The version 7.4 release of Digifort’s VMS and analytics platform includes significant enhancements to its LPR (License Plate Recognition) feature set. LPR comes as a module within Digifort.

It draws on three different recognition engines for plate capture, optimised for different vehicle movement criteria and license plate configurations. This means the engine, which is ideal for fast-moving vehicles on highways, is different to the one used for stationary vehicles in car parks and garage forecourts.

Nick Bowden, MD of Digifort UK, said, “Digifort’s LPR module captures plates, designating them as entry or exit from a zone configured in a camera’s field of view. In car park applications, this allows vehicle entry and exit dates and times, length of stay, count, car park occupancy and average occupancy to be tracked.

“Gates and barriers can be opened automatically for authorised vehicles using a centrally managed database. Overstays can be identified for ticketing and short stays or multiple car park entries by the same vehicle can be designated as suspicious activity for review.

“More advanced LPR engines support real-time traffic management on highways, capturing the plates of fast-moving vehicles. Here, plate capture can also span multiple traffic lanes, high traffic density, and multiple vehicle types.

“The Digifort LPR Bridge, an additional module, links to external databases to give far more comprehensive vehicle and owner information. Depending on the database, this can include stolen cars, wrong plate, incorrect vehicle colour and much more. Alarms can be pushed to viewing clients, video walls, mobile devices and ARCs, for a real-time operator response with a full audit trail.”