20 Mar 2020

Genetec Inc., a renowned technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions announced the immediate availability of its next-generation mobile number plate recognition system. The new AutoVu SharpZ3 goes beyond traditional number plate identification and brings new levels of insight in vehicle analytics, situational awareness, and accuracy.

Mobile ANPR

Ideally suited to meet the needs of parking managers who use mobile ANPR as part of their enforcement activities, the new SharpZ3 can help them track the types of vehicle (car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle) in parking lots or around the city, and analyse the evolution of the mix of vehicle types over time.

SharpZ3 allows patrols to flag vehicles based on vehicle type and color

For law enforcement officers who use mobile ANPR to aid investigations, the SharpZ3 allows patrols to flag vehicles based on vehicle type and color where no license plate was identified by a witness.

Computer vision technology

“Traditional ANPR systems solve traditional parking and law enforcement challenges, like finding vehicles of interest and parking violators,” said Stephan Kaiser, AutoVu General Manager at Genetec. “The SharpZ3 tackles emerging problems that are not served by current technology, helping customers gain new insights into the types of vehicles in their city and how their streets and curbs are used.”

The AutoVu™ SharpZ3 is among the first specialised in-vehicle ANPR systems in the world to use Intel’s latest machine learning and computer vision technology to unlock new insights through innovative analytics. The AutoVu SharpZ3 system will not only be able to improve the accuracy of license plate reads in difficult environments (such as bad weather, heavy traffic, and fast speeds), but will also be able to record additional vehicle characteristics such as, vehicle type, color, and more, in real-time, and without requiring large amounts of bandwidth.

ANPR-equipped vehicles

With its modular design, SharpZ3 gives users the flexibility to add new functionalities over time

Designed with a third optical sensor, the AutoVu SharpZ3 can accurately capture multiple plate designs in complex urban environments. These include flat, embossed, reflective and non-reflective license plates. The extra sensor will also allow more precise positioning of vehicle data on maps to provide more precise occupancy data than before. With its modular design, the SharpZ3 gives users the flexibility to add new functionalities over time. This reduces the complication and cost of hardware replacement.

With future releases, the machine learning capabilities in the AutoVu SharpZ3 will enable a number of new potential applications such as enabling cities to use their ANPR-equipped vehicles to address other operational issues including detecting unpermitted road construction, discovering abandoned e-scooters or bikes in unauthorised zones, and more.

Operations and intelligence solutions

The AutoVu SharpZ3, and the complete portfolio of Genetec security, operations and intelligence solutions will be on display April 20-22, 2020 at Genetec Connect’DX (#GenetecConnectDX), the company’s three-day, live, virtual tradeshow.