|
Recognition accuracy
is lower than expected
There are many reasons why recognition rates are low, but
possible causes fall into three main areas:-
Recognition Settings
Check that the Traffic Speed setting is set to Normal unless
you are viewing very fast or stationary vehicles. Also ensure
that the Detection Area is set to maximum unless you really
need to exclude some of the screen area. Finally, the minimum
plate height should always be on the minimum (11 pixels) unless
you have good reason to change this. All these adjustments
are made by choosing Admin | Recognition Settings.
Engineer & Camera Settings
On the engineer’s page (Admin | Engineer), ensure the
capture speed is set to Normal (maximum) unless vehicles are
in view for several seconds and you are looking to extend
the length of a recognition movie. Also ensure the image quality
is good in terms of brightness, contrast and colour; the default
settings are usually fine so check these by choosing Admin
| Install Cameras | Adjust Camera Image.
Camera Setup
Finally, ensure the camera is correctly adjusted. If the camera
was supplied by us, check the camera to vehicle distance matches
that of the camera (use a tape measure). If the camera uses
infrared lighting ensure it is working by checking there is
a red glow from the unit at night.
If using a colour camera and accuracy only falls significantly
at night, then you may need to provide additional lighting.
Check the Average Contrast reading (Engineer’s page)
during darkness to ensure the readings relate to night-time
captures. If the figures are below 60, lighting or camera
sensitivity need to be improved.
Ensure the camera is level and that plates are not presented
at too much of an angle. Check the Average Plate Angle (Engineer’s
page) and if it exceeds +/- 6 degrees try leveling the camera.
If you supplied your own camera, ensure the camera shutter
speed is set high enough. Typical values are 1/250th to 1/1000th
depending on the location and traffic speed. Check the Average
Sharpness reading (Engineer’s page) during darkness
and, if it falls below 110, consider increasing the shutter
speed or positioning the camera to view the vehicles from
a more head-on location.
Finally, check the Average Text Height (Engineer’s page).
If it is reading 11 or 12 pixels the vehicle is only just
large enough and you should consider using a longer lens.
Ideally, the scene width should be 3 metres or less at the
capture point; a good rule of thumb is that a cars wing mirrors
should almost touch each edge of the screen when in a central
position at the capture point.
How do I adjust the
sound volume?
Choose Settings | Environment | Volume and this will launch
the Windows volume control applet. If the Settings option
is greyed-out you do not have sufficient rights to make this
adjustment - see your system administrator.
The monitor image is poor
If you are using a Sony monitor supplied with your system
it will have been set up before despatch. However, if your
monitor has a Mode setting, ensure it is set to ‘PC’
rather than ‘Game’ or ‘Movie’ and
that the brightness, contrasts and colour settings are on
default. All these adjustments are made using the buttons
on the front of the monitor.
If you supplied the monitor yourself, again check that all
monitor settings are normal (there is usually an option to
restore default settings on most monitors). If you supplied
your own graphics card, ensure that colour is set to 24 or
32 bit and that the screen resolution matches the native resolution
of the monitor. These settings are reached by right-clicking
the desktop and choosing Properties | Settings (you will need
your system password to access these Windows settings).
Switching off the Belkin
UPS
The UPS is normally left on at all times. Should you wish
to turn it off, first close Videofit by choosing File | Exit
and selecting ‘Close Videofit and Power down the system’.
After the computer has fully shutdown you may switch off the
UPS by pressing and holding the On/Off/Test for several seconds.
Using this procedure greatly increases system reliability
by preventing data corruption.
The system time and
date is wrong
Log on as Engineer using your engineer’s password. Choose
Admin | Engineer | Set System Time & Date and this will
launch the Windows Time & Date applet. Be sure to log
off after making the adjustment.
My camera location
maps/photos or database images are distorted
First try and arrange for all photos and maps used within
videofit to have a similar aspect ratio as their display boxes.
Database driver & vehicle images are normally square and
camera location maps are landscape images.
Image auto-fit is a feature which stretches images to fit
their display boxes and is useful when images are close to
the correct aspect ratio and need only minor stretching. If
images have a significantly different aspect ratio from their
display boxes it is usually better to turn this feature off.
This can be found be choosing Settings | Environment | Image
Auto-Fit. If the Settings option is greyed-out you do not
have sufficient rights to make this adjustment - see your
system administrator.
I cannot see any live
video
Choose Settings | Environment and ensure ‘Enable Live
Video (with time-out)’ is checked. If the Settings option
is greyed-out you do not have sufficient rights to make this
adjustment - see your system administrator
Recognition events
do not appear on the main screen as they occur
Choose Settings | Environment and ensure ‘Enable Event
Driven GUI’ and ‘Enable Live Event Images’
are both checked. If the Settings option is greyed-out you
do not have sufficient rights to make this adjustment - see
your system administrator
The ‘Install
Cameras’ tab in Administration does not show any cameras
This means that no capture cards were found when the application
started. If you have installed a capture card it is either
faulty, was not supplied by Videofit or is an incorrect card
number. The first card installed in a system must be Card
1, followed by Card 2, and so on. All capture cards are encoded
with a license number to match the software and so cards are
not interchangeable between systems.
My additional hard
drives are never used
Videofit Kit only supports a single drive and you should not
attempt to install additional drives.
The Lite & Network products support upto 4 drives in total.
Choose Admin | Recognition Records and ensure the checkboxes
for the additional drives are checked (Log Directory 2-4).
Then select the drive path, such as ‘E:\’ and
ensure it is displayed correctly. If the drive is still never
used it is almost certainly due to the number of records never
exceeding the capacity of the first drive (the auto-delete
facility removes older records on a daily basis as set under
Admin | Recognition Records| ‘Delete Record Over x Days
Old’).
The menu item I wish
to select is greyed-out
This usually means you do not have sufficient access rights
or you are not logged on. Access rights for each area of the
application can be set by the system administrator.
3D bar graph will
not auto-rotate
Choose Settings | Environment and ensure ‘Enable Report
Auto-Rotation’ is checked. This feature consumes a lot
of processing power and should be used sparingly on capture
PC’s. If the Settings option is greyed-out you do not
have sufficient rights to make this adjustment - see your
system administrator
Capture speed is lower
than I expected
First ensure that the half or quarter speed adjustment on
the engineer’s page has not been set (choose Admin |
Engineer | Capture Speed). Please bear in mind that real-time
capture is only possible with a single anpr camera (and upto
3 static overview cameras). As more capture cards are added
to the system the capture speed for each card reduces. Please
refer to the Capture Card product page to see how this translates
into maximum vehicle speeds. |
