Automatic Parking Enforcer (APE) [licence plate recognition system]

There are currently 10 parking lots at SFU Burnaby, and as one can imagine patrolling all 10 of these can be a challenge, in terms of the number of people needed, the efficiency and accuracy of the overall system. Additionally, there are over 24,000 students enrolled at SFU and another additional 3000 facility and staff members [1], half of which park their cars at one of the SFU parking lots. Thus, every semester about 15,000 parking permits are issued, this can accumulate to a lot of paper and ink being wasted.In consideration of all the above factors, we purpose to design and implement an automatic license plate registration system that is efficient, accurate and environmental friendly. The purposed system consists of an Infrared Camera, and a software program with a graphical user interface (GUI). The infrared Camera will be mounted on a patrolling officer's vehicle and will be responsible for retrieving the license plate from the parked vehicle. An infrared camera can be used for this purpose because once light is applied to the vehicle the reflective material used in the production of the license plate will distinguish it from other parts of the vehicle. The retrieved license plate is than compared to a database, which will consist of license plate numbers of the drivers with parking permits. In accordance, with our product the driver can register more than one license plate number under their permit. Our software will make sure that there are not multiple vehicles under one permit in the parking lot simultaneously.