A Pragmatic Approach for Reading Number Plates of Indian Vehicles

Automatic Recognition of Vehicle Registration Numbers is an Image Processing and Pattern Recognition technology that is being used to identify vehicles by their registration numbers. This technology is also used in various security enforcement requirements and effective regulation and control in many developed countries. Vehicle number plates come in different sizes, different width and height ratios. These may be made of different materials, composition and reflectivity. They may also contain different backgrounds and variety of colors. The external effects such as sun and head lights and changing weather conditions make this system as a good and challenging area for research. This paper mainly discusses a suitable way and means to read and recognize the registration number plate from the mere photograph of a vehicle. The paper also deals with four important steps involved in the recognition of registration number of vehicles. They are Image acquisition of vehicle, Number plate detection and extraction, Character segmentation and Character recognition. Finally the paper concludes by discussing the applicability of this system in E-Governance in order to improve the performance and ability to monitor vehicles for effective law enforcement mechanism and control and for addressing security concerns, identifying violation of traffic laws by vehicle users, theft and stolen vehicles etc.