An algorithm for Iraqi Vehicle License Plate Recognition

Abstract

In this paper, an algorithm of vehicle license plate recognition has been proposed. This algorithm consists of three major parts: Extraction of plate region, segmentation of characters and recognition of plate characters. For extracting the plate region, edge detection algorithms and smearing algorithms are used. In segmentation part, smearing algorithms, filtering and some morphological operation are used. And finally statistical based template matching is used for recognition of plate characters. We used a large number of Iraqi plates for cars and consideration the new number, which contains a lot of complications. Where all the world use only one type of numbers, for example Arabic numerals (0, .... 9) with English letters A, B, ... Z)) or some countries using the Indian numbers (currently used in the Arab world), with Arabic letter (أ,ب,ت )or word (بغداد , القاهرة ......) but the new Iraqi plate use all of these possibilities such as Arabic, Indian numbers , English and Arabic letters and in addition to Arabic and English words.