Algorithm for License Plate Localization and Recognition for Tanzania Car Plate Numbers

In this paper, License plate localization and recognition (LPLR) is presented. It uses image processing and character recognition technology in order to identify the license number plates of the vehicles automatically. This system is considerable interest because of its good application in traffic monitoring systems, surveillance devices and all kind of intelligent transport system. The objective of this work is to design algorithm for License Plate Localization and Recognition (LPLR) of Tanzanian License Plates. The plate numbers used are standard ones with black and yellow or black and white colors. Also, the letters and numbers are placed in the same row (identical vertical levels), resulting in frequent changes in the horizontal intensity. Due to that, the horizontal changes of the intensity have been easily detected, since the rows that contain the number plates are expected to exhibit many sharp variations. Hence, the edge finding method is exploited to find the location of the plate. To increase readability of the plate number, part of the image was enhanced, noise removal and smoothing median filter is used due to easy development. The algorithm described in this paper is implemented using MATLAB 7.11.0(R2010b).