LILIN's cutting-edge ALPR boosts parking management, experience

ALPR or automatic license plate recognition refers to the use of video systems to recognize vehicles’ license plate numbers. In this regard, Taiwan company Merit LILIN has developed cutting-edge ALPR with various use cases. This article looks at LILIN’s ALPR and its smart parking applications.
 
LILIN is a Taiwan company specializing in video security solutions. With a history of 45 years, LILIN is now a leader in edge computing where AI is embedded in their IP cameras and recording devices. The company has its own AI team consisted of dozens of experts developing advanced and pioneering AI solutions.
 

Cutting-edge ALPR

 
When the company first entered AI, it focused on ALPR. This is in response to increased market demand for Taiwan-developed ALPR in the face of costly and expensive overseas ALPR software engines. Today, LILIN has developed cutting-edge ALPR that can be both server- and camera-based, depending on the client’s requirement.
 
Applications are manifold. Steve Hu, CIO of LILIN, cites smart law enforcement as one example. “In one project, the ALPR system is installed on a school bus, which can detect whether vehicles on the opposite lane come to a full stop when the stop sign comes out of the bus. If the vehicle does not stop, it will be captured and fined accordingly,” Hu said.
 
Another example is detecting garbage dumping. “If the ALPR system captures someone with a vehicle dumping garbage illegally, the system will issue an alarm automatically, so law enforcement officials don’t need to view the footage in its entirety. They can subsequently issue fines accordingly,” Hu added.
 

ALPR in smart parking

 
Needless to say, smart parking is a key application of ALPR. With their expertise in hardware and ALPR, LILIN has been approached for various smart parking projects both in Taiwan and abroad.
 
For example, they’ve been approached for smart parking kiosks with wide-angle lenses and large apertures for effective capturing of plates near or far from the kiosks, a solution that LILIN is perfectly capable of providing. Furthermore, in places such as school grounds where unregistered yet specialized vehicles such as fire trucks or ambulances need to park, the ALPR system can be customized to recognize their plates as well as special marks on the vehicles – for example the red cross on an ambulance – and trigger the barrier to open.
 
Indeed, LILIN’s strength lies in its strong capability to customize and localize. “This is our biggest merit – you tell us your pain point, and we’ll solve it for you,” Hu said.
 

Success across globe 

 
LILIN’s ALPR is available in various markets across the globe including North America, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines and more. Their ALPR is trained to recognize plates that are easy to read, like those from North America, as well as plates that are harder to read, for example those from the Middle East, Thailand and Bangladesh.
 
“We could not have done this without the help and support of our local SI partners, who teach us how their language works, as well as the efforts of our AI staff, who are assisted by three AI training servers which train AI 24-7,” Hu said.
 

Asia: Moving towards barrier-less

 
In Hu’s view, the Asia smart parking market is full of potential due to increased demand. According to him, today Asia still uses smart parking mostly for access control and payment purposes, and barriers are still utilized. But he says Asia smart parking will eventually become more and more like Europe, where smart parking emphasizes operational efficiency and user experience, with a lot of facilities already going barrier-less.
 
“We have partnered with the football stadium in Milton Keynes, UK, which has 10 to 12 entry/exit points, all of which are barrier-less. The plate numbers are pushed to the cloud for payment and fine issuance purposes. This boosts the operational efficiency and user experience, and Milton Keynes is happy that we did this for them,” Hu said. “Barriers are annoying; it takes 10-12 seconds for each vehicle to pass through, potentially leading to congestion. So barrier-less solutions are increasingly used, and Asia is definitely moving towards this trend.”