Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI (전자공학회논문지CI)

The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (대한전자공학회)
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An Algorithm for Segmenting the License Plate Region of a Vehicle Using a Color Model

차량번호판 색상모델에 의한 번호판 영역분할 알고리즘

  • 전영민 (윈스로드주식회사 전략사업본부) ;
  • 차정희 (숭실대학교 컴퓨터학부)
  • Published : 2006.03.01
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Abstract

The license plate recognition (LPR) unit consists of the following core components: plate region segmentation, individual character extraction, and character recognition. Out of the above three components, accuracy in the performance of plate region segmentation determines the overall recognition rate of the LPR unit. This paper proposes an algorithm for segmenting the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle in a fast and accurate manner. In the case of the proposed algorithm images are captured on the spot where unmanned monitoring of illegal parking and stowage is performed with a variety of roadway environments taken into account. As a means of enhancing the segmentation performance of the on-the-spot-captured images of license plate regions, the proposed algorithm uses a mathematical model for license plate colors to convert color images into digital data. In addition, this algorithm uses Gaussian smoothing and double threshold to eliminate image noises, one-pass boundary tracing to do region labeling, and MBR to determine license plate region candidates and extract individual characters from the determined license plate region candidates, thereby segmenting the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle through a verification process. This study contributed to addressing the inability of conventional techniques to segment the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle where the frame of the license plate is damaged, through processing images in a real-time manner, thereby allowing for the practical application of the proposed algorithm.

번호판인식은 번호판 영역분할, 개별문자 추출, 문자 인식의 세 가지 핵심부분으로 구성된다. 이 가운데 번호판 영역분할의 정확성은 전체 인식률을 결정한다. 본 논문에서는 다양한 도로주변 환경을 고려해야하는 불법주정차 무인단속 현장으로부터 획득된 영상에서 차량의 번호판 영역을 정확하고 빠르게 분할하는 방법을 제안한다. 접근방법은 현장영상으로부터 번호판영역의 분할성능을 높이기 위하여 번호판색상의 수학적 모델을 제시하고, 이를 이용한 이진화를 수행하며, Gaussian Smoothing과 Double Threshold을 이용한 잡영제거, 1-패스 경계추적 레이블링 및 레이블링 이후 MBR을 이용한 번호판 영역후보 판정과 판정된 번호판 영역후보에서 개별문자 추출을 통한 번호판영역 검증과정을 통해 최종적으로 번호판영역을 분할하는 방법이다. 본 연구는 기존방법의 번호판 테두리 훼손에 따른 번호판 영역분할 실패의 문제점을 해결하고 시간소요의 문제를 실시간 안에 처리함으로서 실용적 응용이 가능하게 되었다.

Keywords

References

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