Non-parking type parking lot charging system

Abstract

The invention discloses a non-parking type parking lot charging system, which comprises camera groups respectively arranged at an entrance and an exit of a parking lot, an image processing module of which the signal input end is connected with the signal output ends of the cameras, and a control center of which the signal input end is connected with the signal output end of the image processing module, the whole system comprehensively utilizes the modern image processing technology, the optical character recognition technology and the mobile internet technology to realize the intelligence, automation and high efficiency of parking lot management.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of parking billing, in particular to a non-stop parking lot billing system. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the development of social economy and the increase of car ownership, the problem of parking difficulty in cities is increasingly prominent. The traditional parking lot management system usually relies on manual license plate recognition and charging, which is not only inefficient but also prone to errors, resulting in poor user experience. Therefore, automated and intelligent parking lot management systems have gradually become a research and development hotspot.

[0003] In the prior art, the license plate recognition system mainly installs cameras at the entrance and exit of the parking lot to capture the license plate number of the vehicle for automated management and charging. However, these systems still have some problems in practical application. For example, the recognition rate of the camera on the license plate is greatly affected by environmental light, weather conditions, license plate pollution, etc., resulting in low recognition accuracy. In addition, some vehicles use temporary license plates, and the traditional license plate recognition system is difficult to accurately identify the information of these temporary license plates.

[0004] In order to improve the accuracy of license plate recognition and the reliability of the system, some systems set multiple cameras at the entrance and exit to take pictures of different parts of the vehicle. These cameras can more accurately recognize the license plate number, including official license plates and temporary license plates, through intelligent image processing technology. However, the existing multi-camera system still has deficiencies in synchronization and coordination, and is prone to recognition time difference and misrecognition problems.

[0005] In addition, the parking lot management system in the prior art usually fails to effectively solve the whole process of automated management of vehicle entry and exit. For example, when the vehicle enters, the system needs to accurately recognize the license plate number and record the entry time; when the vehicle exits, the system needs to re-identify the license plate number and calculate the parking duration and the amount of fees to be paid. If there is an identification error in any link in the whole process, it will affect the operation efficiency of the system and the user experience.

[0006] To solve the above problems, the present application provides a non-stop parking lot billing system. SUMMARY

[0007] The purpose of the present application is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art and provide a non-stop parking lot billing system to better and effectively solve the above problems.

[0008] In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical solution adopted by the present application is:

[0009] A non-stop parking lot charging system, comprising the following steps, including camera groups respectively arranged at the entrance and exit of the parking lot, an image processing module connected with the signal output end of the camera, and a control hub connected with the signal output end of the image processing module, characterized in that it comprises the following steps,

[0010] Step A, camera setting: each group of cameras includes a first camera and a second camera, the first camera is integrated with the gate machine, which is used to identify the official license plate of the vehicle and collect the license plate number information, and the second camera is used to shoot the front windshield of the vehicle, identify the temporary license plate and collect the license plate number information on the temporary license plate;

[0011] Step B, information collection: the image processing module confirms the region of interest and crops the region of interest from the image collected by the first camera or the second camera, processes the cropped picture, and generates license plate information;

[0012] Step C, determine whether to release: if one of the first camera and the second camera obtains the license plate number information, record it and release the vehicle, if both the first camera and the second camera obtain the license plate number information, use the license plate number information obtained by the camera at the gate as the standard, if both cameras fail to obtain the license plate number information in the first attempt, make several identification attempts, if the vehicle license information is still not identified, determine that the vehicle is a vehicle without license, and prohibit entry / exit;

[0013] Step D, confirmation of time difference: when the vehicle drives to the entrance of the parking lot, the first camera and the second camera at the entrance of the parking lot generate a timestamp after collecting the license plate information, and store the license plate number and timestamp in the database for recording, when the vehicle drives to the exit of the parking lot, the first camera and the second camera at the exit of the parking lot identify the license plate information of the vehicle and generate a timestamp again, use the license plate number information as the primary key to search in the database, obtain the corresponding entry, calculate the time difference between the two timestamps, and bind the time difference and the license plate information again to form the charging information;

[0014] Step E, association of mobile application and charge deduction: bind the vehicle owner's information with the license plate and store it in the mobile application, set the charging rules, match the vehicle owner according to the charging information in step D, and deduct the fee through the associated mobile application.

[0015] Preferably, in step B, the image processing module confirms the region of interest, and the specific steps are,

[0016] Step B1, determine the shape: the image processing module finds the edge in the picture through the Canny edge detection algorithm, and according to the obtained edge, uses the Hough transform to find the rectangular region on the picture collected by the first camera or the second camera.

[0017] Preferably, the image processing module in step B1 needs to segment the picture collected by the second camera into an upper half and a lower half before processing the picture collected by the second camera, and the lower half picture is processed preferentially.

[0018] Preferably, the processing of the cropped picture in step B includes graying, digital zooming on the region of interest, enlarging the image of the region, using an occlusion removal algorithm to restore the occluded and unclear parts, and using histogram equalization to enhance the contrast of the image.

[0019] Preferably, step B generates license plate information, and the specific steps are as follows,

[0020] Step F: segmenting the processed cropped picture into single character regions;

[0021] Step G: based on a text recognition engine, recognizing the single character regions through optical character recognition technology and combining them into complete license plate information

[0022] Preferably, the text recognition engine in step G is trained for license plate recognition by a jTessBoxEditor tool before use.

[0023] The beneficial effects of the present application are as follows:

[0024] 1. Improved efficiency of passage:

[0025] The system uses cameras and image processing technology to realize automatic recognition of vehicles, without the need for parking cards or manual recording, greatly improving the efficiency of vehicle passage through the entrance and exit of the parking lot, and avoiding the situation of vehicle queuing.

[0026] 2. Strong adaptability:

[0027] The system can recognize formal license plates, temporary license plates, and partially occluded license plates, and is suitable for various types of vehicles and various complex parking lot environments, increasing the applicability and practicality of the system.

[0028] 3. High accuracy:

[0029] Through the Canny edge detection algorithm and Hough transform technology, the system can accurately locate the license plate region, and combined with graying, digital zooming, histogram equalization, and occlusion removal algorithm, ensures high accuracy of license plate recognition, and reduces the occurrence of recognition errors.

[0030] 4. Intelligent charging:

[0031] The system can automatically calculate the parking time of vehicles in the parking lot, and automatically deduct fees through the associated mobile application according to the preset charging rules, reducing the complexity and possible errors of manual operation, and improving the accuracy and transparency of the charging.

[0032] 5. Data recording and management:

[0033] The system generates a unique timestamp record for each vehicle and stores the license plate information and timestamp in the database, facilitating subsequent data management and query. This provides strong data support for the operation and management of the parking lot, helping to optimize the management process of the parking lot.

[0034] 6. Security enhancement:

[0035] The system can detect vehicles without license plates and automatically prohibit their entry or exit, enhancing the security of the parking lot and preventing illegal entry and parking of vehicles without license plates.

[0036] 7. Technological advancement:

[0037] The system uses advanced image processing technology and optical character recognition technology (OCR), and conducts license plate recognition training through jTessBoxEditor tools, ensuring efficient and accurate license plate recognition, representing the development direction of parking lot management technology.

[0038] In summary, the entire system realizes the intelligentization, automation and high efficiency of parking lot management by comprehensively utilizing modern image processing technology, optical character recognition technology and mobile internet technology, and has significant practical value and broad application prospect. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] The application will be further described below.

[0040] The non-stop parking lot charging system of the application comprises the following steps: a camera group is arranged at the entrance and exit of the parking lot respectively, an image processing module is connected to the signal output end of the camera, and a control hub is connected to the signal output end of the image processing module, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

[0041] Step A, camera setting: each group of cameras includes a first camera and a second camera, the first camera is integrated with a gate machine, used for identifying the official license plate of the vehicle and collecting the license plate number information, and the second camera is used for shooting the front windshield of the vehicle, identifying the temporary license plate of the vehicle and collecting the license plate number information on the temporary license plate;

[0042] It should be noted that, in order to better let the first camera and the second camera identify, a device for reducing the speed of the vehicle, such as a speed bump, is arranged at the entrance / exit of the parking lot, and the entrance / exit of the parking lot is arranged as a one-way lane, and the first camera and the second camera at the entrance / exit of the parking lot are arranged in the driving direction of the vehicle, and are 10 parking spaces away from the entrance / exit;

[0043] Step B, information collection: the image processing module confirms the region of interest, and cuts the region of interest from the image collected by the first camera or the second camera, processes the cut picture, and generates license plate information;

[0044] The image processing module confirms the region of interest, and the specific steps are,

[0045] Determination of shape: the image processing module finds the edge in the picture through the Canny edge detection algorithm, finds the rectangular region on the picture collected by the first camera or the second camera according to the obtained edge, and determines the position of the license plate, thereby reducing the difficulty of subsequent identification.

[0046] Step C, judgment of whether to release: if one of the first camera and the second camera obtains the license plate number information, it is recorded and the vehicle is released, if both the first camera and the second camera obtain the license plate number information, the license plate number information obtained by the camera at the gate is used as the standard, if both cameras do not obtain the license plate number information in the first attempt, a plurality of identification attempts are performed, if the vehicle license plate information is still not identified, the vehicle is determined as a vehicle without license, and is prohibited from entering / leaving;

[0047] Step D, confirmation of time difference: the vehicle drives to the entrance of the parking lot, the first camera and the second camera at the entrance of the parking lot generate a time stamp after collecting the license plate information, and store the license plate number and the time stamp in the database for recording, the vehicle drives to the exit of the parking lot, the first camera and the second camera at the exit of the parking lot identify the license plate information of the vehicle and establish a time stamp again, the license plate number information is used as the primary key to search in the database, the corresponding entry is obtained, the time difference between the two time stamps is calculated, and the time difference is bound with the license plate information again to form the charging information;

[0048] Step E, association of mobile application and deduction of charge: the information of the vehicle owner is bound with the license plate and stored in the mobile application, the charging rule is set, the vehicle owner is matched according to the charging information in step D, and the charge is deducted through the associated mobile application.

[0049] Specifically, the image processing module confirms the region of interest in step B, and the specific steps are,

[0050] Step B1, shape determination: the image processing module finds the edges in the picture by Canny edge detection algorithm, and finds the rectangular region on the picture captured by the first camera or the second camera according to the obtained edges by Hough transform.

[0051] Specifically, the image processing module needs to segment the picture captured by the second camera into upper and lower parts before processing the picture captured by the second camera in step B1, and the lower part of the picture is processed preferentially.

[0052] Specifically, the processed picture after step B cropping includes grayscale, digital zooming on the region of interest, enlarging the region image, using the occlusion removal algorithm to restore the occluded and unclear parts, and using histogram equalization to enhance the contrast of the image.

[0053] Specifically, step B generates license plate information, and the specific steps are,

[0054] Step F, the processed and cropped picture is segmented into single character regions;

[0055] Step G, based on a text recognition engine, single character regions are recognized by optical character recognition technology and combined into complete license plate information

[0056] Specifically, the text recognition engine in step G is trained for license plate recognition by jTessBoxEditor tool before use.

[0057] In order to better illustrate the beneficial effects of the present application, four specific embodiments of the present application are introduced as follows:

[0058] Example 1: formal license plate

[0059] Scene description:

[0060] The vehicle enters the parking lot, the license plate is a formal license plate, and there is no occlusion.

[0061] Steps:

[0062] Camera settings:

[0063] The first camera (gate camera) recognizes the formal license plate of the vehicle and collects the license plate number information.

[0064] The second camera shoots the front windshield of the vehicle, but does not need to recognize the temporary license plate.

[0065] Information collection:

[0066] The image processing module confirms the region of interest and crops the license plate region from the image collected by the first camera.

[0067] The cropped picture is processed by grayscale, digital zoom and histogram equalization to generate license plate information.

[0068] Determine whether to release:

[0069] The first camera successfully acquires license plate information, records and releases the vehicle.

[0070] Confirmation of time difference:

[0071] The vehicle arrives at the entrance of the parking lot, the first camera collects license plate information and generates a timestamp, and the license plate number and timestamp are stored in the database.

[0072] The vehicle arrives at the exit of the parking lot, the first camera identifies the license plate information again and generates a timestamp, calculates the time difference between the two timestamps, and forms the charging information.

[0073] Association of mobile applications and deduction of charges:

[0074] Bind the vehicle owner information with the license plate, set the charging rules, and deduct the charges through the mobile application according to the charging information.

[0075] Example 2: Temporary license plate

[0076] Scene description:

[0077] The vehicle enters the parking lot, and the license plate is a temporary license plate.

[0078] Steps:

[0079] Camera settings:

[0080] The first camera (gate camera) identifies the formal license plate information of the vehicle, but no license plate can be identified.

[0081] The second camera shoots the front windshield of the vehicle, identifies the temporary license plate and collects the license plate number information on the temporary license plate.

[0082] Information collection:

[0083] The image processing module confirms the region of interest and crops the license plate area from the image collected by the second camera.

[0084] The cropped picture is processed by grayscale, digital zoom and histogram equalization to generate license plate information.

[0085] Determine whether to release:

[0086] The second camera successfully acquires temporary license plate information, records and releases the vehicle.

[0087] Confirmation of time difference:

[0088] The vehicle arrives at the parking lot entrance, the second camera collects the temporary license plate information, generates a timestamp, and stores the license plate number and timestamp in the database.

[0089] The vehicle arrives at the parking lot exit, the second camera again identifies the temporary license plate information and generates a timestamp, calculates the time difference between the two timestamps, and forms the charging information.

[0090] Mobile application and charge:

[0091] Bind the owner information with the temporary license plate, set the charging rules, and deduct the charge through the mobile application according to the charging information.

[0092] Example 3: License plate has obstruction

[0093] Scenario description:

[0094] The vehicle enters the parking lot, and the license plate is the formal license, but part of it is blocked.

[0095] Steps:

[0096] Camera settings:

[0097] The first camera (gate camera) identifies the formal license of the vehicle and collects the license plate number information, but fails to identify it completely due to obstruction.

[0098] The second camera shoots the front windshield of the vehicle and identifies the temporary license plate or supplements the license plate information.

[0099] Information collection:

[0100] The image processing module confirms the region of interest and crops the license plate area from the image collected by the first camera.

[0101] The cropped picture is processed by grayscale, digital zoom and histogram equalization, and the obstruction removal algorithm is used to restore the blocked part to generate the license plate information.

[0102] If the image processing of the first camera fails, use the image of the second camera for the same processing.

[0103] Determine whether to release:

[0104] If the license plate number information is successfully obtained by any camera, record it and release the vehicle.

[0105] Confirmation of time difference:

[0106] The vehicle arrives at the parking lot entrance, the first camera collects the license plate information, generates a timestamp, and stores the license plate number and timestamp in the database.

[0107] The vehicle arrives at the parking lot exit, the first camera again recognizes the license plate information and generates a timestamp, calculates the time difference between the two timestamps, and forms the charging information.

[0108] Mobile application and charge:

[0109] Bind the owner information with the license plate, set the charging rules, and charge through the mobile application according to the charging information.

[0110] Embodiment 4: Official license plate and temporary license plate sharing

[0111] Scenario description:

[0112] The vehicle enters the parking lot, and has both an official license plate and a temporary license plate.

[0113] Steps:

[0114] Camera settings:

[0115] The first camera (gate camera) recognizes the official license plate of the vehicle and collects the license plate number information.

[0116] The second camera shoots the front windshield of the vehicle, recognizes the temporary license plate of the vehicle, and collects the license plate number information on the temporary license plate.

[0117] Information collection:

[0118] The image processing module confirms the region of interest and crops the license plate region from the images collected by the first camera and the second camera.

[0119] The cropped picture is processed by grayscale, digital zoom and histogram equalization to generate license plate information.

[0120] Determine whether to release:

[0121] If one of the first camera and the second camera successfully obtains the license plate number information, record and release the vehicle.

[0122] If both cameras successfully obtain the license plate number information, use the official license plate information obtained by the first camera (gate camera) as the standard.

[0123] If neither of the two cameras obtains the license plate number information in the first attempt, a number of identification attempts are made, and if the vehicle license plate information is still not identified, the vehicle is determined to be a vehicle without license plate and is prohibited from entering / leaving.

[0124] Confirmation of time difference:

[0125] The vehicle arrives at the parking lot entrance, the first camera and the second camera collect the license plate information and generate a timestamp, and store the license plate number and timestamp in the database.

[0126] When the vehicle arrives at the exit of the parking lot, the first camera and the second camera identify the license plate information again and generate a timestamp, search for the license plate number information as the primary key in the database, after obtaining the corresponding entry, calculate the time difference between the two timestamps to form the charging information.

[0127] Mobile application association and charge deduction:

[0128] Bind the owner information with the formal license plate and the temporary license plate, set the charging rules, and deduct the charge through the mobile application according to the charging information.

[0129] In summary, the non-stop parking lot charging system of the application has the following effects:

[0130] 1. Improve the traffic efficiency:

[0131] The system uses camera and image processing technology to realize automatic recognition of vehicles, without the need for parking and taking cards or manual recording, which greatly improves the efficiency of vehicle passing through the entrance and exit of the parking lot, and avoids the situation of vehicle queuing.

[0132] 2. Strong adaptability:

[0133] The system can recognize formal license plates, temporary license plates and partially blocked license plates, and is suitable for various types of vehicles and various complex parking lot environments, increasing the applicability and practicality of the system.

[0134] 3. High accuracy:

[0135] Through Canny edge detection algorithm and Hough transform technology, the system can accurately locate the license plate area, and combined with grayscale processing, digital zoom, histogram equalization and de-shielding algorithm, the high accuracy of license plate recognition is ensured, and the occurrence of recognition errors is reduced.

[0136] 4. Intelligent charging:

[0137] The system can automatically calculate the parking time of the vehicle in the parking lot, and automatically deduct the charge through the associated mobile application according to the preset charging rules, reducing the complexity and possible errors of manual operation, and improving the accuracy and transparency of the charge.

[0138] 5. Data recording and management:

[0139] The system generates a unique timestamp record for each vehicle, and stores the license plate information and timestamp in the database, which is convenient for subsequent data management and query. This provides strong data support for the operation and management of the parking lot, and helps to optimize the management process of the parking lot.

[0140] 6. Enhanced security:

[0141] The system can detect unlicensed vehicles and automatically prohibit them from entering or leaving, enhancing the safety of the parking lot and preventing illegal entry and parking of unlicensed vehicles.

[0142] 7. Technical advancement:

[0143] The system adopts advanced image processing technology and optical character recognition technology (OCR), and carries out license plate recognition training through jTessBoxEditor tool, ensuring the efficiency and accuracy of license plate recognition, and representing the development direction of parking lot management technology.

[0144] In summary, the whole system realizes the intelligentization, automation and high efficiency of parking lot management by comprehensively utilizing modern image processing technology, optical character recognition technology and mobile internet technology, and has significant practical value and broad application prospect.

[0145] The above shows and describes the basic principles, main features and advantages of the present application. Those skilled in the art should understand that the present application is not limited by the above examples, and the above examples and descriptions in the specification are only to illustrate the principles of the present application. Without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application, various changes and improvements can be made to the present application, and these changes and improvements all fall within the scope of the present application. The scope of protection of the present application is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A non-stop parking lot billing system, comprising camera groups respectively installed at the entrance and exit of the parking lot, an image processing module whose signal input is connected to the signal output of the camera, and a control center whose signal input is connected to the signal output of the image processing module, characterized in that: Includes the following steps, Step (A), Camera setup: Each set of cameras includes a first camera and a second camera. The first camera is integrated with the gate and is used to identify the vehicle's official license plate and collect the license plate number information. The second camera is used to photograph the vehicle's windshield, identify the vehicle's temporary license plate, and collect the license plate number information on the temporary license plate. Step (B), Information Acquisition: The image processing module identifies the region of interest and crops the region of interest from the image captured by the first or second camera. The cropped image is then processed to generate license plate information. Step (C), determine whether to allow passage: If either the first camera or the second camera obtains the license plate number information, record it and allow the vehicle to pass. If both the first camera and the second camera obtain the license plate number information, the license plate number information obtained by the camera at the gate shall prevail. If neither camera obtains the license plate number information on the first attempt, several recognition attempts shall be made. If the vehicle license plate information is still not recognized, the vehicle shall be determined to be a vehicle without a license plate and shall be prohibited from entering / exiting. Step (D), confirmation of time difference: When the vehicle arrives at the parking lot entrance, the first and second cameras at the parking lot entrance collect the license plate information and generate a timestamp. The license plate number and timestamp are stored in the database for recording. When the vehicle arrives at the parking lot exit, the first and second cameras at the parking lot exit identify the vehicle's license plate information and generate a timestamp again. The license plate number information is used as the primary key to search the database. After obtaining the corresponding entry, the time difference between the two timestamps is calculated, and the time difference is bound to the license plate information again to form the charging information. Step (E), linking the mobile application and deducting fees: bind the vehicle owner's relevant information with the license plate and store it in the mobile application, set billing rules, match the vehicle owner according to the charging information in step (D), and deduct fees through the linked mobile application.

2. The non-stop parking lot billing system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The image processing module in step (B) identifies the region of interest. The specific steps are as follows: Step (B1) Determine the shape: The image processing module uses the Canny edge detection algorithm to find the edges in the image. Based on the obtained edges, the Hough transform is used to find the rectangular area on the image captured by the first or second camera.

3. The non-stop parking lot billing system according to claim 2, characterized in that: In step (B1), the image processing module needs to segment the image captured by the second camera into an upper half and a lower half before processing the image, and prioritizes processing the lower half of the image.

4. The non-stop parking lot billing system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The processing of the cropped image in step (B) includes grayscale conversion, digital zoom of the region of interest, magnification of the image in that region, occlusion removal algorithm to restore occluded and unclear parts, and histogram equalization to enhance image contrast.

5. A non-stop parking lot billing system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The specific steps for generating license plate information in step (B) are as follows: Step (F) divides the processed cropped image into individual character regions; Step (G) uses a text recognition engine to identify individual character regions through optical character recognition technology and combines them into complete license plate information.

6. A non-stop parking lot billing system according to claim 5, characterized in that: In step (G), the text recognition engine is trained for license plate recognition by the jTessBoxEditor tool before use.