JPH0535740A - Parking lot controller with automatic number plate reading function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the park-in processing with a perking lot controller containing a function which reads automatically the number plates by inferring the plate candidates having the conditions of the number of coincident characters, etc., as the same number plates even if it is decided that the same number plate is not included in a park-in data file in a park-out state. CONSTITUTION:An entring car pickup recognizer 1 is set at an entrance gate PN and a leaving car pickup recognizer 7 containing an automatic fare adjustment function is set at an exit gate PU respectively. If the same data as the number plate of a leaving car is not included in a park-in data file of the recognizer 1, the only plate candidate that has the number of coincident characters more than a prescribed level and also the largest number of coincident characters is inferred as the same number plate. Then the park-out processing is carried out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention manages the entry and exit of a vehicle by using a license plate recognition device that can automatically read the license plate of a vehicle traveling in the entry and exit passages of a parking lot. Car management equipment

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle entrance / exit management for a parking lot is configured to be managed using license plate information recognized by a license plate recognition device provided at an entrance gate and an exit gate without using a parking ticket. A parking lot management device (parking system) has conventionally been disclosed in, for example, JP-A-61
-134892 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-76300 have various structures.

The above conventional license plate recognition device is
In each case, license plate information such as a serial designation number, a classification character, a classification number, and a land support code can be recognized by performing predetermined image processing on an image of a vehicle captured by a camera, The parking lot management device equipped with this recognition device recognizes the license plate by the license plate recognition device provided at the entrance gate when the vehicle enters and stores this license plate and the storage time in the storage data file. Every other time, when the vehicle is leaving, the same license plate as the license plate recognized by the license plate recognition device installed at the exit gate is called from the receipt data file, and the parking time and parking fee are calculated from the stored arrival time together. Is a mechanism that enables vehicle warehousing management and fee collection management without using parking tickets.

[0004]

However, in the case of the parking lot management device using the above license plate recognition device,
The license plate is partially unreadable due to dirt or damage to the license plate, or due to differences in the environment between the entrance and exit gates, the condition of the camera that images the vehicle, etc. Even with the license plate of the above, there are cases where the entrance and the exit are erroneously recognized and it becomes impossible to leave the garage, and the staff member has to make a correction input each time.

Therefore, the technical problem of the present invention is that the reading error occurs due to the dirt or damage of the license plate, or the difference in the environment between the entrance and the exit, and there is no matching data at the time of shipping. However, paying attention to the fact that it is a closed system where vehicles that have entered the parking lot leave
If certain conditions are set, it is inferred that they are the same, and it is possible to carry out the warehousing process of the vehicle including the charge settlement without delay.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Means taken in the present invention for solving the above technical problems are as follows. A license plate recognition device that recognizes the license plate by performing predetermined image processing on the image of the vehicle captured by the camera is installed at both the entrance gate and the exit gate, and the license plate recognized at the entrance gate is stored in the storage data file. However, at the time of exiting, if the data matching the license plate recognized at the exit gate exists in the entry data file, the vehicle can be exited, and if there is no matching data, the vehicle is not allowed to exit. In the configured parking lot management device,

(1) When the data matching the license plate recognized by the license plate recognition device at the exit gate does not exist in the receipt data file, the data stored in the receipt data file has the matching character number more than the specified number. , If there is a unique plate candidate with the maximum number of matching characters, provide an inference means to infer that the license plate is the same as the license plate recognized at the exit gate and permit the vehicle to leave. (2) A number plate recognition device provided at the entrance gate is provided with an indeterminate character storage means for calculating a character candidate and a confirmation rate for a character that cannot be confirmed at the time of character recognition, and storing the result in a storage data file. When the license plate recognition device provided at the exit gate has a number of matching characters that is equal to or greater than the specified number and there are a plurality of plate candidates with the maximum number of matching characters, the number stored in the storage data file is not stored. Providing inference means to select the only plate candidate based on the confirmed character candidates and their confirmation rate. (3) If there is data that matches or is inferred to be the same as the license plate recognized at the exit gate in the warehousing data file, parking based on the warehousing time stored in the warehousing data file together with the license plate at the time of warehousing Provide a delivery control means that calculates the time and fee and opens the gate when the fee is settled to allow the vehicle to leave.

[0008]

The above means operates as follows. Even if it is determined that the same license plate does not exist in the receipt data file due to the license plate being dirty or damaged, or the difference in the environment between the entrance and the exit, the factor of (1) above, When the number of matching characters exceeds the specified number and the number of matching characters is the maximum and there is only one plate candidate, it is inferred that this plate candidate is the same as the license plate of the issuing vehicle, so it is impossible to read or misread. It is possible to solve the problem of the denial of leaving the vehicle due to the cause, and to enable the vehicle to leave the vehicle without delay without the correction input by the staff.

The element of (2) above has the number of matching characters equal to or larger than the specified number, and when there are a plurality of plate candidates having the maximum number of matching characters, the indeterminacy of each plate candidate stored in the receipt data file is uncertain. Character candidates are compared with the confirmation rate, and the plate candidate having the indeterminate character with the highest confirmation rate is inferred as the same license plate, so even if the contents of the license plate are similar, it is incorrect. It is possible to select a plate candidate without selecting and accurately perform shipping control.

The element of (3) above is the same as the license plate recognized at the exit gate, or when data inferred to be the same exists in the receipt data file,
This data is called to calculate the parking time and the fare, and the fare can be settled to allow the vehicle to exit from the exit gate. As described above, the technical problems described above can be solved by the above means, and the problems of the conventional technology can be solved.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of a parking lot management device having a license plate automatic reading function according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a parking lot management apparatus according to the present invention, in which P is a parking lot, PN and PU are entrance gates and exit gates, and an entrance gate PN is shown. Is a first vehicle detector 2 for detecting an incoming vehicle, a camera 3, and a strobe 4
And an entrance / exiting vehicle image recognition unit 1 in which an opening / closing device 5 for opening and closing the entrance gate bar 5G and a second vehicle detector 6 for detecting incoming vehicle passage are connected, and the first vehicle detector 2 detects the entering vehicle. Upon detection, the strobe 4 is turned on (emits light), the camera 3 captures an image of the vehicle, and various types of image processing such as binarization processing and labeling processing are performed on the image by the receiving vehicle imaging recognition device 1 to form a license plate. When the displayed designated serial number, classification character, classification number, and land support code are recognized, and the recognized license plate is stored in the storage data file (not shown) provided in the recognition device 1 together with the storage time, The above-mentioned opening / closing device 5 opens the entrance gate bar 5G so that the vehicle can be stored. Further, the second vehicle detector 6
When the passing vehicle is detected, the opening / closing device 5 closes the entrance gate bar 5G to prepare for the next vehicle loading.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the image pickup and recognition apparatus 1 for the incoming vehicle described above.
Is an example of a receipt data recognition result file stored in the receipt data file of the index N
o. Reference numeral 1 indicates the recognition result of the license plate indicated by the symbol A, and index No. Reference numeral 2 indicates the recognition result of the license plate indicated by the symbol B, and the contents of the license plate recognized by the recognition device 1, that is, the land support code, the classification number, the division character, and the serial designation number are stored. Filed with time.

When there is an indeterminate character whose reading cannot be specified in character recognition of this license plate, a question mark "?" And a designated number such as ... are added to the corresponding column and recorded. Character candidates for indeterminate characters with the "?" Mark above in the column below, and their confirmation rate (%)
It is designed to index and record.

The above process will be described in detail with reference to FIG. License plate A for 1
And the first character of the sequence designation number is an unrecognizable indeterminate character, the first candidate of the partition character is "A", the confirmation rate is 60%, and the second candidate is "Nu".
It is inferred that the confirmation rate is 25%, the first candidate of the first character of the series designation number is "1" and the confirmation rate is 55%, and the second candidate is "7" and the confirmation rate is 35%. It is inferred that the index No. The license plate B of No. 2 shows a state in which there are no uncertain characters and all the characters are recognized.

Further, the exit gate PU described above is provided with an image pickup / recognition device 7 for a delivery vehicle, which is integrally formed with an automatic charge settlement machine 8.
The recognition device 7 is provided with a first
The vehicle detector 9, the camera 11, the strobe 12, the opening / closing device 13 for opening and closing the exit gate bar 13G, and the second vehicle detector 14 for detecting the passage of the outgoing vehicle are connected, and the first vehicle detector 9 is Strobe 12 will be detected when the vehicle exits.
Is turned on (emits light), the camera 11 captures an image of the vehicle, and when the license plate is recognized by applying various processing similar to that at the time of storage to this image, the storage data file of the storage vehicle image recognition unit 1 is searched. Search for a license plate in which all characters match the lever license plate, and the automatic charge adjustment machine 8 calculates the parking time and the parking charge based on the warehousing time stored together with this license plate and displays it on the display unit 8a. Then, when the payment is completed according to this display, the opening / closing device 13 opens the exit gate bar 13G to allow the vehicle to leave, and the second vehicle detector 14 for vehicle passage detection detects the passage of the leaving vehicle. The opening / closing device 13 closes the exit gate bar 13G to prepare for the next delivery.

Further, according to the present invention, in the case of searching for the same license plate by searching the above receipt data file,
If it is not possible to find a license plate that matches all characters due to the presence of uncertain characters, etc., exit gate P
The recognition result file (Fig. 4) is index-sorted in the order of the number of characters that match the license plate recognized by U, and the number of matching characters that exceeds the specified number is the maximum, and the only plate candidate is selected. , The number of plate candidates is inferred as the license plate of the vehicle to be delivered this time, and the fee is settled.

Further, in the present invention, as a result of the above-described index sort, when there are a number of matching characters more than the specified number and there are a plurality of plate candidates having the maximum number of matching characters, the uncertain character candidates are among these matching characters. Is included,
This time, the confirmation rate (%) of the candidates is compared, the plate candidate including the character candidate having a high confirmation rate is inferred as the only candidate, and the fee is settled with the license plate of this plate candidate. There is.

It should be noted that the specified value of the number of matching characters may be set to, for example, about 4 characters, since the maximum number of characters of the license plate that can be easily recognized is a maximum of 4 characters. .

Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the electrical configuration of the exit vehicle imaging and recognizing device 7 including the above-described automatic charge adjustment machine 8. In the figure, 20 is provided in the automatic charge adjustment machine 8. This is a parking charge settlement means, to which a clock unit 21, a charge system storage unit 22, a corresponding number inference unit, a charge display unit 8a, and a charge settlement unit 30 are connected, and the above-mentioned corresponding number. The inferring means 23 is connected to the above-described warehousing vehicle image capturing / recognizing device 1 via the data transmitting / receiving means 24 and the warehousing data recognition result storage means 25 so that the warehousing data can be taken in.

In the illustrated embodiment, the warehousing data recognition result storage means 25 is incorporated in the unloading vehicle image recognizing / recognizing device 7 side, but this may be incorporated in the warehousing data file of the warehousing vehicle imaging / recognizing device 1 described above. Well, the choice is arbitrary.

Further, the corresponding number inference means 23 mentioned above.
Includes a first vehicle detector 9 and a camera 11 for detecting incoming vehicles.
The image pickup means 26 including the strobe 12 and the vehicle number recognition means 27 are connected in order, and a mechanism for inputting the number data of the leaving vehicle to the corresponding number inference means 23 is provided. Is compared with the warehousing data sent from the warehousing vehicle image pickup recognition device 1, and if there is a license plate that is the same or inferred to be the same, the data and the warehousing time are transmitted to the parking charge calculation means 20. If there is no plate candidate that is the same or is inferred to be the same, a signal is sent to the warning means 28 to give a warning or display by voice or a message that "the applicable vehicle does not exist and the fare cannot be settled." There is.

Further, in the above-mentioned fee settlement means 30, payment receipt means 30A for issuing a receipt for the parking charge to the issue opening 8b based on the request by the receipt request means 31, a change paying means 30B, and a payment opening 8c are paid. The deposit receiving means 30C for receiving the received charge is provided. Further, when the deposit is received in the deposit receiving means 30C and the charge is settled, it is displayed on the deposit display portion of the display portion 8a that there is a deposit, Next, a gate opening signal is sent to the exit gate opening / closing device 13 so that the exit gate bar 13G opens.
Further, the second vehicle detector 14 for detecting the exit vehicle passage described above is connected to the switch 13.

The parking lot management apparatus having the automatic license plate reading function according to the present invention is constructed as described above. Next, the parking lot management processing procedure according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. explain.

FIG. 3 illustrates the procedure of the warehousing process. When the first vehicle detector 2 detects the warehousing vehicle in the first step S1, the process proceeds to the next step S2 and the camera 3 and the strobe 4 are used. The vehicle is imaged, then the process proceeds to step S3, various image processing is performed by the incoming vehicle image recognition device 1, and the vehicle number is recognized.

Next, in step S4, the recognized vehicle number and warehousing time are stored in the warehousing data file as shown in FIG. 4, and if there is an indeterminate character, the candidate character and the deciding rate are calculated. , These data are also filed together, and when the file of these warehousing data is completed, the process proceeds to the next step S5, and the switch 5 is opened by the entrance gate bar 5G.
Open the door to allow the vehicle to be loaded, then step S
When the second vehicle detector 6 detects the passage of the warehousing vehicle at 6 and proceeds to the next step S7, the opening / closing device 5 closes the entrance gate bar 5G to complete the warehousing process.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the procedure of the unloading process. When the first vehicle detector 9 detects the unloading vehicle in the first step S10, the process proceeds to the next step S11 and the camera 11 and the strobe 12 are used. The vehicle is imaged, then
In step S12, various types of image processing are applied by the exiting vehicle imaging recognition device 7 to recognize the vehicle number.

In the next step S13, after the inferring process of the warehousing vehicle in steps S13A to S13H shown in FIG. 6 is performed, the process proceeds to step S14, and the same data as the license plate of the vehicle currently unloading is stored in the warehousing data file. If it is determined that there is a corresponding number, the process proceeds to the next step S16, the parking time and the charge are calculated from the warehousing time, and if it is determined that there is no corresponding number, the step Proceeding to S15, warning processing is performed, and leaving the warehouse is not permitted.

When the charge is calculated in step S16, the process proceeds to step S17 to display the charge on the display 8a, and thereafter, the settlement process from step S19 to step S24, the erasure data erasing process, and the vehicle leaving process are performed. Is made.

Next, in the inference processing shown in FIG. 6, first,
In the first step S13A, the recognition result files of the outgoing data and the incoming data are compared, and then in step S13.
In step B13, it is determined whether or not both data, that is, both license plates match all characters, and if all characters match, the process proceeds to step S13T to determine the corresponding number and complete the process. If not, proceed to the next step S13C.

In step S13C, both data (license plates) are compared to determine the number of matching characters and the positions of non-matching characters, and the positions are stored. Next, in step S13D, as shown in the table on the right side. The recognition result file (FIG. 4) is index-sorted in the order of the number of characters matching with, and a plate candidate is searched for.

In the next step S13E, it is determined whether or not the found plate candidate has the number of matching characters equal to or larger than the specified number, and the number of matching characters is the maximum and unique. If it is unique, the process proceeds to step S13T. When the corresponding number, that is, the license plate is determined and the processing is completed, and there are a plurality of plate candidates that satisfy the above condition but are not unique, the process proceeds to the next step S13F.

In this step S13F, when the uncertain character as shown in FIG. 4 is included in the data having the maximum number of coincident characters, the confirmation rate of the uncertain character candidates is used as the material for selecting the plate candidate. The plate candidate is determined by the use, and the process proceeds to the next step S13G.

In step S13G, it is determined whether or not the plate candidate can be unique, and step S1 is performed.
If the unique plate candidate cannot be selected even after performing the process of 3F, the process proceeds to step S13H to end the process with no corresponding number. If the process of step S13F can infer the unique candidate, the process proceeds to step S13T. Then, the corresponding number is decided and the processing is finished.

[0034]

As described above, according to the parking lot management apparatus having the automatic license plate reading function of the present invention, the entry and exit of vehicles can be managed without using the parking ticket. However, particularly in the present invention, it is determined that the same license plate is not filed in the receipt data file at the time of shipping due to dirt or damage to the license plate, or the difference in environment between the entrance gate and the exit gate. However, if conditions such as the number of matching characters are satisfied, it is possible to infer that they are the same and to perform shipping processing. The clerk does not need to enter the corrective data to perform the warehousing process, and the warehousing process including the payment of charges can be performed automatically and labor-savingly. It is suitable for Makoto implemented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a parking lot management apparatus having a license plate automatic reading function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of a delivery vehicle imaging recognition device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a storage procedure.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a license plate and the contents of a receipt data recognition result file of this license plate.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a shipping process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of inference processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

P parking lot PN entrance gate PU exit gate 1 Pick-up vehicle image recognition device 3 cameras 4 Strobe 5 switch 5G entrance gate bar 7 Departure vehicle image recognition device 8 Automatic charge adjustment machine 11 cameras 12 strobes 13 switch 13G exit gate bar

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Takuma Sawa             275 Soyado-cho, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Amano Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A license plate recognizing device capable of recognizing a license plate by performing predetermined image processing on an image of a vehicle captured by a camera is provided at both the entrance gate and the exit gate, and is recognized at the entrance gate. The license plate is stored in the warehousing data file, and at the time of warehousing, if the data matching the license plate recognized at the exit gate exists in the warehousing data file, the vehicle can be evacuated, and if no matching data exists, the In the parking lot management device configured to disallow delivery, if the data matching the license plate recognized by the license plate recognition device at the exit gate does not exist in the receipt data file, it is stored in the receipt data file. There is more than the specified number of matching characters in the data, and the maximum number of matching characters is When there is a candidate for the vehicle, the automatic license plate number reading function is provided, which infers that the license plate is the same as the license plate recognized at the exit gate and allows the vehicle to leave. Parking management equipment. 2. An uncertain character storage in which a character plate recognition device provided at an entrance gate calculates a character candidate and a confirmation rate for a character that cannot be confirmed at the time of character recognition, and stores the result in a storage data file. In addition to the means, the license plate recognition device provided at the exit gate has a number of matching characters equal to or larger than the specified number, and when there are a plurality of plate candidates with the maximum number of matching characters, the number is stored in the receipt data file. 2. The parking lot management device with a license plate automatic reading function according to claim 1, further comprising inference means for selecting a unique plate candidate based on the indeterminate character candidates and the confirmation rate. 3. When there is data in the receipt data file that matches or is inferred to match with the license plate recognized at the exit gate, based on the receipt time stored in the receipt data file together with the license plate at the time of receipt. 2. A license plate automatic reading function according to claim 1, further comprising: an exit control means for opening the gate to allow the vehicle to exit when the parking time and the fee are calculated and the fee is settled. Parking management equipment.