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[homepage.git] / blog / archive / 2015 / 12 / 12.rss

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                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
 
        
+       <item>
+               <title>OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html</link>        
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2015 01:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
+               <description>&lt;p&gt;When I was a kid, we used to collect &quot;car numbers&quot;, as we used to
+call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
+numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
+to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
+exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
+time, as we kids have plenty of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;A few days I came across
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr&quot;&gt;the OpenALPR
+project&lt;/a&gt;, a free software project to automatically discover and
+report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
+&quot;car numbers&quot; in a machine readable format.  I&#39;ve been looking for
+such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition&quot;&gt;automatic
+number plate recognition&lt;/a&gt; tool only is available in the hands of
+the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
+even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
+discovered the developer
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/747509&quot;&gt;wanted to get the tool into
+Debian&lt;/a&gt;, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
+help him get into into shape to get it uploaded into the Debian
+archive.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
+it into Debian, where it currently
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html&quot;&gt;waits
+in the NEW queue&lt;/a&gt; for review by the Debian ftpmasters.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
+for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
+surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
+and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
+when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
+was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
+to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
+car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
+capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
+open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
+guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
+cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
+out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
+before running &quot;debuild&quot; to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
+package show up in unstable.&lt;/p&gt;
+</description>
+       </item>
+       
        <item>
                <title>Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html</link>