An efficient implementation of the Hough transform for detecting vehicle license plates using DSP'S

Abstract

The paper addresses the general problem of the detection of vehicle license plates from road scenes, for the purpose of vehicle tracking. It describes an algorithm for detecting a license plate from a road scene acquired by a CCD camera, using image processing techniques, where the authors have used the Hough transform (HT) for line detection (the shape of the license plates is defined by lines) because it fits well into this application as it facilitates the selection of lines from specific areas and specific orientations within the image. This is followed by a brief description of the image processing system on which this algorithm has been implemented. Lastly, the results and conclusions of the application of the license plate detection algorithm to a real vehicle are discussed.