Industrial PoE Computers Provide Automated Barrier Control via ALPR

Smart parking using automated number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to monitor and manage parking lots and has a direct impact on improving the parking experience and allows for better parking management. Number plate recognition is an image processing technology is used to identify vehicles by their unique number plates.

Automated number plate recognition works through the use of IP cameras that are specially designed to detect the vehicles number plate when entering and exiting the parking lot. Infrared sensors are also used to detect objects in varying light levels and enables clear pictures to be taken any time of day or night.

The vision based industrial computers used for automated number plate recognition must support multiple camera inputs, be network ready, and support multiple sensors and display outputs. At the same time, they must be sufficiently compact and low-power devices to fit in very narrow spaces whilst being able to support the environmental factors for which they are being deployed.

The SPC-4600 by Vecow is the ideal industrial PoE computer for ALPR applications with it’s rugged and ultra-compact construction, measuring just 106mm x 150mm x 63mm (4.17″ x 5.91″ x 2.48″). Despite its compact form factor, its fanless chassis has been designed to withstand humidity, shock, vibration and wide temperature ranges of -40°C to 85°C. These specifications make the ALPR computers ideal candidates for low maintenance installation in outdoor cabinets with seasonal changes in weather throughout the United Kingdom.

Powered by low power Intel Apollo Lake quad core processors the SPC-4600 industrial PC with PoE delivers high performance even when processing multiple data inputs and outputs both and the entrance and exit point of the parking lot. Onboard wide range 9V-36V DC terminal block power input with overvoltage and reverse protection also mitigates the risk of data loss.

The two onboard GigE PoE+ LAN ports support power to the ALPR IP cameras to simplify system architecture and reduce installation time. The P0E+ technology onboard supports a wide range of available ALPR cameras with power requirements up to 25.5W/48V.

Once the ALPR system validates the vehicles number plate upon entry and exit of the parking lot the necessary information can be displayed with  dual display support via DVI and Display Port. To then allow vehicles in and out of the parking lot, barrier control and traffic light operation is can be automated via the four selectable serial RS-232/422/485 ports on board.

Supporting mPCIe and SIM slot expansion the number plate vision computers also allow for installation in remote locations where a physical network wasn’t already present, both WiFi and cellular networks being an optional upgrade.