Smart license plate detection system for land and sea vehicles
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to a smart license plate detection system for all types of motor vehicles, both land and sea. The system comprises of a smart license plate and at least three colored lights, primarily green, yellow, and red, that establish an order to follow and may be on the vehicles when they are in motion, whether on land or on water, similar to traffic lights anywhere in the world. These colors may surround the square on the smart license plate's smart board that identifies the vehicle's state, and the public order officer may use the smart license plate detection system to prosecute the vehicle's owner for any misconduct. The system comprises a main unit comprising a microcontroller associated with a plurality of components to perform a plurality of operations, a communication block, and a cloud server adapted to store received data accessed using an application.
1 . A smart license plate detection system comprising:
a smart license plate including:
a housing having a rectangular structure defined by a back surface, a front surface opposite the back surface, and wall portions extending perpendicularly from a periphery of the back surface to form an inner cavity;
a display unit disposed at the front surface of the housing, the display unit having a rectangular shape corresponding to the front surface of the housing, and the display unit being spaced inwardly from a periphery of the front surface so as to leave a border region around the display unit, wherein the display unit covers the front surface except for the border region;
one or more LED strips disposed on the border region so that the one or more LED strips cover substantially the entirety of the border region and extending continuously along the entire periphery of the front surface of the housing and surrounding the display unit, the one or more LED strips being configured to display a status of a motor vehicle;
at least two circuit boards disposed within the inner cavity and operatively connected to the one or more LED strips;
a power management assembly disposed within the inner cavity and attached to the housing by one or more supporting components, the power management assembly being configured to supply power to the one or more LED strips;
an antenna positioned within the inner cavity of the housing to reduce electromagnetic screening when the smart license plate is attached to the motor vehicle, the antenna being configured to receive data from satellites through dedicated RF frequencies; and
a main unit including a microcontroller configured to:
detect a moving motor vehicle using a detection module;
capture an RGB image of the motor vehicle to extract details in real time;
pre-process the captured image by converting the RGB image from three color channels (R, G, B) into a single-channel grayscale format;
locate a license-plate region within the captured image and segment the license-plate region from surrounding background content;
recognize a license plate by locating and segmenting the captured image from background content; and
recognize characters on the license plate by detecting image frames and converting the characters into ASCII text;
a communication block configured to provide data exchange between the smart license plate, the main unit, a cloud server, an application, and an agency;
wherein the cloud server, the application, and the agency are operatively connected to the main unit through the communication block to enable remote monitoring and processing of vehicle information.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more LED strips are configured to emit yellow light to indicate that the vehicle is in partial compliance with a motor vehicle law or a category defined by regulation.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more LED strips are configured to emit green light to indicate that the vehicle is in total compliance with a motor vehicle law or a category defined by regulation.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more LED strips are configured to emit red light to indicate that the vehicle does not meet compliance requirements with a motor vehicle law or a category defined by regulation.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the power management assembly comprises a battery management system, a power conversion unit, and an output power unit.
6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the battery management system is configured to monitor and control charging and discharging of the power management assembly.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna is positioned at a lower portion within the inner cavity of the housing to further reduce electromagnetic screening when the smart license plate is attached to a motor vehicle.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the display unit is configured to present a vehicle identification number and a jurisdictional logo simultaneously.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the lid is removably secured to the wall portions of the housing to permit access to the inner cavity.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the microcontroller is further configured to preprocess the captured RGB image to enhance contrast before converting the RGB image into a single-channel grayscale format.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more LED strips consist of a single continuous strip extending around the entire periphery of the front surface of the housing.
12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more LED strips consist of multiple discrete strips joined together around the entire periphery of the front surface of the housing.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the display unit comprises an E-paper display configured to provide high-resolution text and images with a paper-like appearance.
14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the circuit boards comprises a smart board configured to store vehicle information based on a department of motor vehicle database.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the smart board is configured to receive notifications relating to a compliance status of the motor vehicle from the agency and transmit the notifications to a user device as an email or SMS message.
16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the communication block comprises a GSM module, a Bluetooth module, a GPS module, and a 4G module.
17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the Bluetooth module is configured to provide Wi-Fi credentials including an SSID and password to a user device.
18 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a monitoring module associated with the agency and configured to monitor vehicle compliance data stored on the cloud server and to perform an enforcement or notification action based on the monitored data.
19 . The smart license plate detection system of claim 18 , wherein the action comprises initiating enforcement against a non-compliant vehicle or transmitting compliance notifications to a vehicle owner.
20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the lid comprises a plurality of mounting holes configured to receive fasteners to secure the smart license plate to the motor vehicle.