Canadian developer of cloud-based unified security, public safety, traffic operations and business intelligence software systems Genetec has announced the immediate availability of its next-generation mobile license plate recognition system.
The Montreal-based company says its new AutoVu SharpZ3 automatic license plate recognition (ALPR/ANPR) unit goes beyond traditional license plate identification and brings new levels of insight in vehicle analytics, situational awareness, and accuracy. Ideally suited to meet the needs of parking managers who use mobile ALPR as part of their enforcement activities, the new SharpZ3 can help them track the types of vehicle (car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle) in parking lots or around the city, and analyse the evolution of the mix of vehicle types over time. For law enforcement officers that use mobile ALPR to aid investigations, the SharpZ3 allows patrols to flag vehicles based on vehicle type and colour where no license plate was identified by a witness.
The AutoVu SharpZ3 is among the first specialised in-vehicle ALPR systems in the world to use Intel’s latest machine learning and computer vision technology to unlock new insights through innovative analytics. The AutoVu SharpZ3 system will not only be able to improve the accuracy of license plate reads in difficult environments such as bad weather, heavy traffic, and fast speeds, but will also be able to record additional vehicle characteristics such as, vehicle type, colour, and more, in real-time, and without requiring large amounts of bandwidth. Designed with a third optical sensor, the AutoVu SharpZ3 can accurately capture multiple plate designs in complex urban environments, including flat, embossed, reflective and non-reflective license plates. The extra sensor will also allow more precise positioning of vehicle data on maps to provide more precise occupancy data than before.
With its modular design, the SharpZ3 gives users the flexibility to add new functionalities over time, helping to reduce the complication and cost of hardware replacement. With future releases, the machine learning capabilities in the AutoVu SharpZ3 will enable a number of new potential applications such as enabling cities to use their ALPR-equipped vehicles to address other operational issues including detecting unpermitted road construction, discovering abandoned e-scooters or bikes in unauthorised zones, and other situations. The SharpZ3 has a 63 feet (19m) range with retro-reflective license plates, offering 1456(H) x 1088(V) progressive scan at 30fps in colour and B&W night mode with a pulsed LED 940nm illuminator, and global shutter providing JPEG still images and MJPEG video streaming.
The AutoVu SharpZ3 can be easily integrated with the company’s flagship product, Security Centre, an open-architecture platform that unifies IP-based video surveillance, access control, ALPR, communications, and analytics. During the current period when worldwide ‘physical’ exhibitions are not taking place, the AutoVu SharpZ3, and the complete portfolio of Genetec security, operations and intelligence solutions will be on display from April 20-22, at Connect’DX, the company’s three-day, live, virtual tradeshow and digital conference.
“Traditional ALPR systems solve traditional parking and law enforcement challenges, like finding vehicles of interest and parking violators,” said Stephan Kaiser AutoVu general manager at Genetec. “The SharpZ3 tackles emerging problems that are not served by current technology, helping customers gain new insights into the types of vehicles in their city and how their streets and curbs are used.”
