blog/data/2015-12-23-openalpr.txt

   1 Title: OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software
   2 Tags: english, debian, nice free software
   3 Date: 2015-12-23 01:00
   4
   5 <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
   6 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
   7 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
   8 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
   9 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
  10 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
  11
  12 <p>A few days I came across
  13 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
  14 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
  15 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
  16 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
  17 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
  18 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
  19 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
  20 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
  21 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
  22 discovered the developer
  23 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
  24 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
  25 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
  26 archive.</p>
  27
  28 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
  29 it into Debian, where it currently
  30 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
  31 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
  32
  33 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
  34 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
  35 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
  36 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
  37 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
  38 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
  39 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
  40 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
  41 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
  42 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
  43 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
  44 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
  45
  46 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
  47 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
  48 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
  49 package show up in unstable.</p>