US 11,948,366 B2
Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) and vehicle identification profile methods and systems
Peter Crary, Austin, TX (US); Peter Istenes, Budapest (HU); Dave Bynum, Knoxville, TN (US); and Israel Padilla, Mexico City (MX)
Assigned to Neology, Inc., Carlsbad, CA (US)
Filed by NEOLOGY, INC., San Diego, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/720,091.
Application 17/720,091 is a continuation of application No. 17/033,506, filed on Sep. 25, 2020, granted, now 11,321,571.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/906,668, filed on Sep. 26, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0245948 A1, Aug. 4, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06K 9/00 (2022.01); G06V 20/40 (2022.01); G06V 20/54 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06V 20/62 (2022.01); G06V 30/10 (2022.01)
CPC G06V 20/54 (2022.01) [G06V 20/46 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06V 20/625 (2022.01); G06V 30/10 (2022.01); G06V 2201/08 (2022.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A vehicle identification method, the method comprising:
obtaining an image including at least a portion of a vehicle;
identifying at least one of a license plate number of the vehicle and generating a descriptor associated with the vehicle by using image processing on the image;
determining a probability value or values that the image includes the identified at least one of the license plate number and the descriptor;
associating the at least one of the license plate number and the descriptor, and the probability value or values, with the image as image metadata;
identifying one or more like images, each having respective metadata including the identified at least one of the license plate number and the descriptor as determined based on probability values associated with the one or more like images, wherein the identified one or more like images are each part of at least one vehicle identification profile in a database;
comparing the image metadata to the respective metadata of the one or more like images; and
adding the image with the image metadata to a profile of the at least one vehicle identification profile based on the comparison, and updating a probability value associated with the profile.