The police think the same people are causing the incidents in our area. At least on of the incidents involved someone driving up to our house.
I would like to point a video camera or two such that it sees the license plates of vehicles driving by.
Our house is 30 feet from the street.
Are there any special requirements (frame rate, IR, etc) that such a camera setup would need ?
Any other tips and hints for this application ?
Thanks
Getting drive by licence plates ?
Re: Getting drive by licence plates ?
This sounds not so much like ANPR, just a quality issue.
10 meters is doable in good daylight with most good quality equipment. I have an Axis 211 (only VGA) facing oncoming traffic and number plates are clearly visible at a direct range of 10m or so, but if you're offset the window for view is much smaller.
At night time though - forget it unless you have specialised equipment, or the area is well lit anyway. If it's within your own property, I would say put up good PIR floodlights. These also trigger motion events very consistently. Of course that's impractical (and possibly illegal) in the street.
This doesn't help you that much, really. The quality and speed of the cameras is important, but it's hard to be able to test accurately without the cameras on loan. They all sound good on paper...
10 meters is doable in good daylight with most good quality equipment. I have an Axis 211 (only VGA) facing oncoming traffic and number plates are clearly visible at a direct range of 10m or so, but if you're offset the window for view is much smaller.
At night time though - forget it unless you have specialised equipment, or the area is well lit anyway. If it's within your own property, I would say put up good PIR floodlights. These also trigger motion events very consistently. Of course that's impractical (and possibly illegal) in the street.
This doesn't help you that much, really. The quality and speed of the cameras is important, but it's hard to be able to test accurately without the cameras on loan. They all sound good on paper...
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pathetic_programmer
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:49 am
Re: Getting drive by licence plates ?
No real special requirements that I can think of. A few suggestions though.
Good quality camera: Frame rate and lighting can't help you if you have a really crappy camera. I have a few .3MP (640x480) cameras, and they get fairly good detail, but it starts to drop around 30ish feet. Please note that I don't have them zoomed or anything though, so it could be possible that they'll get good images from that distance.
Decent frame rate: Quality can't help you if you miss the shot all together. I'd go with a camera that can do at least 15fps, but higher is better.
IR: I got a reasonably cheap camera for about $100 that can go up to 30' with its 25 IR LEDs. If your house is ~30' from the street, you may need something a bit more powerful for night shots. The more IR LEDs, the more expensive. Where you place the camera may also help alleviate that issue.
Practice your shot: You might think that the camera is pointed in the right direction, but you may find out that it is just slightly off from where you need it.
Conceal the camera: If they see it, they may just take a different route to wherever they're going. Most cameras are going wireless nowadays, so you'd only need a power cord going to where your camera is if you have a wireless setup. To me a power cord alone is less suspicious than a power cord and LAN cable, (provided they know what LAN cables look like).
Hope that helps. Best of luck catching them.
Good quality camera: Frame rate and lighting can't help you if you have a really crappy camera. I have a few .3MP (640x480) cameras, and they get fairly good detail, but it starts to drop around 30ish feet. Please note that I don't have them zoomed or anything though, so it could be possible that they'll get good images from that distance.
Decent frame rate: Quality can't help you if you miss the shot all together. I'd go with a camera that can do at least 15fps, but higher is better.
IR: I got a reasonably cheap camera for about $100 that can go up to 30' with its 25 IR LEDs. If your house is ~30' from the street, you may need something a bit more powerful for night shots. The more IR LEDs, the more expensive. Where you place the camera may also help alleviate that issue.
Practice your shot: You might think that the camera is pointed in the right direction, but you may find out that it is just slightly off from where you need it.
Conceal the camera: If they see it, they may just take a different route to wherever they're going. Most cameras are going wireless nowadays, so you'd only need a power cord going to where your camera is if you have a wireless setup. To me a power cord alone is less suspicious than a power cord and LAN cable, (provided they know what LAN cables look like).
Hope that helps. Best of luck catching them.