The Elsag Mobile Plate Hunter-900® is the most advanced and most accurate automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology available to the market today, providing the flexibility to read any number plate character, in any colour combination, day or night, and in any kind of weather. It is a force-multiplier, by automatically and continuously identifying all vehicles within its vicinity by their number plates.  No other ANPR system comes close to the MPH-900’s ease of deployment, capabilities and accuracy.

Features of the system include:

•  Captures up to 3,600 reads per minute, day or night

•  Processes parked and moving vehicles across 4 lanes of traffic

•  Captures plates at up to 170 kph closing speeds and 130 kph+ passing speeds

•  Recognises plates from all Australian states

•  Identifies suspect vehicles within milliseconds of passing them

•  Immediately alerts officers if a vehicle is suspect, indicating the nature of the offense

•  Identifies suspended and revoked drivers before they cause a crash

•  Captures criminal intelligence data

•  Criminal intelligence capabilities aid in witness identification, watch list development, placing suspect at a scene, etc

•  Secures sensitive areas with geo-fencing

•  Increases revenues by collecting delinquent taxes, fees and fines

The MPH-900 ANPR is a surveillance method using optical character recognition (OCR) to read number plates on vehicles from any state or country. Cameras are mounted either in a fixed location (such as a bridge) or on a police vehicle with an in-car computer. With the mobile system, as the police vehicle patrols, cameras take hundreds of photos of license plates per minute. The plate numbers are then automatically compared to crime data pre-loaded in the computer.  The officer is immediately alerted to a match and is able to prepare for safe action before the driver of the suspect vehicle knows he has been identified.

The MPH-900 also gathers criminal intelligence data.  It records the date and time of each plate reading and the GPS coordinates of the suspect vehicle. 

The MPH-900 ANPR is much more versatile and informative than video analytics systems because it is fully mobile and works in real time without having to slow traffic in order to read plates. It also works without user intervention and can accurately read difficult plates in unfavorable conditions such as low light.

The system comprises of two major groups of components: the in-vehicle system and the operations or control centre system.

In Vehicle System

The core of the system is the AD3 split camera. This is a pair of intelligent digital cameras (one B&W with infrared illuminator and one colour) housed in a compact, ruggedised, nitrogen-filled casing. The cameras can be mounted on magnetic bases or on roof bars. Cameras are provided in 16, 25 and 50 mm focal lengths that provide a blend of close-up reads (e.g., for cars parked on the left side of a road) and oncoming traffic across multiple lane reads.

We typically provide systems in a two-camera configuration with a 16 mm camera on the passenger side and a 25 mm camera on the driver's side. For boot lip mounting, or for temporary roof mounting, we use a ruggedised and shielded cable that allows the cable to be run between the lip of the boot or door without the cable becoming damaged.

Our cameras are the only digital camera employed in the market in this technology sector and provides superior capture area, allowing images to include identification of the make, model and colour of the vehicle and the number plate details.

The boot box integrates the cameras and assists in the processing of the images and captured number plate. This is typically mounted in the boot with other equipment in the car (radios, tough book, ICV, etc). The boot box provides an ethernet port for connecting a PC or MDT, running the "car system" application which stores the hotlist and forms the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for operation of the system by field officers. The Car System application also integrates GPS-generated location information to provide accurate location data with each image. 

Operations Centre Application

The ELSAG Operations Center manages fleets of MPH900 mobile NPR units and/or a network of Fixed NPR cameras. The purpose of the Central Server is to upload and archive read and alarm data arriving from all vehicles and fixed cameras.  The operation centre software includes a web site allowing remote access to the data via a friendly user interface. The ELSAG Operations Center (EOC) is also in charge of the distribution of the wanted plates database or “Hot List” to the NPR units.

Communication between the NPR systems and the operations centre can be via WiFi (e.g., downloaded as mobile NPR systems enter hot spots in the field or at the station) or can be connected via cellular or data radio links. We can provide solutions as turn key operations or integrate our systems to your existing networks. 

The operations centre application also allows complex manipulation and analysis of data to provide reports tied to vehicles, locations, maps and NPR systems.

Fixed Location Systems

To support fixed location NPR, we offer a number of solutions including overt and covert cameras.  The systems use hardware similar to that of our mobile applications, however the GUI is always remotely located (generally within the operations centre).

We offer barrel-mounted, ladder-mounted and pole-mounted cameras linked to the operations centre via public or private wireless data networks.