Chennai, August 07: Have a penchant to jump signals when the traffic cop is not around? Are you a car-lifter on the run? Have you sped away after knocking someone down with your vehicle? Watch out! For, your days of joyrides on wheels are numbered.
An ‘invisible’ eye will be able read your vehicle’s number plate at traffic signals and transmit the images to the control room instantly, enabling the personnel before the computer to alert the police before you reach the next signal.
The new Auto Number Plate Reader (ANPR) system will soon be introduced in the city depending on the success of the pilot project at Tiruchy, launched on Thursday for the first time in the country.
The ANPR would detect violations like crossing the stop line and jumping the red light without any human interventions, said K Vannia Perumal, Commissioner of Police, Tiruchy. “It won’t just record the violator’s vehicle number, his image will also be captured and transmitted to the control room for action,” he told Express.
The system has been installed at seven major traffic junctions and eight checkposts in Tiruchy.
It has also been designed to detect stolen or missing vehicles. The system has the capability to store database relating to stolen/missing/suspected vehicles and will alert the control room in case of movement of such vehicles.
Besides, under the Traffic Regulation Management System (TRMS), the police control room in Tiruchy has stored a massive RTO database of 20 million records relating to vehicle/licence information. Any information relating to a violator booked under the Motor Vehicles Act is passed on to the RTO. The licence of repeat offenders may even be suspended or cancelled, said an officer.
Seventy hand-held computers with printers have been given to the traffic police to issue on-the-spot challans for violations. These computers can retrieve data relating to vehicle information, including those on missing vehicles, from the central server.
An officer would also be able to retrieve previous data of habitual violators, said P N Mahadevan, MD, Purple Infotech Limited, Chennai, which is providing technical support for the project.
How it works?
It has three steps: detect vehicle, capture images and process of recognition. The technology scans passing licence plates and compares them with a database of numbers, names and addresses, then alerts the officer to any possible offenders. Instead of radioing in a tag number, then waiting for results, an officer is instantly alerted to any passing car that deserves extra attention. He can look over at the computer screen mounted on his car console and see a photo of the car that just passed and its number plate. At hand is registration information, including address.
–Agencies