With the development of the parking lot industry and various market demands, the demand for license plate recognition systems is becoming increasingly widespread, mainly divided into two types: software recognition and hardware recognition. Through automatic recognition, login, and comparison of license plate numbers, the license plate recognition system can achieve many intelligent functions such as automatic gate opening, automatic billing, automatic verification of user vehicle identity, automatic differentiation of internal and external vehicles, automatic calculation of number of vehicles, and automatic alarm. So, what is the difference between hard and soft license plate recognition? Below, Weidao Technology, a provider of parking lot management system solutions, will explain to you.

 

 

Software recognition can be understood as recognizing license plate numbers through software, by installing a matching license plate recognition software on a computer to recognize and process captured images. Its working method is to continuously capture multiple photos through a camera, select the clearer one, and then use computer software for character processing to achieve license plate recognition. Because each recognition requires capturing multiple photos, the speed of soft recognition is slower. Moreover, the soft recognition system has extremely high requirements for the captured images, which must be extremely clear to achieve the desired effect. The system has extremely high requirements for on-site environment and debugging quality, and is not suitable for many situations with poor environments. It is also very important to identify the placement of equipment.

 

 

Hardware recognition is a series of character processing performed on captured images through independent hardware devices; At present, hardware recognition in the parking lot system industry is also divided into two types, namely with a separate license plate recognition device and front-end hardware recognition. The front-end hardware recognition integrated camera meets market demand and is currently favored by a large number of customers. The front-end hardware recognition of Shenzhen Weidao Technology, also known as license plate recognition all-in-one machine, embeds traditional individual license plate recognition instruments into cameras to achieve integration of front-end hardware and cameras, perfectly achieving a series of tasks such as image capture, video streaming transmission, character recognition, and road gate lifting.

 

Comparison of advantages between soft recognition and hard recognition:

 

1. Analysis recognition mode:

Hard recognition system: uses video stream analysis and recognition to perform real-time analysis of video streams within the monitoring range 24\/7;

Soft recognition system: Image analysis and recognition, taking photos of vehicles arriving within a specified range, and then analyzing the photos; When the vehicle is in poor position, recognition is prone to errors.

 

2. Trigger recognition method:

Hard recognition system: optional ground sensing and video triggering, no need to add detection equipment, no need to damage the ground or add engineering, 24-hour image acquisition.

Soft recognition system: triggered by external vehicle detection equipment such as ground sensing and infrared; A certain amount of work is required.

 

3. Intelligent algorithm model:

Hard recognition system: adopts intelligent fuzzy dot matrix recognition algorithm, with higher accuracy and recognition rate greater than 99.70%. Very little manual intervention is required.

Soft recognition system: OCR\/font topology recognition algorithm, which can frequently cause misidentification, with an accuracy rate of less than 90%. It is necessary to manually input the corrected license plate continuously.

 

4. Reliability and stability:

Hard recognition system: The dedicated recognizer adopts TI's high-speed DSP and dual CPU control to ensure system reliability and stability.

Soft recognition system: Software recognition, prone to frequent crashes and other situations, requiring frequent computer restarts, resulting in intermittent system paralysis.

 

5. Recognition speed:

Hard recognition system: The vehicle license plate recognition speed is less than 0.4 seconds, fully meeting the needs of high traffic flow;

Soft recognition system: The vehicle license plate recognition speed is greater than 3 seconds or even longer, which is unbearable.

 

6. Environmental adaptability:

Hard recognition system: able to work normally under various lighting conditions such as night, cloudy, and rainy days;

Soft recognition system: Under the above conditions, even at different times of the day, the recognition accuracy fluctuates greatly.

 

7. Vehicle speed adaptability:

Hard recognition system: Stable and fast recognition within the speed range of 0-120Km\/H; Widely applicable, this type of equipment is used for high-speed kilometers.

Soft recognition system: When the vehicle speed exceeds 40Km\/H, the recognition rate drops sharply and is now being introduced into the parking lot system, which needs further improvement.

 

8. Camera sharing:

Hard recognition system: The system can share cameras with the monitoring system without any impact on the system.

Soft recognition system: cannot be shared, otherwise it will have a serious impact on system stability and recognition rate.

 

9. Output signal:

Hard recognition system: The system can output real-time data such as vehicle large images, license plate small images, license plate identification numbers, license plate colors and recognition credibility, traffic flow, and parking volume in the parking lot. Equipped with static image query function for vehicle entry and exit, and a shuttle parking space guidance system.

Soft recognition system: Without an output interface, it is mainly used by the system itself and cannot be developed for secondary purposes.

 

10. Compatibility:

Hard recognition system: Without the support of industrial IO cards, the bypass parking lot control system (PLC) can be seamlessly compatible with various types of parking lots such as IC, ID, paper tickets, etc., achieving automatic recognition and printing of license plate numbers that must be consistent with card numbers for entry and exit.

Soft recognition system: relies on IO cards for vehicle detection, opening and closing gate actions, and is only software embedded with the parking lot system, with no hardware connection. Large engineering volume, high line usage, and poor stability.