Fundamental Study on Improvement of License Plate Character Recognition Accuracy Using Super-Resolution

Abstract

In recent years, due to the shortage of personnel and the large amount of time required to conduct surveys due to the declining birthrate and aging population, the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology has been used to improve the efficiency and labor saving of license plate reading surveys. AI technology, which has been rapidly evolving in recent years, enables highly accurate character recognition. However, its accuracy is highly dependent on the shooting environment and camera performance, and the accuracy is significantly degraded when the resolution of acquired images is low. Therefore, in this study, we investigated a method to increase the resolution of low-resolution license plates using SRGAN, a type of AI technology that enables high-resolution image processing, to improve the recognition accuracy of generated characters. As a result, it was shown that the method developed in this study could be an effective technology for improving accuracy.