Device-based versus Cloud-based solution

There are many cloud-based ANPR/ALPR solutions. We also have one and it’s hosted at https://www.doubango.org/webapps/alpr/. Based on our experience we always recommend our customers to go with device-based solutions unless they have money and time to waste.

Lets take a scenario where a company have #500 cameras to install to monitor high speed roads in realtime. In order to be able to capture license plates from a car running at any speed we need a solution working at 25fps or more.

If you’re going for cloud-based solutions like OpenALPR or platerecognizer you’ll face the following issues:

  1. According to their websites a high-end dedicated server can run up to 17fps which means we’re already missing our 25fps target.

  2. A cloud-based solution is hosted on remote site which means you’ll have to send the data over the network for processing. This will require high speed bandwidth and off course you’ll have to pay for it. Sending #500 video streams at 720p resolution 24/7 would cost a lot.

  3. To barely meet the target fps you’ll need a dedicated-server per camera. Again, we want a realtime solution which means the video frames cannot be stored and processed later.

  4. Even if you go with #1 server for #5 cameras you’ll end up with hosting #100 servers. Hosting such number of servers will cost a lot as you’ll have to pay the maintenance, the electricity, the bandwidth…

If you’re going for device-based solution like ours:

  1. Every camera will do the detection and recognition at up to 47fps without sending a single byte to a remote server.

  2. Once a license plate is recognized you only send the plate number, GPS coordinates and eventually the image representing the plate (e.g. 100x100 cropped region). This represent few KB of data.

  3. A single server can handle the recognition results from the #500 cameras in realtime.

  4. No server maintenance or large electricity bills to deal with. Minimal bandwidth usage which mean minimal cost

In fact, the scenario described here represent a real project we had to deliver for one of our customers. They are now paying 53.99 euros per month to host a single server in order to monitor their #500+ cameras. Previously they had to pay several thousand euros per months which include the hosting costs and royalties to the ANPR provider. Our licensing model is royalty-free and lifetime which means you pay once regardless the number of images you want to process.