Solutions by typeMobility analysis
What if there is nothing to read where the plate should be?
Three days parked and nothing to read on it
It is 11:20 in a narrow street in the old town. A car has been parked against the kerb for three days, rear facing the camera. In the recess of the bumper, where the plate goes, there is nothing: no dirty plate, no bent plate, no screws with a plate behind them. Neighbours have stopped folding their mirrors to squeeze past. Nobody has called, because everyone assumes the car belongs to somebody else.
2 cameras across 2 sectors
This is how you ask for it
«Alert me when a vehicle has been parked on the street for more than a day and there is no readable plate where the plate should be. I do not want to know what it says: I want to know there is nothing to read.»
A vehicle whose plate cannot be read is a vehicle that, for the authorities, does not exist: it cannot be notified, billed or removed without a file that starts precisely by identifying it. And at a quarry the same hole is measured in tonnes: a truck that leaves loaded without crossing the weighbridge takes away material that appears on no paperwork.
You decide once
You decide it once, and what you decide is the threshold. You say which streets are watched, how long parked is already odd there, who gets the alert and what comes with it: the picture of where the plate should be and how long that car has not moved. At the quarry the rule is different and you set it the same way: if a truck leaves loaded without crossing the weighbridge, alert the site manager and keep the plate image. IRIS applies it on every camera on that list, every day.
Almost every plate reader in the world is built to read what the plate says. There are places where the useful question is the opposite: is there anything to read? A plate caked in mud, a plate removed, a plate hidden behind a bike rack or a towball.
And it works in two places with nothing in common. In an old-town street, an abandoned car takes months to become a case file, because nobody keeps count of the days. A camera already looking at that street can keep it: this car has not moved for three days and has no readable plate. At a quarry checkpoint the scene is different: a queue on the weighbridge lane, the barrier down, and a loaded truck leaving by the right-hand lane without weighing. There what you need is a record and the plate image kept, whether it can be read or not.
A car with no readable plate is not a suspicious car: most of the time it is mud, a plate bent in a parking knock, or a badly fitted bike rack. So IRIS accuses nobody. What it does is put a check on the day’s list, with the photo and how long it has been there, so someone can go, look and decide. The difference between a street with abandoned cars and a street without them is not a technology: it is that somebody keeps count.
What changes
Before, an abandoned car was noticed because a neighbour got fed up and called, almost always weeks later. Now it turns up by itself on the morning list, with the photo and the number of days it has been there, and whoever handles the case starts with the date in hand. At the quarry the same happens with something else: the truck that did not weigh stops being discovered at month-end and is known the same day, with its image kept.
Where we have seen it
CAM-15Vehicle with no readable plate
«Tell me when a vehicle has been standing in the street for more than a day and there is no readable plate where the plate should be. I don't want to know what it says: I want to know it isn't there.»
CAM-386A loaded truck slipping past the weighbridge
«Tell me when a loaded truck leaves the quarry without crossing the weighbridge, and keep the plate for me.»
What it does not do
IRIS does not say whether a plate is false, whether the vehicle has been reported, and it queries no police database. Nor does it know who owns the car.
And it gets it wrong in both directions: at night, against the light or in rain, a perfectly readable plate can look unreadable. That is why the alert is a check with a photo, not an accusation.
Questions
- Does it store the plates of every car?
- No, unless you ask for it. This rule does not need to read any plate: it looks at where the plate should be and checks whether there is anything readable. What is stored is the alert, with the image of the vehicle and how long it has been parked. When you do want plates read — at a quarry exit, for instance — that is switched on where you say, and how long they are kept and who may see them is decided by your organisation under its own rules. IRIS carries out that decision; it does not make it.
- What if the plate is just dirty and nothing is going on?
- Well, most of the time that is exactly what it is, and that is fine. Mud after roadworks, a plate bent in a parking knock, a bike rack over it. IRIS does not say anyone is suspected of anything: it says there is no readable plate there and shows the photo. A person does the checking, in two seconds and often without leaving the desk. The value is not in catching anyone: it is that a vehicle nobody can identify stops going unnoticed for months.
- Does it work at night?
- Yes, but with more false alerts, and it is worth knowing beforehand. In low light, in rain or with a headlight facing the camera, a plate that reads perfectly by day can be unreadable in the image. That is why the rule is usually written with time in it: do not alert on a car that has just parked, alert on the one that has not moved for a day or three and has never shown a readable plate across several hours of daylight. That way the alert arrives when there really is something to look at.
- Does it cover the truck that skips the weighbridge?
- Yes, and there the rule is not about plates, it is about sequence. IRIS watches the weighbridge area and the exit area and checks the order: if a loaded truck crosses the exit without having been on the weighbridge, that is what it alerts on, with the time and the image. The plate is kept if it is clearly visible and if you asked for it, so the alert is still useful the next day. If it is not visible, the alert still holds: what matters is that it left loaded without weighing, and that is visible either way.
Every simulation
Something has spilled
Tell me if there is liquid or foam outside its place and it is still there two minutes later.
- The sentence
- Where it applies
- What it finds
- The same rule
Not seeing yours here?
These words are the ones we have built, not the ones IRIS understands. The list falls short on purpose: you ask for it in a sentence, and sentences do not run out. Tell us what is in front of your cameras and we will tell you whether it understands it, or not yet.
And the best part
Nobody covers the night shift:the camera that is already on covers it.
It does not tire, it does not blink and it does not go for coffee. What happens at night is understood just as it would be at midday, and whoever is on duty hears about it while it is happening.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.