DETECTION AND RECOGNITION OF VEHICLE LICENSE PLATES USING TEMPLATE MATCHING, GENETIC ALGORITHMS AND NEURAL NETWORKS

作者：Karungaru Stephen^*; Fukumi Minoru; Akamatsu Norio; Akashi Takuya

来源：International Journal of Innovative Computing Information and Control, 2009, 5(7): 1975-1985.

• License plates
• Neural networks
• Genetic algorithms
• Template matching
• Character recognition

In this paper, we propose a system for automatic detection and recognition of vehicle license plates using template matching, genetic algorithms and neural networks. In the license plate detection part, an artificial template that consists of an outer rectangle that encloses two smaller rectangles is constructed. The size of the outer and inner rectangles, the positioning, size, orientation, position and color of the template are all controlled using the genetic algorithm. To fill the areas outside the inner rectangle, random selection of color pixels from a plate color database are used. In the character recognition part, we combine two methods into a hybrid system. In the first method, we train neural networks to recognize the characters and in the second method, we use template matching. To control the size of both the neural network inputs and the template, we apply a genetic algorithm to guide the search. The final system accuracy achieved is 96.8% for character recognition and 98.01% for license plate detection.

• 出版日期2009-7