“ELSAG ALPR data can now be processed to include the vehicle’s make, type - sedan, SUV, hatchback, pickup, minivan, van, box truck - and general colour - red, blue, green, white and yellow. The solution actively recognizes the 34 most common vehicle brands on U.S. roads.
“Additionally, the software can identify unique vehicle markings like a pedestal spoiler, roof rack, spare tire, bumper sticker or a ride sharing company decal.”
I’ve recently discovered what an intrusive technology ALPR is.
I’m on the board of a company that had an employee stealing geophysical data. We wanted to know who he was working with and so did private detective snooping.
Pretty much ever cop car, tow truck, many city fleet vehicles, and certainly every stop light is equipped with ALPR. These go into a huge national (and even international) database, accessible to not only police, but basically every government agency and private companies that pay.
We paid and were able to look back at where this employee drove for over a year. Quickly figured out who the conspirators were and fired them.
Anyway, that was a legit use of the system, but was beyond creepy to me. So I’ve been thinking about ways to defeat ALPR.
1. First step is to register your car in a state that has no front license plate (if possible) and back in everywhere. This cuts down on siting by 2/3. New Mexico is a winner here, for me. Obviously not possible for everyone.
2. Second step is (again, if possible) is to select a plate (again, if possible) that has a low contrast plate, as that makes them harder to read. Again, New Mexico’s orange-on-yellow plate is a winner here.
3. Third is to mount your plate so that certain angles are obscured. An aftermarket truck-style bumper with the plate inset is helpful here. (Also helps in my area to drive a boring car — e.g., a white pickup or suburban, like about 2/3 of the cars on the road.)
4. Things you can do to the plate. Covers are illegal, although seldom enforced. There are polarized covers (like for laptops) that make plates hard for readers. I’ve opted against that because it’s technically illegal and the State cops will, indeed, pull you over.
5. The cameras are not great at contrast issues. So I got three cans of flat clear spray paint. Put about 20 coats on my plate. It was suddenly not reflective, but just looked old.
6. Taking a play from WWI battleships, I taped over a fractal pattern over pieces of the plate. I then put 2 cans of high gloss paint on.
The result of 5-6 is that the plate looks exactly the same to the naked eye, but when photographed in bright light is harder to read. I know this works with my iPhone and because our security guard showed me on our cameras at work.
You can fuddle with the contrast manually and get it into focus, but it defeats the “automatic” nature of this tech.
7. Next is night. The cameras rely on IR. So I’ve bought two back-up license plate frames and combined the lights with additional ones from Amazon. This looks like a camera flash to cameras at night — and looks like a backup camera that’s on all the time. It also makes my real night back up camera have a ton of extra light to see. Very hard to read with a camera, but depends on the frequency of the cameras.
I’m curious if one could also just put a heating element on a plate to make it too hot for cameras to read. It would also add different frequencies. This would be a lot more subtle that a bunch of LEDs. Does anyone know?
“Additionally, the software can identify unique vehicle markings like a pedestal spoiler, roof rack, spare tire, bumper sticker or a ride sharing company decal.”
= = =
But in a local presentation/sales pitch, “It does not do facial recognition.”