
• IPEL-B20V-LPR/ IPEL-B40V-LPR added to an IC Realtime ANPR supported NVR
  • Click here for current NVR compatibility
  • Click here for legacy/discontinued NVR compatibility

ANPR Quick Setup (on IP camera)

1. Login to the ANPR Camera via a web browser and initialize the camera if you have not done so yet. (The camera is set to DHCP by default. If the camera is not plugged into a network with a DHCP pool, the IP will be 192.168.1.108)
   
   
2. Click on the LPR Setup/ Wizard tab at the top section
3. Set the time and date if they are incorrect. 
4. Under “Plate Algorithm”, make sure it is selected to “North American ALG” then click confirm.
   *If using in different regions, select the appropriate Algorithm (Europe, UNASUR or Russian regions available)
5. For best results make sure the plates to be captured are in the center of the screen. The vehicle should take up most of the FOV  to get the highest resolution capture of the License Plate. See the picture below for reference in the following steps. You can use the zoom and focus controls as needed (A).
   
   
6.  In the drawing section, a green box will be shown (B). This is the capture area, in which Automobiles (with the license plates directly facing the ANPR camera) entering this zone will be captured. Click and drag the four corners until you have created an appropriate capture zone. You can also move the area by clicking and holding one of the lines and dragging the box to the desired location.
   
   
7. You can also set ignore areas to help eliminate false positives from captures outside of your point of interest.  For example, if traffic is present from a road perpendicular to the plate capture direction, a phone number on the side of a commercial vehicle may be captured as a plate. To enable the ignore area, click “Add” on the Shield area  (C) and draw a box in the image as desired (This box is colored white). Make sure the shield area does not overlap with a capture area.
   
   
8. Any vehicle that has triggered the ANPR will show up under the “Realtime Display” (D) section. This will help you configure the rules so that the passing vehicles can be captured reliably.
9.  Click Save/ Complete  ( ) to finish the setup or click the  icon on the upper right to exit the setup
   
   
10. After setting up the wizard, go to Live View. If utilizing HTML5, any passing cars captured under Realtime Display will be automatically downloaded to your PC under: C:\Users\Username\WebDownload\LiveSnapshot
    
    (to stop from downloading, un-check ANPR Receive/ Picture Preview).
    
    We recommend you open this picture using software such as MSPaint. From there, you can sure the selection tool to create a box around the plate. The minimum width for the license plate should be 140 pixels. See the image below for an example.
    
11. (Optional) You can configure the target traffic direction by navigating to the Setting tab, clicking on ITC/ ANPR, and then Snapshot Setting. under Capture Direction, you can configure whether you only want the camera to capture Approaching vehicles, Departing vehicles, or both (by default, it is set to approaching). 
    
    IPEL-B20V-LPR:
    
    IPEL-B40V-LPR:
    

Allow list/ Block list Setup (on IP camera)

You can set up an allow list or block list on the ANPR camera database. This will allow you to perform actions such as email notifications if a vehicle on the allow list or blocked list was detected or have barriers open for vehicles on the allow list.

1. Login to the web interface of the ANPR camera.
2. Click on Settings then under ITC, click on Blocklist and Allowlist.
3. To find any entries that were saved, simply click on “Search”
4. To add an entry to the Allow list, make sure you are under the Allowlist tab. Click on Add. Input the plate number, and card ID (if necessary). Set the validity time under begin and End Time fields (this is the time period in which the entry will be active). Fill in the Vehicle owner's name, if necessary. To add another entry, make sure the check box under Continue Adding is checked in, and then click Save. Otherwise, click Save.
   
   
5. There are also options for plate similarity. These options allow you to set options in the event that the plate may not be read by the ANPR correctly. These options include omissions or additions of characters in the plate, the allowance for the ANPR to misread characters, and character pairs that are close to each other that may be misread. Click confirm when finished.
   
6. To add an entry to the Block list, make sure you are under the Blocklist tab. Click on Add. Input the plate number, and set the validity time under begin and End Time fields (this is the time period in which the entry will be active). Fill in the Vehicle owner's name, if necessary. To add another entry, make sure the check box under Continue Adding is checked in, and then click Save. Otherwise, click Save.
7. (Optional) Once you have created a Block List/ Allow list, you can use this database for barrier gate entry (ie: if it recognizes a vehicle plate as being on the allow list, it can automatically open the barrier). 
1. To achieve this, Navigate to Settings then under ITC, click on Barrier Control.
2. Check in the On box to enable it.
3. You can select the Barrier Opening behavior such as Every Trigger (any time the camera has detected a vehicle), Every Plate (any time the camera has detected a Vehicle with a License plate), or Allowlist Open (any time the camera detects a license plate belonging to the Allowlist)
4. Then, you can select the wiring options for Barrier Open/ Close. By default, the Barrier open will trigger the Alarm-out relay 1 (NO1) and the Barrier Closing will trigger Alarm-out relay 2 (NO2). You can also set the duration of the signal.

NVR Allow list/ Block list Setup

You can set up an allow list or black list using the NVR database. This will allow you to perform actions on the NVR such as email notifications if a vehicle is on the block list as well as perform a Motor Vehicle Detection smart search. 

1. Log in to the NVR (Local Interface) and navigate to the Main Menu > Advanced Settings > Alert Center > Database >Block/Allow List
   ( For web Interface, go to: Main Menu > Playback > Advance Search > Database >Block/Allow List )
   
   
   
2. Click “Add” on the bottom right and the Add Dialog Box will appear as shown below. Kill in the Plate number, the owner name (optional), and under the Type dropdown, select Allow List or Block List depending on the type you desire. Fill in the Valid Period (the top will be the start time, and the bottom will be the end time). The valid period determines when this entry will be active.
   
   
3. You can view the database entries by clicking Search in the top right corner. You can also select the time from All, Allow List, or Block List. 
4.  Navigate to the Main Menu > Advanced Settings > Alert Center > ANPR
5. Select the appropriate channel with the ANPR camera in the Channel drop-down in the top section.
6. Under the Type dropdown on the upper left, select AI By Camera, then select the type of event such as General (for all ANPR triggers), Block List or Allow List. You can select the types of triggers for the events such as record, send an email or trigger an alarm-out port or PTZ. You can also set the time period for when the triggers will be active under Schedule.
   

ANPR License Plate Search  (on NVR Local or Web Interface)

Once you have completed the ANPR Quick Setup and added the camera to the NVR, you can perform Motor Vehicle and License plate searches on the NVR. 

1. Navigate to the Main Menu > Playback > Advanced Search > Motor Vehicle Detection.
   
   
2. Select the appropriate channel with the ANPR camera in the Channel Dropdown.
   
   
3. Select the desired Start Time and End Time.
4. (Optional) Under Database List, select All, Block List, or Allow List. This will filter the searches according to the list chosen. You can also select a target color, vehicle type, or plate color in their appropriate dropdown selections.
5. Click Search to begin the Motor Vehicle Detection search.
6. The results page will be shown with snapshot tiles of the vehicle and its respective captured license plate at the bottom of the image. You can double click on any tiles to view the recorded video. The picture below is an example.
   
   
7. Any vehicles within the Allow or Block list will be tagged as such. Examples are shown below. Selecting the check box in the snapshot tile will allow you to Export (the vehicle information), Backup (to a local USB), Lock, or add a Tag to the item.
   
   

ANPR Plate Search (via ANPR Camera web GUI)

If you do not have an NVR, you can still use the ANPR camera's internal database to perform ANPR searches. Video extraction is not supported directly to the ANPR so we highly recommend added it to a compatible NVR for video search and extraction.

1. Log in to the ANPR camera web interface using its IP address.
2. Select the Query Tab, then select image search.
   
   
3. Under the SD Card Image tab, you can select the desired start time and end time as well as event type (All, ANPR, or Manual Snap). If you want to search for a specific plate number, select the check box for Plate and then input the desired plate number. Note: Any alphabetical characters input in the Plate field must be capitalized.
   
   
4. Click search after you finish inputting the desired parameters. The results will be displayed in a list below. You can double click on an item o the list and the plate will be displayed on the upper right side.
   
   
5. You can also export the information. You can select the desired items by the check box to the left of the column and then click Download By File. This will export a list of the items, including event time, plate number, color event type, etc. You can also select Download by Time to export all items within the time frame of the query.

IVS Lights and Siren Setup (IPEL-B40V-LPR1)

This camera comes equipped with lights and sirens similar to the Active Deterrent camera line. The camera can detect loitering, people, cars and cars without license plates. Once the camera detects one of these assigned parameters the lights and sirens will activate.

The setup of this feature will be very similar to our guide on Camera IVS Intrusion Zone

1. Navigate to "Settings" => "Event" => IVS
2. Click the "+" button to create a new rule.
3. Click "Draw Rule" and draw your rule.
4. Select your target parameters. Your choices are as follows:
   • Pedestrians
   • Motor Vehicles
   • Non - Motor Vehicles
   • Unlicensed Vehicle
5. Enable your Active Deterrent features.
   • Warning Light (red and blue flashers)
   • Audio Linkage - If selected, linked audio is played when the event occurs. For details on
     setting audio linkage, see Event Broadcast Settings
6. Lastly click "Save" to complete the setup. 

(IVS) Event Broadcast Settings

These settings allow for customized Audio Linkage. The camera is equipped with a text to speech functionality. Any clear text inserted into the event type will allow the camera to "Speak" the script you send it.

Navigate to: Select Setting => ANPR => Voice Broadcast Settings => Event Broadcast Settings.

1. Select Enable to enable the function.
2. (Optional) Click Add Audio File, and then follow the on-screen instructions to upload
   custom audio files to be played when events are triggered.
3.  Select the checkbox under the Enable column to enable an event.
4. Configure other parameters.
   • Play Mode:
     • File: The audio file you selected will be played when the event is triggered.
     • Combine: The content in Audio Content will be played when the event is triggered.
   • Audio Content:
     
     • When the Play Mode is set to File, select an audio file you uploaded.
     • When the Play Mode is set to Combine, enter the content to be played when the event is triggered.
     • [plate] and "," are two special parameters in the content. [plate] will be replaced with the plate number of the vehicle triggered the event, and "," is used to pause for 0.5 s between segments of the content. For example, the content is set to "[plate] is loitering, Please exit the parking lot immediately", and the plate number of the vehicle is ABC 123, the broadcast content will be "ABC 123 is loitering [pause for 0.5 s] Please exit the parking lot immediately".
   • Intervals(s) and Durations(s): The audio file or content will be continuously played for the duration and at each interval you configured.
5. Click Save

(Vehicle Passing) Voice Broadcast Settings

This feature will allow the IPEL-B40V-LPR1 to utilize voice prompts when a vehicle or vehicle plate enter the created Capture Area from the Wizard section of ANPR Quick Setup (on IP camera) 

As of writing only the IPEL-B40V-LPR1 currently supports this functionality.

Navigate to: Select Setting => ANPR => Voice Broadcast Settings => Voice Broadcast Settings

1. If the Barrier Control is set as Order (Server) and the voice broadcast is controlled by the
   platform, Parking Fee, Parking Duration, Expires at, Entry Time and Exit Time will be
   available. 

2. Insert Forward	Insert a rule in front of the current set variables
   Insert Backward	Insert a rule in behind the current set variables
   Modify	Click the MODIFY radio to the right to allow you to modify rules. Click the icon to modify the selected rules. For example Plate number is divided into two separate sections ("abc","123"). Once the camera detects this plate it will then follow the next rule. In the screen shot above we have the camera read a specific plate and then tell the driver to "Have a nice trip!"
   Delete	Click the DELETE radio to the right to allow you to delete specific rules
   Clear	Deletes all configured rules.