Smart Speed Camera Based on Automatic Number Plate Recognition for Residential Compounds and Institutions Inside Qatar

Increased amounts of over-speeding have been observed in Qatar. Between the years 2015 and 2020, there were around one-third of registered casualties of pedestrians. An automated speed radar system is proposed in this paper as a solution to enhance road safety inside residential compounds and institutions. Unlike existing systems, the proposed solution does not require human intervention and is based on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR). It consists of three main units. Firstly, a camera unit would take high-definition pictures of the over-speeding vehicle. Next, the speed radar unit consists of a Doppler effect-based radar that detects a vehicle’s velocity. Furthermore, the ANPR unit handles the recognition of the number plate (NP) and sends a real-time SMS to the violator. The system includes a managerial mobile app as well that gives exclusive access to recorded violations and other data. The ANPR unit was tested using a database of 3200 high-definition Qatari NPs, taken from Qatar University security gate cameras at different times of the day. The tests yielded 98% accuracy. The speed radar yielded a maximum absolute error of ±5 km/h.