Overview

Hanwha cameras may be configured with the Road AI license plate recognition application. The data from license plate captures can be viewed in the ExacqVision Client as text, sent as serial data over IP. The Road AI application is pre-installed and licensed from the factory on select camera models. This document will step through setting up the application integration with ExacqVision.

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Tested Versions

ExacqVision
22.12 and higher

Camera models
PNO-A9081RLP – firmware 1.41.02
PNV-A9081RLP – firmware 2.21.00

Road AI application
Version 7.2.7.6

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Installation

1. Mount the camera according to the manufacturer’s installation manual. LPR applications typically provide specific guidelines on positioning camera distance and angle to the target. <br>
2. If needed, download the Road AI User Manual to help with configuration from the manufacturer’s website.<br>
3. Open a web browser and navigate to the camera’s IP address.<br>
4. Log in with the username and password<br>
5. Navigate to the Open Platform settings page.<br>
6. Once the application is running, you may configure how it sends data to ExacqVision.

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Road AI Application Configuration

Open the camera’s web interface. Navigate to Setup > Open Platform > Go App

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Refer to the Road AI user manual for greater detail on the best way to install and position your camera. Once you have completed this, you may configure the camera for license plate capture.

1. Select the Settings tab from the top of the application. <br>
2. By default there is a single zone bounding box, which you may manipulate. A second zone may be configured using the + button under Zones Management. Drag the corners of the bounding box to your desired size, shape, and location in the field of view.<br>
3. Set the Region field to select your country of interest.<br>
4. Select the Plate Capture Mode setting.
   • Low speed mode with 4K resolution
   • High Performance mode with Full HD resolution<br>
5. Enabling the Wizard button displays a statistic of the latest 1000 plate sizes detected to help you increase detection rates. See the Road AI user manual for more details.<br>
6. The Plate Size Measurement feature also aids in increasing the detection rate. Recommended plate width is 130-350 pixels in the camera image.<br>
7. Scroll down to Recognition Setup to enable/disable Model Recognition and Color Recognition.<br>
8. Scroll to the Integration Options section.<br>
9. Select the check box for NVR Integration.<br>
10. Beneath this check box, enter the IP address of the ExacqVision Server on your network in the field on the left.<br>
11. Choose a port number that will be used to communicate with ExacqVision. This must be a port number that is not used by any another devices on your network. This port number will also be configured in the ExacqVision Client. Enter the port number in the field to the right of the Server IP address.
    
    In the example above, the ExacqVision Server is located at 192.168.0.6, and the port number selected is 9393.
    
    IMPORTANT: When using multiple Hanwha cameras running Road AI on the same network, each device MUST be assigned a unique port number.<br><br>
12. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom when these steps have been completed.<br>
13. Before continuing with ExacqVision configuration, ensure that license plates are being captured by navigating back to the Events tab. If you are experiencing trouble successfully detecting license plates refer back to the guides on camera positioning and placement.<br>

NOTE: In our testing, it took some time for the application to complete saving changes when pressing the Save Settings button. You may also need to be patient for the Road AI application to display the camera image.<br>

NOTE: If a red banner appears when navigating back to the Events tab, this may delay events being sent to ExacqVision.

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ExacqVision Serial Port Configuration

1. Within the ExacqVision Desktop Client, select the Configuration icon from the top-left toolbar.<br>
2. Select the Serial Ports node from the left-hand navigation tree, nested beneath your server name.<br>
3. Under the IP section, click the New button<br>
4. Enter a Name for the Serial Port.<br>
5. Under the Use column, select POS from the menu.<br>
6. From the Type column, select TCP Listener.<br>
7. In the Address field, enter the IP address of the Hanwha LPR camera.<br>
8. In the Port field, enter the port number you selected and entered into the Road AI application earlier. Recall in our earlier example we entered 9393.<br>
9. Under the Profile column you will select New, unless you had previously configured a Serial Profile, in which case you would select that profile name.<br>
10. Click the Apply button to save your changes. If you selected New in Step 8, this will automatically take you to Serial Profiles to continue setup.

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ExacqVision Serial Profile Configuration

1. If you selected New during setup of the Serial Port, you will begin by naming your Serial Profile. If you did not do this, then you will begin by selecting the New button, then enter a Name for the profile. Example: Hanwha LPR

2. Choose one of the following options for the Marker Type. Your choice will depend on how you’d like the data to appear in live and search.<br>
   • For records in this format:
     LPR
LPR = ZTD904 Dodge RAM SUV
     • Select XML as the Marker Type
     • Enter &lt;LPR in the SOT Marker field
       This is not a typo, do not enter a closing >
     • Uncheck the Case Sensitive box
     • Click the Apply button to save your changes.<br>
   • For records in this format:
     ZTD904 Dodge RAM SUV
     • Select Standard as the Marker Type
     • Enter &lt;LPR&gt; in the SOT Marker field
     • Enter &lt;/LPR&gt; in the EOT Marker field
     • Uncheck the Case Sensitive box
     • Navigate to the String Replacements tab.
       
     • Click the New button.<br>
     • Enter &lt;LPR&gt; in the String field, then enter a single space character in the Replace field. This field cannot be left empty.<br>
     • Click the New button again, to add a new row.
     • Enter &lt;/LPR&gt; in the String field, then enter a single space character in the Replace field.
     • Click the Apply button to save your changes.<br>
3. Use the Live Display tab to preview how your data will appear in the Live View overlay. Enable Line Removal if you wish to periodically clear the text. <br>
4. Optional – If you wish to trigger events from ExacqVision’s Event Linking or Event Monitoring features based on specific words, you will need to configure this on the Event Keywords tab within your Serial Profile. Example keyword: LPR
   

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Event Linking

ExacqVision can use the analytic events from Road AI to trigger various actions, such as recording video from a specific camera.

1. Select the Event Linking node from the navigation tree on the left side of the ExacqVision Client window.<br>
2. Click the New button.<br>
3. Within the Event Type list, select Serial Profile.<br>
4. In the Event Source list, select the serial profile name to trigger this event on all keywords you configured. Select the profile name with ‘Keyword’ to trigger this event only when that keyword is encountered.<br>
5. From the Action Type list, select the action you intend to take when triggered.<br>
6. Select the Action Target.<br>
7. Some Action Types, such as Record Video, provide the ability to set a Pre and Post Trigger settings.
8. Click Apply to save your changes.

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Related Materials

Find more details on topics mentioned in this article at the following links:

• Serial Ports
• Serial Profiles
• Event Linking
• Event Monitoring

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Troubleshooting

• After making changes to the network settings within the Road AI application, it may be necessary to Stop, then Start, the Road AI application from the camera’s Open Platform page.<br><br>
• As noted above, during configuration of the Road AI port numbers; When using multiple Hanwha cameras running Road AI on the same network, each device MUST be assigned a unique port number.<br><br>
• The camera is detecting license plates in the Road AI application and the port numbers are correctly set in both the camera application as well as in ExacqVision’s Serial Ports page but no data is being received. You may need to add an incoming port exception to the firewall of the system running your ExacqVision Server application.

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Support Contacts

Hanwha Vision Support
https://hanwhavisionamerica.com/support/

Hanwha Vision Cameras
https://hanwhavisionamerica.com/

ExacqVision Support
https://support.exacq.com/

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