License Plate Detection Using Convolutional Neural Network–Back to the Basic With Design of Experiments

Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) is one of the applications that hugely benefited from Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) processing which has become the mainstream processing method for complex data. Many ALPR research proposed new CNN model designs and post-processing methods with various levels of performances in ALPR. However, good performing models such as YOLOv3 and SSD in more general object detection and recognition tasks could be effectively transferred to the license plate detection application with a small effort in model tuning. This paper focuses on the design of experiment (DOE) of training parameters in transferring YOLOv3 model design and optimising the training specifically for license plate detection tasks. The parameters are categorised to reduce the DOE run requirements while gaining insights on the YOLOv3 parameter interactions other than seeking optimised train settings. The result shows that the DOE effectively improve the YOLOv3 model to fit the vehicle license plate detection task.