How Jenoptik Built an ANPR Camera for the Realities of Parking

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In this edition of In the Spotlight, Parking Network speaks with Paul Kaplanski from Jenoptik about GardoVia, the company's ANPR camera designed specifically for parking applications. Drawing on Jenoptik's experience in intelligent transport systems and road safety, Paul explains why parking presents unique challenges for number plate recognition, how GardoVia addresses these challenges, and what the technology offers parking operators looking for reliable performance.

Q: For those who may be less familiar with Jenoptik, what is the company best known for?

Paul Kaplanski:

Jenoptik is best known for our work in the ITS sector, predominantly around using number plate recognition technology.

Our main focus has always been on road safety solutions, so systems like average speed systems, spot speed systems, red light systems, and journey time monitoring.

Q: What made parking the next area to focus on, and how did that lead to GardoVia?

Paul Kaplanski:

We recognised that the parking sector is actually growing quite a lot, and parking spaces are premium. Populations are getting bigger, and more and more people are driving nowadays.

So, really, you need to have systems in place to ensure that the right person is getting that parking space. And ANPR is really the main driving technology behind the start of that whole solution.

Previously, our camera has been designed around high-speed traffic, reading vehicles on motorways and roads, and the challenges associated with that particular scenario.

So, for us to enter the parking market, we needed to come up with a camera that was more cost-effective, but ultimately didn't compromise on performance in any way.

And that's why we created GardoVia.

Q: What did GardoVia need to do differently to work well in a car park?

Paul Kaplanski:

At a glance, you can see straight away that it's a very small, lightweight camera. I'd say it's quite aesthetically looking on the eye as well. It's PoE+, and power consumption is only 12W.

The thing about GardoVia is that it's actually been designed around parking and the challenges that parking presents.

Parking is actually the most challenging scenario, believe it or not, that you can have for number plate recognition.

It's very different when you're reading a number plate on a piece of tarmac and it is going through the same place, same area and in the same direction the whole time.

In parking, you have very wide entries and exits. You don't always have lane discipline. Vehicles come in at different angles, they cut corners, and they're not always presenting their number plates straight towards the camera. You've also got bidirectional traffic.

Sometimes it can be so complicated.

So, for us, we thought that if we can design a camera that focuses on that type of scenario, we can do any scenario really.

What we're finding in parking is that we're coming across companies using what I'd call CCTV-based ANPR.

This is when they're using an actual CCTV camera, that is designed for general CCTV to do an ANPR job by adding an ANPR module.

And yes, this does a job, absolutely. But what I would say it's very different when you have a company that is using hardware specifically designed for one job and one job only, which is number plate recognition.

ANPR is a science. At the end of the day, if you have the right hardware with the right software, you're going to get optimum performance.

And in a car park, you want performance 24/7. You don't just want it when lighting conditions are nice or favourable, because at the end of the day, it's revenue and potentially lost money.

So, if you've got 1% or 2% that you can increase in performance, that is key for us.

Something else we've done a bit differently with GardoVia is that we're actually reading on a colour camera.

Traditional ANPR uses a monochrome camera with infrared. It relies on the retroreflective properties of number plates, so you get a very bright return from the background of a number plate and nice dark characters. That is what traditional ANPR uses to read the plate.

Now, the downside with that is when you get very grubby, dirty winter months, when number plates are covered in grit, mud, dirt and all sorts of things, that is when you might not get any return from that number plate.

This is where some cameras might suffer, because that number plate would go straight through the field of view and it would not even be seen by the camera.

The benefit we have got by reading in colour is that we are not affected by that.

What it also does is allow us to read ghost plates.

You have probably heard of ghost plates, and they're becoming more and more common now, where people have tampered with the the retroflex of properties.

When you're using an infrared monochrome camera, that's when ghost plates can get through without being seen properly, because they might have one or two characters that have been blocked out, and you can't read the plate.

So, I guess it's an offshoot benefit by reading in colour that we can also read ghost plates, which will increase performance in the car park.

Something else we've done a bit differently with GardoVia is that we're not actually reliant on the number plate to capture the vehicle, because we're using something called VVD - Video Vehicle Detection.

So, we're looking for a vehicle, not a number plate.

Even if you drove in with your car without a number plate, we would still capture you. Once we have the vehicle, we then go and find the number plate and then subsequently make the read.

What we've found is actually that this has helped us tremendously, because the other thing it works with is direction.

Our direction filters have improved dramatically by using this VVD technology.

What you'll find with bidirectional car parks, sometimes it's quite difficult to get the direction right when a vehicle is cutting across the lane and isn't necessarily going straight towards or away from the camera.

That's where a lot of confusion can occur from ANPR cameras, and you might not get the correct direction.

Something else that I think is very helpful for car park operators is that we've added image blur technology to the overview.

What I've found is that there are a lot of parking operators who have to do this retrospectively, so it adds another load to their work. That is actually not necessary when you use the GardoVia camera.

GardoVia is also what we call in the UK a nationally compliant camera, which means that we can work with police forces.

In order to work with police forces in the UK, you have to undergo a lot of rigorous testing: testing on performance, testing on security, and how quickly you send data where you need to send it.

I'm very pleased to say that this camera complies with all of that.

So what that does is, I guess it would give any car parking company peace of mind that they're using the same quality, police-grade ANPR in their car park as well.

Q: Where are you seeing it used, and beyond the camera itself, what does working with Jenoptik bring to an operator?

Paul Kaplanski:

We're still relatively new in the UK, but we've got close to 2,000 GardoVia cameras out there in various parking scenarios, including blue-chip supermarket chains, hotels, shopping centres and retail parks.

But yes, why Jenoptik?

We've actually been around for decades. So, I guess there's that comfort and that trust element of working with a company that's been there from the beginning.

I kind of put it similar to if I'm looking to buy a TV or an appliance. There are certain brands that I would go to straight away because they're synonymous with that type of technology.

And I'd like to think that people find it's the same with ANPR and Jenoptik.

Ultimately, it's reliability, I think, is where we add value as well.

And I think we've cracked the nut, thankfully, with a low-cost camera that hasn't compromised on performance.

About Jenoptik

Jenoptik provides innovative and sustainable smart mobility solutions, including technology and services for road safety, public security, road user charging and the parking sector. As an end-to-end solution provider, we support our customers with the provision of roadside equipment and software, including integration, installation and maintenance through to full-service operation of our solutions.

About Parking Network 

Parking Network is the leading information source for parking. We connect professionals through our online and offline channels. On our online platform parking.net, we publish the latest news, product showcases, job openings, and tenders related to parking. On our platform, you can access the most complete industry and parking professionals directory. Offline, we host niche-specific networking events such as the Airport Parking Network Event.