License plate recognition algorithm on the basis of a connected components method and a hierarchical temporal memory model

This paper proposes a license plate recognition algorithm that consists of three major steps: image preprocessing, segmentation, and recognition, which works efficiently with day- and nighttime images, as well as with the license plate being tilted. Pre-filtration allows the sequential binarization to be conducted efficiently. Typically, the license plate segmentation is realized by a histogram method with the preliminary plate de-rotation to the horizontal position, thus deteriorating the original image quality. In this paper the segmentation is implemented by a connected components method, enabling the rotation and a consequent loss of quality to be avoided. The hierarchical temporal network shows good results in rotated symbols recognition. The proposed method can be used in a similar way for segmentation and recognition of various text data. The proposed algorithms can also be used for distorted text segmentation and recognition.