WO2016024680A1

WO2016024680A1 - Vehicle black box capable of real-time recognition of license plate of moving vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2016024680A1
Application number: PCT/KR2015/001760
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이감연
Original assignee: 주식회사 엠브레인
Priority date: 2014-08-11
Filing date: 2015-02-24
Publication date: 2016-02-18
Also published as: KR101561626B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle black box capable of real-time recognition of a license plate of a moving vehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle black box capable of real-time recognition of a license plate of a moving vehicle, the black box comprising: an image processing unit for processing a digital image signal generated by an image sensor to thereby generate non-compressed digital video data having an information quantity corresponding to image information of the surroundings of a specific vehicle; a vehicle license plate information generating device for analyzing the non-compressed digital video data generated by the image processing unit to thereby generate vehicle license plate information of a non-specific vehicle which is driven in the surroundings of, or is adjacent to the specific vehicle; and a control unit for combining the non-compressed digital video data generated by the image processing unit with driving information of the specific vehicle including the vehicle license plate information of the non-specific vehicle generated by the vehicle license plate information generating device, to thereby generate driving video data of the specific vehicle. The vehicle black box extracts vehicle license plate information of a moving vehicle, prior to compression in digital video file format, using high resolution non-compressed digital video data, generated in real time when photographing a license plate of a moving vehicle traveling on the road, thereby increasing recognition efficiency of a license plate of a moving vehicle.

Description

Vehicle black box for real-time license plate recognition

The present invention relates to a vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle, and more particularly, to digital video using high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated in real time when the license plate of a driving vehicle traveling on a road is photographed. The present invention relates to a vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle that improves the license plate recognition efficiency of a driving vehicle by extracting license plate information of the driving vehicle before compressing the file format.

Recently, in order to derive the exact cause of damage in a traffic accident, it is common to mount a black box which is used as an event data recorder (EDR) for a vehicle.

Such a vehicle black box can record information before and after a crash in case of a traffic accident and provide information necessary to understand the situation. Also, it is equipped with a recording image storage function, a high pass function, and an emergency rescue signal function for convenience in real life. Providing.

On the other hand, recently, a technique for searching or identifying a criminal vehicle using digital video compressed data stored in a vehicle black box has been proposed.

However, in the case of querying or grasping a criminal vehicle using a black box for a vehicle according to the prior art, recorded and stored digital video compressed data is stored in a memory, and the car number of the criminal vehicle is known and compared with the stored data. Because it is read manually, it is difficult to immediately respond even if a hit accident occurs at close range or a crime vehicle passes while driving, and it is impossible to read data in case of data damage due to external shock.

In order to overcome this problem, the communication module is mounted on the vehicle black box, and the vehicle license plate information is extracted by using the digital video compressed data acquired from the vehicle black box and the license plate recognition technology of the parking control system, and the extracted license plate information is controlled. Efforts have been made to implement a technique for transmitting to the center.

However, the license plate photographed image of a running vehicle photographed in a black box has a problem that it is difficult to recognize a license plate of a criminal vehicle because the resolution is significantly lower than that of a stationary vehicle photographed by a parking control system.

In addition, since a vehicle black box typically uses a wide-angle lens having an angle of view of more than 100 degrees, a lens distortion phenomenon occurs as the lens frame goes closer to the frame of the captured image, and the resolution decreases. In this case, a compressed image frame that is compressed and preserved in a digital video file format ( In the case of I-frame), the peripheral image of the frame, which has relatively more change than the frame center image, has a large amount of information of image data. Therefore, the loss of information amount of image data increases rapidly when compressing the image. There is a problem that it is difficult to recognize the license plate of the driving vehicle because the information amount of the image data necessary for the license plate recognition of the driving vehicle is insufficient.

On the other hand, in order to solve the problem of lack of information of the image data required for the above-mentioned number, it is necessary to secure the digital video compressed data corresponding to as many frames as possible, but when using the digital video compressed data corresponding to a large number of frames as described above It took a long time to extract the license plate information on the vehicle, it was difficult to recognize the license plate information of the driving vehicle in real time.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for a technology related to a realistic and applicable vehicle black box that enables vehicle number lookup of a criminal vehicle in real time while improving vehicle number recognition efficiency of a license plate of a driving vehicle.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the present invention, by using the high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated in real time by photographing the license plate of the vehicle, the vehicle of the driving vehicle before compression to a digital video file format It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition, which improves the license plate recognition efficiency of a running vehicle, compared to a technology of extracting license plate information by using digital video compressed data by extracting license plate information.

A vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention is a vehicle black box attached to a specific vehicle having a camera lens and photographing a specific vehicle periphery, photographed through the camera lens. An image sensor converting one image information into an electrical signal to generate a digital image signal; An image processor which processes the digital image signal generated by the image sensor to generate digital video uncompressed data having an information amount corresponding to the image information around a specific vehicle; A vehicle license plate information generating device for analyzing the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor to generate vehicle license plate information of a non-specified vehicle traveling around a specific vehicle; Combining driving information of a specific vehicle including vehicle license plate information of an unspecified vehicle generated by the vehicle license plate information generating device with the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor to generate driving video data of a specific vehicle, and the vehicle black A controller for controlling the overall operation of the box; An encoder for compressing the driving video data generated by the controller into a digital video file format to generate driving video digital compression data; And a communication module for transmitting the driving moving picture digital compression data generated by the encoder to a remote control center or receiving crime vehicle information from the remote control center under the control of the controller.

The apparatus for generating license plate information corresponds to a region of interest for extracting license plate information from each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor, and includes a color image image and a binary image image. A ROI data selection unit for selecting one or more ROI data; And sequentially extracting a vehicle area, a license plate area, and a text area corresponding to the license plate information from the one or more ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit, and then applying a character recognition algorithm to the text area and applying the characters constituting the license plate. It may include; ROI data processing unit for recognizing and generating license plate information consisting of text data.

The ROI data selection unit increases the license plate recognition speed by removing ROI data that is not necessary to generate vehicle license plate information when selecting one or more ROI data from each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data. You can.

ROI data that is not necessary to generate the license plate information includes ROI data arranged above the horizon consisting of horizontal lines of vanishing points where lanes meet on each uncompressed image frame; ROI data including a text area having a text size of less than 15 pixels; And ROI data including a text area corresponding to the license plate information generated in the previous frame.

The ROI data processing unit compares the color image image constituting the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit with the feature points of the pre-analyzed vehicle and selects a vehicle region on each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data. A vehicle region extraction unit for extracting; A license plate area extraction unit for extracting a license plate area using a binary image image constituting ROI data in the vehicle area extracted by the vehicle area extraction unit; A character area recognition unit for separating a character area using a histogram from the number plate area extracted by the license plate area extraction unit; And a character code generator for generating a character code for text data corresponding to the license plate information by applying a character recognition algorithm to the character region extracted by the character region recognition unit.

The license plate area recognition unit compares the feature points of the binary image image with the pre-analyzed license plate, and the aspect ratio of the computed image and the pre-analyzed license plate obtained by sequentially performing a morphology operation and a BLOB operation on the binary image image. The license plate area may be extracted by any of the methods of comparing the two.

The ROI data processor may further include a vehicle number tracking unit that tracks ROI data corresponding to the license plate information by using feature points of a previous frame and a current frame.

The ROI data processor may further include a character area restoration unit capable of restoring a character area including license plate information by applying a super resolution technique to a plurality of uncompressed image frames that are difficult to identify.

The control unit transmits the license plate information generated by the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus to the control center located at a remote location through the communication module or the crime vehicle information received from the control center and the unspecified vehicle generated by the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus. By comparing the license plate information of the crime can lookup the vehicle in real time.

A vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a memory for storing driving video digital compression data generated by the encoder; A GPS module which communicates with a GPS satellite to obtain location information, time information, and route information included in driving information of the specific vehicle; A touch panel unit which displays a driving screen of the specific vehicle and a playback screen of the driving video digital compression data stored in the memory, and an input menu for inputting emergency signals in case of a hit-off vehicle or emergency; In the event of detecting a shock equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value, a shock detection signal is transmitted to the control unit so that the control unit stores driving information for a predetermined time and driving video digital compression data corresponding to the driving information in real time in the memory. part; And a calibration unit which checks and adjusts a horizontal state by using the acceleration sensor when the vehicle is attached.

As described above, the present invention provides a license plate information generating apparatus for extracting license plate information by using high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated at the time of shooting. It is possible to prevent the lack of information of the lost image data, thereby improving the license plate recognition efficiency of the driving vehicle, and it is effective to provide a vehicle black box that can easily extract the vehicle number information using the photographed image while driving. .

In addition, the present invention has an effect of easily extracting the vehicle number information from the image taken while driving at high speed with an image processing unit for correcting the high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated at the time of shooting to an optimal image.

In addition, the present invention provides a vehicle license plate by providing a ROI data selection unit inside the vehicle number generation device for selecting ROI data excluding the unnecessary area for recognizing the vehicle license plate of the driving vehicle among the frame areas constituting the high-resolution digital video uncompressed data Since it is possible to reduce the size of the ROI data required to recognize the license plate, it is possible to reduce the time required to recognize the license plate, thereby enabling the license plate recognition of the driving vehicle in real time.

In addition, the present invention, by combining a plurality of frames difficult to identify by using a super resolution technique, a character area restoring unit capable of restoring a character corresponding to the vehicle number is provided inside the ROI data processing unit constituting the vehicle number generation device. It is effective to improve the license plate recognition efficiency.

Furthermore, the present invention includes a vehicle number tracking unit that tracks the frame coordinates of the ROI data from which the license plate information is recognized, each time the frame changes, to the ROI data processing unit constituting the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus. Since the specific area can be deleted from the ROI data selection target, the size of the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit can be reduced, thereby improving the license plate recognition speed of the driving vehicle.

In addition, the present invention is equipped with a communication module that can be connected to the mobile communication network, when the crime vehicle is inquired or hit by a short-distance accident in the near-by, when the immediate response is necessary to transmit the vehicle number information in real time to the control center It works.

1 is a view showing the overall configuration of a vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a vehicle license plate information generating device constituting the vehicle black box shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining ROI data removed by the ROI data selecting unit constituting the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating separating a character area using a histogram in a character area recognition unit of the ROI data processor of the vehicle license plate information generating device shown in FIG. 2.

Description of the present invention is only an embodiment for structural or functional description, the scope of the present invention should not be construed as limited by the embodiments described in the text. That is, since the embodiments may be variously modified and may have various forms, the scope of the present invention should be understood to include equivalents capable of realizing the technical idea.

On the other hand, the meaning of the terms described in the present invention will be understood as follows.

Terms such as "first" and "second" are intended to distinguish one component from another component, and the scope of rights should not be limited by these terms. For example, the first component may be named a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be named a first component.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" to another component, it should be understood that there may be other components in between, although it may be directly connected to the other component. On the other hand, when a component is referred to as being "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between. On the other hand, other expressions describing the relationship between the components, such as "between" and "immediately between" or "neighboring to" and "directly neighboring to", should be interpreted as well.

Singular expressions should be understood to include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, and terms such as "comprise" or "have" refer to features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or parts thereof described. It is to be understood that the combination is intended to be present and does not exclude in advance the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features or numbers, steps, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof.

In each step, an identification code (e.g., a, b, c, etc.) is used for convenience of description, and the identification code does not describe the order of the steps, and each step clearly indicates a specific order in context. Unless stated otherwise, they may occur out of the order noted. That is, each step may occur in the same order as specified, may be performed substantially simultaneously, or may be performed in the reverse order.

All terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise defined. Generally, the terms defined in the dictionary used are to be interpreted as being consistent with the meanings in the context of the related art, and should not be interpreted as having ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present invention.

A vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle according to the present invention relates to a vehicle black box attached to a specific vehicle with a camera lens and photographing the vicinity of the specific vehicle. The license plate recognition efficiency of the driving vehicle can be improved by extracting the license plate information of the driving vehicle before compressing it into a digital video file format by using the high resolution digital video uncompressed data generated in real time during shooting.

In addition, the vehicle black foil capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to the present invention, because it can send and receive vehicle license plate information and criminal vehicle information in real time with the control centers such as police station, fire department and security company in real-time crime vehicle inquiry or emergency Can respond in real time in situations.

On the other hand, the region of interest described in the specification according to the present invention indicates a region necessary for image processing, and the data of the region corresponding to the region of interest is referred to as ROI data (region of interest).

The ROI is used when image processing is performed only on a specific area of the required part without applying image processing to the whole image, and a desired result can be obtained.In this case, only the partial area is processed instead of the whole area of the image. The time taken for image processing can be shortened.

In the specification according to the present invention, the ROI is mainly extracted from the uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data. In the embodiment of the present invention, it is understood that the region of interest is specifically limited to the rectangular shape using the XY coordinate range. In addition to simply indicating the coordinate range of the frame, various types of information may be additionally extracted and used as necessary.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in the figure, the vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, the image sensor 10, the image processing unit 20, the vehicle number determination generating apparatus 100, the control unit 30, the encoder 40, and the communication module 50 may be included.

In more detail, the image sensor 10 may generate a digital image signal by converting image information around the vehicle photographed through a camera lens of a vehicle black box into an electrical signal.

The image sensor 10 applied to the embodiment of the present invention serves to photograph a high-resolution image of the surroundings of the vehicle while driving, and can capture 20 frames or more per second at a HD level of 900,000 pixels or more.

In addition, the image sensor 10 used in the embodiment of the present invention may be a CMOS image sensor.

In general, the CMOS image sensor is characterized in that the generation of electrical noise is reduced by reading the light-converted electrical signal, and the CCD image having a high voltage analog circuit is possible because it can be mass-produced compared to the CCD image sensor. Compared to the sensor, the manufacturing cost is low and the device size is small, so the power consumption is low.

In addition, in the CMOS image sensor applied to the embodiment of the present invention, a logic circuit can be manufactured in the same process so that the image processing circuit can be turned on-chip.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a CMOS image sensor is used, but a CMOS camera, a Charged Coupled Device (CCD) camera, or other imaging apparatus may be used depending on the purpose of use.

The image processing unit 20 is a place for correcting and sharply processing an image captured in a high speed driving state by using an image processing technique, and processing a digital image signal generated by the image sensor 10 while driving. The digital video uncompressed data having a relatively high resolution compared to the compressed state having an information amount corresponding to the image information around the specific vehicle.

The image processor 20 may use various image processing techniques as follows to overcome a phenomenon in which an image shakes when a moving object is photographed at a high speed in a driving vehicle.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the image processing unit 20 includes a camera control function for controlling the setting of the image sensor 10 and the aperture and the filter, and includes a function for controlling the automatic exposure to perform camera exposure according to the amount of light. It can be optimally controlled, and it can be adjusted to look the same regardless of the light source even if the color of the object is affected by the light source, including automatic color adjustment function.

In general, since the color of the license plate can be an important factor in determining the license plate area to be described later, it is possible to improve the license plate recognition rate by preventing the color change according to the light source with the automatic color control function.

In addition, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the image processing unit 20 has a sensor dynamic range amplifier function, and when the relatively dark and bright areas exist simultaneously in the captured image, the dark areas are lighter and the bright areas are slightly darker. The area can be clearly seen at the same time, and this can be image processing to make the relatively dark portion of the license plate brighter because the license plate of the vehicle running in front of the backlight can be shaded and the recognition rate can be reduced.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the image processing unit 20 may have a noise suppression function. In general, the analog signal of the image sensor 10 may be amplified and used in order to secure a clear image in a low light environment, and since the unwanted noise is also amplified together, the quality of the acquired image may be significantly degraded. In order to prevent such a phenomenon, a digital signal processing technology for suppressing noise may be used.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the image processing unit 20 may include a sharpness improving function to emphasize the outline of the photographed object. In general, if the noise is removed for noise suppression, the contour may disappear together.

On the other hand, the camera lens used in the vehicle black box as in the embodiment of the present invention uses a wide-angle lens having an angle of view of 100 degrees or more, when using a wide-angle lens, the geometric distortion occurs as the distance from the center of the lens becomes difficult to recognize the image. can do.

In addition, in the case of a small lens such as a camera lens used in a vehicle black box, the amount of light passing through the lens center portion and the lens outer portion may be darker than the lens center.

In order to prevent such a distortion phenomenon, the image processor 20 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a function of correcting lens distortion, and may correct brightness according to distance toward the outside of the lens from the center of the lens.

As described above, the image processing unit 20 applied to the embodiment of the present invention has a function of automatically setting various parameters to automatically obtain an optimal image by automatically recognizing an environment such as backlight, nighttime, and rainy weather, and performing the automatic operation. It may be formed of an ISP (Image Signal Proceesor).

As such, the vehicle black box according to the embodiment of the present invention includes an image processing unit for correcting high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated during shooting to an optimal image, thereby easily obtaining vehicle number information from an image taken while driving at high speed. Can be extracted.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus 100 analyzes the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processing unit 20 to drive around a specific vehicle or vehicle license plate information of an adjacent unspecified vehicle. Can be generated.

In addition, the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus 100 may recognize the vehicle number using a specific uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor 20. Compared to image analysis based on I-frames (JPEG) constituting the compressed image frame, the vehicle number can be easily recognized because of the relatively high resolution and a large amount of information of the image information.

The control unit 30 serves to control the overall operation of the vehicle black box according to an embodiment of the present invention, and generates the license plate information in the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processing unit 20. The driving video data of the specific vehicle may be generated by combining driving information of the specific vehicle including the license plate information of the unspecified vehicle generated by the apparatus 100.

In addition, the control unit 30 transmits the license plate information generated by the vehicle license plate information generating apparatus 100 to the control center located at a remote location through the communication module 50 or the crime vehicle information received from the control center and the Criminal vehicle search can be performed in real time by comparing the license plate information of the unspecified vehicle generated by the license plate information generating device.

The encoder 40 may generate driving video digital compression data by compressing the driving video data generated by the control unit 30 into a digital video file format.

The communication module 50 transmits the driving moving picture digital compression data generated by the encoder 40 to a remote control center or receives crime vehicle information from the remote control center under the control of the controller 30. can do.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the communication module 50, the stored image may transmit the license plate information to the remote control center, and can receive and receive various control signal information from the remote control center, wired communication module and One or more of the wireless communication modules can be implemented to communicate with the control center.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the communication module 50 may be implemented as a communication module for mobile communication supporting the LTE modem method or the CDMA method.

As such, the black box for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a communication module that can be connected to a mobile communication network, and when a crime vehicle is inquired or a hit-and-shoot accident occurs in a short distance, an immediate response is required in a control center. Vehicle number information can be transmitted.

In addition, as shown in the figure, the vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, the memory 60, GPS module 70, the touch panel unit 80, shock detection The unit 90 may further include a calibration unit 200.

In more detail, the memory 60 may store driving video digital compression data generated by the encoder 40, and the GPS module 70 communicates with a GPS satellite to include in driving information of a specific vehicle. The location information, time information, and route information can be obtained.

Here, the memory 60 may serve as a storage space for storing various data and a control program for controlling the vehicle black box as well as a moving video.

In addition, the touch panel unit 80 may display a driving screen of a specific vehicle, a playback screen of the moving video digital compression data stored in the memory, and an input menu for inputting an emergency signal in case of an emergency vehicle or an emergency vehicle.

In this case, the touch panel unit 80 may display a vehicle number recognized as a crime vehicle under the control of the controller 30, and may be implemented as an LCD display device and an LED display screen interlocked with a separate input device. have.

The shock detection unit 90 includes an impact sensor to generate an event when it detects a shock greater than a predetermined reference value and transmits an impact detection signal to the control unit 30 to cause the control unit 30 to perform a memory 60 in real time. ) May store the driving information for a predetermined time and the driving video digital compression data corresponding to the driving information.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the calibration unit 200 may check the horizontal state by using the acceleration sensor when the vehicle is attached.

Here, the calibration unit 200 may serve to inform the user of a horizontal state by using an acceleration sensor so that license plate recognition can be performed at an optimal state when the camera is installed.

In addition, the calibration unit 200 extracts camera parameters inside and outside the camera and outputs them to the touch panel by using lane intervals or vehicle widths of the driving video digital compression data stored in the memory. The character can be adjusted in a state where it can be recognized.

As shown in the figure, the vehicle license plate information generating device 100 constituting a vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, ROI data selection unit 110 and ROI data processing unit 120 may be provided.

In more detail, the ROI data selector 110 may include one or more ROI data shown in FIG. 3 described below in each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor 20. You can choose.

Here, the ROI data, which indicates a region of interest for extracting the license plate information, includes a color image image and a binary image image and may be extracted from each uncompressed image frame.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the RO data selection unit 110 may perform various operations for improving the accuracy in reducing the amount of calculation and extracting and recognizing license plate information in the ROI data processing unit 120 to be described later.

In more detail, the ROI data selection unit 110 may change the size of the captured image, change the color image into a GRAY image as necessary, perform image binarization, and extract the outline. It may serve to perform preprocessing on ROI data obtained from uncompressed data.

In addition, the ROI data selector 110 may additionally extract lanes from the ROI data obtained from the uncompressed video data, track license plate information identified in a previous image, extract vanishing points, and configure an image. The non-road area can be removed from the background area.

In addition, the ROI data selection unit 110, an optical element required for the camera lens and the image sensor to calculate the coordinate position and size in the image in order to correct the installation position corresponding to the lens of various angles of view and ensure the camera vision Can be extracted or calculated.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, the ROI data that is not necessary to generate the license plate information in the ROI data selection unit 110 may be removed, and a detailed description thereof will be described later with reference to FIG. 3.

In addition, the ROI data processor 120 may sequentially extract a vehicle area, a license plate area, and a character area corresponding to the vehicle license plate information from one or more ROI data selected by the ROI data selector 110.

The ROI data processor 120 may recognize a character constituting the license plate by applying a character recognition algorithm to the character region sequentially extracted, and may generate vehicle license plate information consisting of text data.

At this time, the ROI data processing unit 120, as shown in the figure, vehicle area extraction unit 121, license plate area extraction unit 122, character area recognition unit 123, character code generation unit 124, The vehicle number tracking unit 125 and the character area restoration unit 126 may be included.

In more detail, the vehicle region extraction unit 121 compares the color image image constituting the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit 110 with the feature points of the pre-analyzed vehicle and compares the digital video uncompressed data. A vehicle region corresponding to reference numeral ROI-1 of FIG. 3 may be extracted on each of the uncompressed image frames.

The vehicle region extracting unit 121 may extract only a vehicle region as an XY coordinate range of a frame by judging only whether a vehicle is present and extract only a single vehicle region as a representative vehicle when the vehicle region is repeatedly extracted at an adjacent point. have.

The license plate area extraction unit 122 uses a binary image image constituting the ROI data in the vehicle area extracted by the vehicle area extraction unit 121 and corresponds to the reference plate ROI-2 of FIG. 3. The area can be extracted.

Here, the license plate area recognition unit 122, a method for comparing the feature points of the binary image image and the pre-analyzed license plate, and the operation image and pre-analyzed license plate obtained by sequentially performing a morphology operation and a BLOB operation on the binary image image The license plate area may be extracted by any of the methods of comparing the aspect ratios of.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the license plate area recognition unit 122 may use an algorithm for extracting whether the license plate is recognized using a pedestrian recognition (HOG), a face recognition (HAAR), or a slope.

The character area recognition unit 123 may separate the character area from the license plate area extracted by the license plate area recognition unit 122 using a histogram, which will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 4.

In addition, the character code generation unit 124 may generate a character code for text data corresponding to the vehicle license plate information by applying a character recognition algorithm to the character area extracted by the character area recognition unit 123.

The vehicle number tracking unit 125 shown in the drawing is configured to reduce ROI data required for license plate recognition, and uses CAM SHIFT and OPTICAL FLOWER algorithms using reference points of previous and current frames constituting an uncompressed image frame. Can be used to track the ROI data corresponding to the license plate information.

At this time, the vehicle number tracking unit 125 tracks the ROI data by calculating the amount of movement information of the license plate area in the previous frame and the current frame, and checks the movement amount of each pixel constituting the frame after inspecting the movement area of the reference point. Can be calculated.

In addition, the character area restoring unit 126 may restore a character area including license plate information by applying a super resolution technique to a plurality of uncompressed image frames that are difficult to identify.

As such, the vehicle black box according to the embodiment of the present invention can extract the license plate information by using the digital video uncompressed data, thereby preventing the lack of information of the missing image data and easily extracting the vehicle number information. In addition, a character area restoring unit capable of restoring a character corresponding to the vehicle number may be provided inside the ROI data processing unit constituting the vehicle number generation device to improve license plate recognition efficiency.

The apparatus for generating license plate information shown in FIG. 2 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 4 as follows.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of ROIs may be present in each of the uncompressed image frames constituting the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor 20 of FIG. 1. have.

In this case, the ROI may be recognized only if the ROI is located within a specific range due to the characteristics of the vehicle black box having the wide-angle camera lens.

That is, when the ROI data selection unit 110 selects the ROI data from each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data, if the ROI data that is not necessary to generate the license plate information can be removed, the license plate recognition is performed. You can increase the speed.

As shown in the figure, a region of interest ROI, which is not necessary for generating license plate information, is disposed in the vehicle number tracking unit 125 of FIG. By tracking to the region of interest already recognized in the previous frame, and located in a position outside the limit line that can be identified by the license plate has a size of less than 15 pixels difficult to recognize as a character code in the character code generation unit 124 of FIG. to be.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the ROI data, which is not necessary for generating the license plate information in the ROI data selection unit 110, is disposed above the horizon line consisting of horizontal lines of vanishing points where the lanes meet on each uncompressed image frame. The ROI data may include ROI data, a ROI data including a character area having a character size of less than 15 pixels, and ROI data including a character area corresponding to vehicle license plate information generated in a previous frame.

As described above, the vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of the driving vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes ROI data necessary for recognizing the license plate except for unnecessary areas among frame regions constituting high-resolution digital video uncompressed data. The size of the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit can be reduced by tracking the frame coordinates of the ROI data in which the license plate information is recognized, and changing the frame. Can be.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the character area recognition unit 123 of FIG. 2 may separate a character area using a histogram from the license plate area ROI-2 of FIG. 3 extracted by the license plate area extraction unit 122. Can be.

That is, the upper and lower character areas of the license plate area can be separated by the reference numeral Yb, and then the individual character areas for each number can be separated by the reference numerals a to m.

Here, the character code generation unit 124 of FIG. 2 may generate a character code for text data corresponding to the license plate information by applying a character recognition algorithm to the character area extracted by the character area recognition unit 123. .

At this time, the character code generation unit 124 generates a character code corresponding to the license plate information by using a conventional character recognition method used in the parking control system, or the separated character area neural network, SVM, HMM, etc. Character recognition can be performed using the algorithm of, and can be provided with a function to check whether the recognized character meets the character standard of the license plate.

As described above, the present invention is provided by a vehicle license plate information generating apparatus for extracting license plate information by using high-resolution digital video uncompressed data generated at the time of shooting, which is lost when the captured image is compressed into a digital movie file format. The lack of information amount of the image data can be prevented, thereby improving the license plate recognition efficiency of the driving vehicle, thereby providing a vehicle black box that can easily extract the vehicle number information using the photographed image of the driving state.

The present invention has been described in detail so far, but the embodiments mentioned in the process are only illustrative and are not intended to be limiting, and the present invention is provided by the following claims and the technical spirit and field of the present invention. Within the scope not departing from the scope of the present invention, changes in the components that can be coped evenly will fall within the scope of the present invention.

The present invention can be used in the field of manufacturing a vehicle black box.

Claims

In a black box for a vehicle that is attached to a specific vehicle with a camera lens to shoot around the specific vehicle,

An image sensor converting the image information photographed through the camera lens into an electrical signal to generate a digital image signal;

An image processor which processes the digital image signal generated by the image sensor to generate digital video uncompressed data having an information amount corresponding to the image information around a specific vehicle;

A vehicle license plate information generating device for analyzing the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor to generate vehicle license plate information of a non-specified vehicle traveling around a specific vehicle;

Combining driving information of a specific vehicle including vehicle license plate information of an unspecified vehicle generated by the vehicle license plate information generating device with the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor to generate driving video data of a specific vehicle, and the vehicle black A controller for controlling the overall operation of the box;

An encoder for compressing the driving video data generated by the controller into a digital video file format to generate driving video digital compression data; And

And a communication module for transmitting the moving video digital compression data generated by the encoder to a remote control center or receiving crime vehicle information from the remote control center under the control of the controller. Car black box with license plate recognition in real time
According to claim 1, The license plate information generating apparatus,

Selecting one or more ROI data corresponding to a region of interest for extracting license plate information from each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data generated by the image processor and including a color image image and a binary image image. ROI data selection unit; And

The vehicle area, license plate area, and character area corresponding to the license plate information are sequentially extracted from the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit, and then a character recognition algorithm is applied to the character area to recognize the characters constituting the license plate. ROI data processing unit for generating vehicle license plate information consisting of the text data; the vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition of a driving vehicle comprising a
The method of claim 2, wherein the ROI data selector,

When selecting one or more ROI data from each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data, ROI data that is not necessary to generate vehicle license plate information is removed to increase the license plate recognition speed. Vehicle black box for real-time license plate recognition
The method of claim 3, wherein

ROI data that is not necessary to generate the license plate information,

ROI data disposed above the horizon consisting of horizontal lines of vanishing points where lanes meet on each uncompressed image frame;

ROI data including a text area having a text size of less than 15 pixels; And

ROI data including a character area corresponding to the license plate information generated in the previous frame; vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition
The method of claim 2, wherein the ROI data processing unit,

A vehicle region extraction unit for extracting a vehicle region on each uncompressed image frame constituting the digital video uncompressed data by comparing the color image image constituting the ROI data selected by the ROI data selection unit with the feature points of the pre-analyzed vehicle. Wow;

A license plate area extraction unit for extracting a license plate area using a binary image image constituting ROI data in the vehicle area extracted by the vehicle area extraction unit;

A character area recognition unit for separating a character area using a histogram from the number plate area extracted by the license plate area extraction unit; And

A character code generation unit for generating a character code for text data corresponding to the vehicle license plate information by applying a character recognition algorithm to the character area extracted by the character area recognition unit; Car black box available in real time
According to claim 5, The license plate area extraction unit,

A method of comparing the feature points of the binary image image and the pre-analyzed license plate, and a method of comparing the aspect ratio of the calculated image and the pre-analyzed license plate by sequentially performing morphology and BLOB operations on the binary image image Vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition, characterized by extracting the license plate area in one way
The method of claim 5, wherein the ROI data processing unit,

A vehicle number tracking unit for tracking the ROI data corresponding to the vehicle license plate information by using the feature points of the previous frame and the current frame;
The method of claim 5, wherein the ROI data processing unit,

Character area restoring unit further comprises a character area restoring unit for restoring a character area including vehicle license plate information by applying a super resolution technique to a plurality of uncompressed image frames that are difficult to identify characters. Car black box
The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit,

Criminal vehicle information transmitted from the vehicle license plate information generating device or received from the control center through the communication module and vehicle license plate information of the unspecified vehicle generated by the vehicle license plate information generating device. Vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition, characterized in that to compare the crime vehicle in real time
The method of claim 1,

A memory for storing the moving video digital compression data generated by the encoder;

A GPS module which communicates with a GPS satellite to obtain location information, time information, and route information included in driving information of the specific vehicle;

A touch panel unit which displays a driving screen of the specific vehicle and a playback screen of the driving video digital compression data stored in the memory, and an input menu for inputting emergency signals in case of a hit-off vehicle or emergency;

In the event of detecting a shock equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value, a shock detection signal is transmitted to the control unit so that the control unit stores driving information for a predetermined time and driving video digital compression data corresponding to the driving information in real time in the memory. part; And

Calibration unit that checks and adjusts the horizontal state using the acceleration sensor when the vehicle is attached to the vehicle black box capable of real-time license plate recognition, characterized in that it further comprises