Detection of Non-Helmet Riders and Extraction of License Plate Number using Yolo v2 and OCR Method

Abstract

In current situation, we come across various problems in traffic regulations in India which can be solved with different ideas. Riding motorcycle/mopeds without wearing helmet is a traffic violation which has resulted in increase in number of accidents and deaths in India. Existing system monitors the traffic violations primarily through CCTV recordings, where the traffic police have to look into the frame where the traffic violation is happening, zoom into the license plate in case rider is not wearing helmet. But this requires lot of manpower and time as the traffic violations frequently and the number of people using motorcycles is increasing day-by-day. What if there is a system, which would automatically look for traffic violation of not wearing helmet while riding motorcycle/moped and if so, would automatically extract the vehicles’ license plate number. Recent research have successfully done this work based on CNN, R-CNN, LBP, HoG, HaaR features,etc. But these works are limited with respect to efficiency, accuracy or the speed with which object detection and classification is done. In this research work, a Non-Helmet Rider detection system is built which attempts to satisfy the automation of detecting the traffic violation of not wearing helmet and extracting the vehicles’ license plate number. The main principle involved is Object Detection using Deep Learning at three levels. The objects detected are person, motorcycle/moped at first level using YOLOv2, helmet at second level using YOLOv3, License plate at the last level using YOLOv2. Then the license plate registration number is extracted using OCR (Optical Character Recognition). All these techniques are subjected to predefined conditions and constraints, especially the license plate number extraction part. Since, this work takes video as its input, the speed of execution is crucial. We have used above said methodologies to build a holistic system for both helmet detection and license plate number extraction.

A comprehensive review on helmet detection and number plate recognition approaches

“…Prajwal M. J. [13], prposed an automated Non-Helmet Rider detection system, utilizing YOLOv2 and YOLOv3 for person, motorcycle, helmet, and license plate detection. With a focus on speed, the system integrates OCR for license plate character recognition, offering a holistic approach.…”