How to make people slow down / stop for my license plate cam

[Scruit 0]

My license plate cam can read a test license plate that is set out in the driveway under any light conditions encountered so far. I've been running 24hr tests where I have a computer saving an image every 5 mins and then I can run through them all quickly to ensure the LP is readable at night / day / sun / cloudy etc. that's fine.

 

Problem is that when folks drive past the camera quickly I wind up with a slightly blurry image, like the shutter sheet is too low - also my CPD507HC is giving me an interleaved image (D1) that makes it even more blurry. I have an auto-iris lens. The stationary plate I put out there for testing is easy to read.

 

I am about to move the LP camera to a location where poeple are driving towards/away from it (10' off the ground through) to minimize the side-to-side movement of the plate while it is in shot... but I'm thinking I can solve the 'speed of movement' issue by making the car slow down.

 

 

And that's where I could use suggestions... Anyone got any ideas on how to make cars that come to my house slow down in the middle of the 150' driveway. I'm thinking that a speed bump would work but would look stupid in my gravel drive.

[Securitymaster 0]

Then put a small ditch in, other than a speed bump, I don't see what else you can do.

[Scruit 0]

Then put a small ditch in, other than a speed bump, I don't see what else you can do.

 

For now I'm going to use the loop-out into an older 4ch DVR that I have that does not have the same interlacing issue.

 

Case in point, today an unknown pickup truck entered my driveway, spent one minute parked beside my house, then left. The license plate on the back was almost illegible, but the 'test' plate was easy to read. I need to figure out a way to make the camera use a higher shutter speed.

 

(Turns out the pickup was the electric meter reader - he apparently traded his red Ranger for a white GMC)

[zmxtech 0]

you might need more light -ie IR illumination that will bring the plate out

 

z

[ak357 0]

My license plate cam can read a test license plate that is set out in the driveway under any light conditions encountered so far. I've been running 24hr tests where I have a computer saving an image every 5 mins and then I can run through them all quickly to ensure the LP is readable at night / day / sun / cloudy etc. that's fine.

 

Problem is that when folks drive past the camera quickly I wind up with a slightly blurry image, like the shutter sheet is too low - also my CPD507HC is giving me an interleaved image (D1) that makes it even more blurry. I have an auto-iris lens. The stationary plate I put out there for testing is easy to read.

 

I am about to move the LP camera to a location where poeple are driving towards/away from it (10' off the ground through) to minimize the side-to-side movement of the plate while it is in shot... but I'm thinking I can solve the 'speed of movement' issue by making the car slow down.

 

 

And that's where I could use suggestions... Anyone got any ideas on how to make cars that come to my house slow down in the middle of the 150' driveway. I'm thinking that a speed bump would work but would look stupid in my gravel drive.

 

At the point where u needed put big poster with girl ......

or some stupid or funny writing ,lots of cars will slow down just to read

[Lolo Wolf 0]

There are ways to slow incoming traffic to your drive without the use of speed bumps, shoot some grades,work up a layout, and slope your stone, you (may need to add material) compact a good base, establish a crown insure proper drainage, I would use 3/4 rough, you may need to re-dress every so often... here is a good read on speed differential regarding vehicular traffic entering driveways: http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/Research/access/toolkit/11.pdf from the past pics you posted you seem to be rual but even so check with local code before you do if you attempt to do this. If tighter security pertaining to incomming auto traffic is your primary concern I would suggest a gated tele system, with a fence or stone boundry, you can position your cam(s) there with a dead stop and tweak for a excellent LP shot. (allow for a safe backing or turn around) either way slow em down or stop them before the vehicle even gets close to your real property (house) I custom build timber/arch/log gated entrys with cctv and one of the primary concerns with my clients is unwanted or unannounced auto trespass on their land.

[Scruit 0]

you might need more light -ie IR illumination that will bring the plate out

 

z

 

The night images are the best. My problem is mostly during the day when there is enough ambient IR light that the contrast between the letters and background is not as high.

 

I was thinking of something weird... I could take a loop out of the channel that has the license plate camera on it and feed it into another DVR channel - then I could alter the brightness and contrast on both of those channels so that one of them gives me best settings for day, and the other gives me best settings for night.

 

 

Right now I'm going through all the different combinations of electronic Iris & backlight compensation settings and doing a 24hour test with each. So far I have seen absolutley no difference between BLC On and Off in this application. Today/tomorrow I'll be trying the electronic iris on (even though it has an auto-iris) to see if the shutter speed goes up or down...

 

What I really need is to be able to manually set a higher shutter speed and have the camera compensate with the auto-iris lens.

[Scruit 0]

I have two more options I guess...

 

1) Chicane... Put two offset obstructions that force cars to swerve left and the right. Would be a PITA for the propane truck, though.

 

2) make the driveway thinner, force cars to drive slowly and carefully though a width reduction.

 

I've been planning to install a brick border to keep the gravel inside the driveway - I could use the edging to create a chicane or width restriction that would not look out of place - not like a speed bump etc. The areas where the edging creats a width restriction could have planters or a bird house etc. Ideally though I'd want to be able to remove the width restriction temporarily to allow the propane truck to back up down my driveway... Hmmm

 

 

 

3) option 3 is to move my camera so it's more central to the driveway so that the license plates are not moving trhough the FOV at 45deg - they are moving almost directly towards or away from the camera. This would hopefully reduce the effect of the motion blur.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

scruit, if you decide to alter your entry with any barrier or obstruction keep in mind the importance of rapid emergency access fire/medical/police, even if it is removable (in my entry gate builds I always install a Knox-Box or provide local rual fire dept with key code, dependent on the entry system in use) Perhaps if you want you could do a landscaped circular addon to your exsiting drive, offset the house so traffic moves and slowly turns to exit/entry....measure a acceptable sweep for light trucks (propane/fire parcel etc) with some plantings you could make it quite attractive as well add some curb appeal to your home. from a design point of view I would be wary of any width restrictions in a driveway, better to maintain a uniform drive. Your posted #3 option of camera placement would indeed be your less labor intensive choice for sure. If you do decide to place your LP cam central its a good idea to mount a smaller crash post with a footer in front just beneath it for protection.

[Scruit 0]

scruit, if you decide to alter your entry with any barrier or obstruction keep in mind the importance of rapid emergency access fire/medical/police, even if it is removable (in my entry gate builds I always install a Knox-Box or provide local rual fire dept with key code, dependent on the entry system in use) Perhaps if you want you could do a landscaped circular addon to your exsiting drive, offset the house so traffic moves and slowly turns to exit/entry....measure a acceptable sweep for light trucks (propane/fire parcel etc) with some plantings you could make it quite attractive as well add some curb appeal to your home. from a design point of view I would be wary of any width restrictions in a driveway, better to maintain a uniform drive. Your posted #3 option of camera placement would indeed be your less labor intensive choice for sure. If you do decide to place your LP cam central its a good idea to mount a smaller crash post with a footer in front just beneath it for protection.

 

The LP camera is currently mounted under the eave next to the front door - so it's looking across teh driveway at an angle. It's also easy to reach up and disable. The new location is in a true housing with heater/fan and is out of reach / attached to the house and is perfectly inline with the driveway - although about 2' higher. If I drop it any further then it will be in reach again... The housing is installed/wired etc and I'll move the LP camera to that location this weekend. If the cars are still moving through shot too fast for the camera then I'll consider slowing the cars down.

 

Another thought... Rather than having my 'kill zone' halfway down the driveway... This new lens has enough zoom that I can have my killzone at the very end of the driveway - and everyone has to come to an almost complete stop before exiting the driveway because theyr's exiting from an 8' wide gravel driveway into a 55mph road next to a blind hill. Duh me - that's a location where cars HAVE to slow down, if not stop. I never thought of this becuase the lens I had up until last week didn't have enough zoom to reach that far (was limited to 60', driveway is 120') but this new lens goes up to 85mm. I'd probably aim for about 15' - 20' short of the road (about where the car's rear plate will be while the driver is waiting for a gap in traffic). I'm sure my 85mm lens will give me a one-car-width view at ~100' I can't believe I was considering building something to slow the cars down when the cars already have to stop, just 40' away.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

If the 85mm works and you get a acceptable tight shot then you will be set. Just curious, with the 120ft drive do you get a lot of suspicious entry, whereas cars continue the full length to your house or is mostly nusance turn-around activity back to the 55mph rd? One positive aspect to a house with a longer setback is the time needed to enter giving you more recorded view on your system with additonal cams aside from the LP and the dvr survies a breakin... in the event of a actual buglary, often thieves will either park away from the house after studying the layout (access/exit points looking for activity) and then enter on foot or use a stolen vehicle. The downside to a longer setback,the house is further from view giving a thief isolation and making the target inviting. Anyway I hope your system and setup gives you the results your are trying to attain and improves your sense of security, no matter what it helps to be vigilant.

[Scruit 0]

If the 85mm works and you get a acceptable tight shot then you will be set. Just curious, with the 120ft drive do you get a lot of suspicious entry, whereas cars continue the full length to your house or is mostly nusance turn-around activity back to the 55mph rd? One positive aspect to a house with a longer setback is the time needed to enter giving you more recorded view on your system with additonal cams aside from the LP and the dvr survies a breakin... in the event of a actual buglary, often thieves will either park away from the house after studying the layout (access/exit points looking for activity) and then enter on foot or use a stolen vehicle. The downside to a longer setback,the house is further from view giving a thief isolation and making the target inviting. Anyway I hope your system and setup gives you the results your are trying to attain and improves your sense of security, no matter what it helps to be vigilant.

 

 

I don't get a lot of turn-arounds - although I get enough that the driveway alarm is set about 20' in so that it doesn't alert me to folks just turning around. I don't mind the turn-arounds. I *do* get about one car a month entering the driveway and doing something strange. A couple times the car just stopped halfway down my driveway for a few minutes in the middle of the night, and then sped away when I turned on my bedroom light. Anotehr time a guy drove up to my house and then spent a couple of minutes staring in through the windows of my car, then then left - the was not 'for sale' nor should anyone think that. One time a lady drove up to the house and spent 10 minutes walking around the back of the house, around the barn, my workshop and pool. I didn't see her until she was leaving, and she claimed she thought the house was for sale. No for sale sign or anything... Just lots of weird things like that.

 

If someone is going to steal from my house then I'm assuming they will drive up to the house. Unless they know there is a license plate camera then they will not want to make multiple trips downteh 120' driveway (about 180' to the workshop where the last burglary occured). They'd be at the house too long and the ADT alarm will hopefully be triggered.

 

 

The other consideration with the aiming the license plate camera at the end of the driveway is that passing cars may trigger the motion record - but that's not a problem. The new DVR has been in for a week or two now and it's only used 25% of the HD so far. Plus there's only about 100 or so cars per day pass the house.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

Youve had quite a bit of suspicious activity and understand your desire to protect your property. I often use a dedicated buried motion sensor to trigger LP and find them more reliable to set for capture, isolated from other cams not dependent on dvr motion software. Less false alarms due to wildlife, wind etc. Do you have your driveway alarm integrated with any other devices (lights etc) or is just a chime type alert? Did some work on a project using some of the EMX access controls, rual area utilizing their solar power post, Ive had excellent results with their driveway probe sensors. Anyway good luck and give a heads up on the lens switch. Regards

[Scruit 0]

Youve had quite a bit of suspicious activity and understand your desire to protect your property. I often use a dedicated buried motion sensor to trigger LP and find them more reliable to set for capture, isolated from other cams not dependent on dvr motion software. Less false alarms due to wildlife, wind etc. Do you have your driveway alarm integrated with any other devices (lights etc) or is just a chime type alert? Did some work on a project using some of the EMX access controls, rual area utilizing their solar power post, Ive had excellent results with their driveway probe sensors. Anyway good luck and give a heads up on the lens switch. Regards

 

The driveway alarm is integrated with custom software I worte for my PC. When someone drives into my driveway the software takes a snapshot from teh CCTV (using a video capture card) and emails it to my phone and a coupel fo email addresses. it also sends another picture 20 seconds later so I can toll if the car had stayed at the house or left.