Milestone LPR 1.0 User Manual
Milestone Systems
XProtect® LPR 1.0
Administrator's Manual
Milestone XProtect® LPR 1.0
Administrator's Manual
www.milestonesys.com Contents
Contents
PRODUCT OVERVIEW ..................................................................... 5
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ........................................................................ 6
LPR LICENSES ................................................................................................... 6
ABOUT XPROTECT LPR...................................................................................... 7
LPR FAQs .............................................................................................................................. 8
COMPATIBILITY ................................................................................................... 8
REIMPLEMENT - DO NOT UPGRADE ....................................................................... 9
IMPORTANT PREREQUISITES ................................................................................ 9
INSTALL XPROTECT LPR ............................................................. 10
LPR SERVERS, SOURCES AND LISTS ......................................... 11
VIEW LPR SERVER INFORMATION ...................................................................... 11
ADD NEW LPR CAMERA ................................................................ .................... 12
LPR camera settings .......................................................................................................... 14
How to reduce CPU load in LPR ....................................................................................... 20
WORKING WITH LICENSE PLATE LISTS ................................................................. 21
Add new license plate list ................................................................................................. 21
Manage license plate lists ................................................................................................. 22
About unlisted license plates list ..................................................................................... 23
EVENTS BASED ON LPR ............................................................... 24
ALARMS BASED ON LPR .............................................................. 25
ALARM PROPERTIES ......................................................................................... 25
LPR IN XPROTECT SMART CLIENT ............................................. 28
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VIEWING AND INVESTIGATING LICENSE PLATE EVENTS .......................................... 29
LPR on the Live tab ............................................................................................................ 29
The LPR tab ........................................................................................................................ 30
Add license plates to license plate lists .......................................................................... 31
Remove license plates from lists ..................................................................................... 31
ABOUT LPR CAMERAS ................................................................. 32
CHOOSE THE RIGHT CAMERA ............................................................................. 32
CONTRAST ....................................................................................................... 33
LENS AND SHUTTER SPEED ................................................................................ 33
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................... 34
PHYSICAL POSITIONING OF CAMERAS ................................................................. 35
RESOLUTION .................................................................................................... 36
UNWANTED CAMERA FEATURES ......................................................................... 37
LPR SERVER SERVICES ............................................................... 39
START AND STOP LPR SERVER SERVICE ........................................................... 39
SHOW LPR SERVER STATUS ............................................................................. 39
SHOW LPR SERVER LOG ................................................................................... 40
CHANGE LPR SERVER SETTINGS ....................................................................... 40
UNINSTALL XPROTECT LPR ........................................................ 41
GLOSSARY ..................................................................................... 42
INDEX .............................................................................................. 45
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Copyright, trademarks and disclaimer
Copyright, trademarks and disclaimer
Copyright
2013 Milestone Systems A/S.
Trademarks
XProtect is a registered trademark of Milestone Systems A/S.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. App Store is a service
mark of Apple Inc. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
All other trademarks mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective owners.
Disclaimer
This text is intended for general information purposes only, and due care has been taken in its
preparation.
Any risk arising from the use of this information rests with the recipient, and nothing herein should be
construed as constituting any kind of warranty.
Milestone Systems A/S reserve the right to make adjustments without prior notification.
All names of people and organizations used in the examples in this text are fictitious. Any resemblance
to any actual organization or person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintended.
This product may make use of third party software for which specific terms and conditions may apply.
When that is the case, you can find more information in the file
3rd_party_software_terms_and_conditions.txt located in your Milestone surveillance system
installation folder.
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Product overview
Product overview
License plate recognition (LPR) is video-based content analysis (VCA) and recognition of vehicle
license plates. To read the characters in question, LPR uses optical character recognition on images
aided by specialized camera settings.
With XProtect LPR, Milestone provides an intelligent yet highly intuitive solution for interaction with
your XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise and your XProtect Smart Client. It lets you easily
combine LPR with other XProtect surveillance features, such as recording, event-based activation of
outputs, etc.
An event in XProtect LPR can, for example, trigger surveillance system recordings in a particular
quality, match against positive/negative lists, open gates, switch on lights, push video of incidents to
computer screens of particular members of security staff, send mobile phone text messages, and it
can do this all at once.
XProtect LPR is therefore highly interesting in areas such as, transportation, industry and government,
etc.
XProtect LPR also works in tight integration with solutions delivered by independent partners based on
the Milestone Integration Platform (MIP). Note that such solutions may impact the performance of your
XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise.
This document is aimed at administrators and provides detailed descriptions of how to install and
configure XProtect LPR.
This manual also covers XProtect Express, XProtect Professional and XProtect NVR. If you you are
using XProtect LPR with one of these Milestone products, just replace all instances of XProtect
Corporate or XProtect Enterprise with the name of your XProtect surveillance setup.
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Product overview
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows Server 2003 (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows Server 2008 R1/R2 (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows Server 2012
Windows Vista™ Business (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows Vista Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows 7 Professional (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit*)
Windows 8 (32-bit or 64-bit*)
* Running as a 32-bit application
CPU
Minimum Intel® Core™ 2, 2,4 GHz or higher.
RAM
Minimum 2 GB (4 GB or more recommended).
Network
Ethernet (1 Gbit recommended).
Graphics Adapter
AGP or PCI-Express, minimum 1024×768, 16 bit colors.
Hard Disk Type
E-IDE, PATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS (7200 RPM or faster).
Hard Disk Space
Minimum 80 GB free (depends on number of cameras and recording
settings).
Software
Microsoft .Net 4.0 Framework.
Minimum system requirements
Machine where the LPR Server is installed:
Run the Milestone XProtect LPR Server installer on one or more machines especially allocated for the
purpose. If preferred, you can use virtual machines for this purpose. You are recommended not to
install the Milestone XProtect LPR Server on the same machine as your XProtect Management Server
or Recording Server(s).
XProtect LPR must be installed with the latest version of XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise
only. That means XProtect Corporate 5.0b or newer or XProtect Enterprise 8.1a or newer. XProtect
LPR requires XProtect Smart Client 7.0c or later versions.
LPR Licenses
For your XProtect LPR to run correctly, you must purchase the following LPR-related licenses:
o An LPR Base License which covers an unlimited number of LPR servers
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Product overview
o An LPR Camera License per LPR camera
o An LPR License Plate Library license for each country/region you need in your LPR
setup (one License Plate Library license is included with the LPR Base License). To buy
your LPR licenses, contact your vendor, or visit www.milestonesys.com to log into the
software registration service center.
You can find the current status information on your licenses in the bottom part of the LPR Server
Information window (see "View LPR server information" on page 11):
o LPR cameras available: Based on your license, this shows how many remaining LPR
cameras (devices) you are allowed to create and use on all your LPR servers in total.
o License Plate Libraries available: Based on your license, this shows how many
remaining License Plate Libraries you are allowed to use on all your LPR servers in total. It
also indicates which License Plate Libraries are already in use on your all your LPR
servers.
All License Plate Libraries are automatically installed when you install your XProtect LPR (see "Install
XProtect LPR" on page 10). However, by default, all installed libraries are disabled and you must
enable the libraries (see "Countries tab" on page 18) you want to use (considering any limitations in
you license).
Example: You have a License Plate Library license covering five license plate libraries. You
have installed 10 license plate libraries. Once you have selected five license plate libraries,
you cannot select any more libraries. You must then clear some of your choices before you
can select other libraries.
About XProtect LPR
Basic data flow of XProtect LPR:
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Product overview
1. XProtect LPR camera(s) sends video to XProtect Recording Server(s).
2. XProtect Recording Server(s) sends video to XProtect LPR Server(s) to look for license plates.
3. XProtect LPR Server(s) sends recognitions to XProtect Event Server for matching with license
plate lists.
4. XProtect Event Server sends events and alarms to XProtect Smart Client for viewing.
5. The entire LPR configuration (matching of lists, setting up of events and alarms, etc.) is
handled from the XProtect Management Client or Managemement Application.
LPR FAQs
What does LPR stand for? License plate recognition.
What is LPR? LPR is video-based content analysis (VCA) and recognition of vehicle license plates.
To read the characters in question, LPR uses optical character recognition on images aided by
specialized camera settings.
What is an LPR Server? An LPR Server handles LPR video from XProtect Corporate or XProtect
Enterprise. It turns this video into recognitions and sends these to the XProtect Event Server from
where it can be used for events and alarms. An LPR Server should be installed on a machine
especially allocated for the purpose.
What is an LPR camera? An LPR camera defines from where an LPR setup receives video (typically
a camera), and how this video is configured and processed. An LPR setup typically has several LPR
cameras. Each LPR camera requires an LPR Camera License.
What is a license plate library? A license plate library is a set of rules defining license plates of a
certain type and form as belonging to a certain country or region. In other words, it dictates plate and
character specifics (color, type, hight, spacing, and similar, which is used during the recognition
process). Each license plate library requires an LPR License Plate Library license.
What is a license plate list? A license plate list is a list that you create. License plate lists are
collections of license plates that you want your LPR solution to treat in a special way. Once you have
specified a list, you can set up events to recognize license plates on these lists and in this way trigger
your XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise events. It is also possible to create alarms built/based
on LPR events.
Compatibility
XProtect LPR is compatible with XProtect Corporate 5.0b or XProtect Enterprise 8.1a and forward.
You are recommended not to use XProtect LPR with older versions of XProtect Corporate or XProtect
Enterprise.
It is also compatible with XProtect Express 1.1 and forward, XProtect Professional 8.1 and forward
and XProtect NVR 2 and forward.
LPR requires XProtect Smart Client 7.0c or later versions.
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Product overview
Reimplement - do not upgrade
XProtect LPR 1.0 is a new product making use of new technologies such as the XProtect Event Server
and Alarms. As a result, it is not possible to upgrade from former Milestone LPR solutions. Instead you
must reimplement your solution.
Important prerequisites
Add cameras required for XProtect LPR: If you have not already added the cameras you are going
to use with XProtect LPR, do so in XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise before configuring
XProtect LPR.
Adjust camera configuration for LPR: Once cameras are added, adjust each required camera's
settings in XProtect Corporate or XProtect Enterprise so that the settings match the requirements for
LPR. For the relevant cameras it is recommended to set:
a frame rate of four frames per second
a low compression
if possible, a low sharpness value
the video codec to JPEG
resolution which is not too high.
Note that if you use H.264 codec instead of JPEG, only GOP-frames are supported (which is usually
only 1 frame per second). For higher frame-rates, use JPEG codec.
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Install XProtect LPR
Install XProtect LPR
The XProtect LPR software can be downloaded from www.milestonesys.com/downloads. Here you
must locate and download two installers, the Milestone XProtect LPR Plugin installer and the
Milestone XProtect LPR Server installer.
Run the Milestone XProtect LPR Plugin installer on (all) the machine(s) where your XProtect
Management Client or Managemement Application and XProtect Event Server are installed.
Run the Milestone XProtect LPR Server installer on one or more machines especially allocated
for the purpose. If preferred, you can use virtual machines for this purpose. You are
recommended not to install the Milestone XProtect LPR Server on the same machine as your
XProtect Management Server or Recording Server(s).
You are recommended to install the Milestone XProtect LPR Plugin first.
1. For both installers, open the installer file.
Tip: Depending on your security settings, you may receive one or more security warnings (Do
you want to run or save this file?, Do you want to run this software? or similar; exact wording
depends on your browser version). When this is the case, accept the security warnings (by
clicking Run or similar; exact button names depend on your browser version).
2. The XProtect LPR installer wizard begins. In the wizard, click Continue and follow the
installation instructions.
When installation is done, make sure you have the needed licenses (see "LPR Licenses" on page 6)
for your XProtect LPR to run correctly.
If, after the XProtect LPR system installation, you need to install more LPR servers, simply run the
Milestone XProtect LPR Server installer and make sure that it is pointing to your XProtect Corporate or
XProtect Enterprise setup.
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LPR servers, sources and lists
LPR servers, sources and lists
To run XProtect LPR your must install (see "Install XProtect LPR" on page 10):
at least one LPR Server
the LPR plug-in on all machines running the XProtect Management Client or Managemement
Application and the XProtect Event Server.
Your XProtect Management Client or Managemement Application automatically lists available LPR
servers in the LPR Servers list in the Management Client's Site Navigation Pane or Management
Application's navigation pane. Expand Servers and select LPR Servers.
Tip: If a recently installed LPR server is not visible in the list, click F5 on your keyboard to refresh.
You cannot add LPR servers from the XProtect Management Client or Managemement Application.
They are added during the XProtect LPR installation or by subsequent LPR server installation (see
"LPR Licenses" on page 6).
View LPR server information
1. In the Management Client's Site Navigation Pane or Management Application's navigation
pane, expand Servers, select LPR Servers.
2. Go to the Overview pane. Select the wanted LPR server. The first part of the name of the
LPR server consists of the name of the host machine where the LPR server is installed, like
this: MYHOST.domainname.country
3. The LPR Server window opens with a summary of the server's status. From here the following
properties are available:
o Name: Lets you change the name of the LPR server.
o Host name: Shows the LPR server host name.
o Status: Shows the status of the LPR server.
If the system is running without problems, the status will return All LPR cameras running.
Alternatively the system might return:
Service not responding
Not connected to surveillance system
Service not running
Event Server not connected
Unknown error
X of Y LPR cameras running
o Service up time: Shows up time since the LPR server was last down.
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LPR servers, sources and lists
o CPU usage: Shows current CPU usage on the entire machine where the LPR server is
installed.
o Memory available: Shows how much physical memory is available on the LPR server.
o License plates detected: Shows how many license plates have been recognized by the
LPR server since it was last down.
o LPR cameras: Shows which LPR cameras are running on the LPR server and their status.
o LPR cameras available: Based on your license, this shows how many remaining LPR
cameras (devices) you are allowed to create and use on all your LPR servers in total.
License Plate Libraries available: Based on your license, this shows how many
remaining License Plate Libraries you are allowed to use on all your LPR servers in total. It
also indicates which License Plate Libraries are already in use on your all your LPR
servers.
o Finally, license expiration data is displayed.
Add new LPR camera
1. In the Management Client's Site Navigation Pane or Management Application's navigation
pane, expand Servers, expand LPR Servers, and select LPR Camera.
2. Go to the Overview pane. In the LPR Cameras list, select the wanted LPR camera and
right-click it.
3. From the menu that appears, select Add New.... In the Select Camera window, from the list of
cameras in your system, select a camera to add as an LPR camera. Click OK.
4. The LPR Camera window opens. Before you can configure LPR settings for the selected
camera, you must make a test image (see "Select image for test" on page 15).
5. Furthermore, the LPR camera window contains the following tabs:
a) Info tab (on page 14)
b) Settings tab (on page 14), with the following sub-tabs:
1. Recognition Area tab (on page 15)
2. Character Height tab (on page 17)
c) List tab (on page 18)
d) Countries tab (on page 18).
Edit/fill out the needed properties on these tabs.
6. Optionally, you can test the results of your LPR camera. To do so, click Test... (see "Test
current LPR configuration" on page 19). When done, click Close.
3. Reading Direction tab (on page 17)
4. Stop Criteria tab (see "Processing tab" on page 17)
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LPR servers, sources and lists
7. If prompted, confirm to save changes.
Your list of cameras also contains cameras from any available slave systems.
Due to technical restrains, however, if you have XProtect Enterprise slave systems, some of these
might not be available in this view.
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LPR servers, sources and lists
LPR camera settings
From the LPR Camera Information window, you can configure LPR settings for the selected camera.
Info tab
Here the selected LPR camera is identified:
Enabled: LPR cameras are by default enabled meaning that they are used for LPR. If a
camera should not be used for LPR, you must disable it.
Disabling LPR on a camera does not stop it from performing normal recording in XProtect
Corporate or XProtect Enterprise.
Camera: Name of the selected camera as it appears in the XProtect Management Client or
Managemement Application as well as in clients.
Description: Enter a description (optional).
Change Server...: Click to change LPR server.
Tip: Changing LPR server might be a good idea with regards to load balancing. For example,
if an LPR server is beginning to max out on CPU load, moving one or more LPR cameras to
another LPR server is recommended.
Settings tab
The Settings tab consists of a Select Image... button (see "Select image for test" on page 15) and a
number of sub-tabs for recognition settings:
Recognition Area (see "Recognition Area tab" on page 15)
Character Height (see "Character Height tab" on page 17)
Reading Direction (see "Reading Direction tab" on page 17)
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LPR servers, sources and lists
Processing (see "Processing tab" on page 17)
This allows you to select a test image and set recognition settings for a specific LPR camera.
Select image for test
Before you can work with LPR camera settings you must capture a test image, which is used to
visualize the effect of the LPR camera settings as they are applied.
1. Click Select Image... and select Capture Image. Use Previous and Next to browse.
2. When you are satisfied with a snapshot, click OK.
3. Proceed to specify LPR settings on the sub-tabs as needed.
See individual sub-tabs for details of their functionality.
When you are done specifying settings for your LPR system, test your setup (see "Test current LPR
configuration" on page 19) in live view to see if it recognizes license plates as expected.
Recognition Area tab
Here you specify the area of the camera image to be used for recognition. To ensure the best possible
performance and low risk of false detection, it is highly recommended to select a clearly defined and
"well-trimmed" recognition area. The area should cover only the part of the image where the license
plate is visible as the vehicle moves in and out of the image.
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