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  1. wtimothyholman

    Is Rekor Scout still the best option?

    I've looked at the UniFi AI LPR camera, and at this point I wouldn't personally consider it a replacement for a good varifocal camera running Rekor Scout. The optical zoom is only 3X, and I suspect that the IR illumination is at 850 nm, which means the camera will miss a lot of 3M and paper...
  2. wtimothyholman

    Drone swarms in the northeast?

    Perhaps my opinion will be an unpopular one in this thread, but here goes: this is "evil clowns are stalking our children" season all over again, except this time it's drones in the sky instead of sightings of clowns around public schools. There is no universe where it makes an ounce of sense...
  3. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    They could reduce the visibility by strobing the 730 nm LEDs synchronously with the shutter. A 30 Hz to 60 Hz strobe is not difficult with LEDs. Yet it seems that manufacturers insist on constant illumination, which wastes power and increases apparent brightness to passing drivers in vehicles...
  4. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I've been told by a local cop who is very familiar with Flock cameras that they are transitioning to 730 nm illuminators in their latest models. I haven't been able to confirm that, however. Flock, like Rekor, has done what they can in software to improve plate reads, but you can't fight...
  5. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I've considered that, but a very bright light that flashes for a couple of seconds can still be problematic for passing drivers. I'd hoping for something that has the same color temperature as a porch light, but no brighter to the human eye.
  6. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    But note that your cameras optics must support 730 nm. I learned this the hard way after much experimentation. A camera that operates in 850 nm IR mode won't work with 730 nm illuminators. This includes the standard Dahua -Z12E models that most of us use. What will work is to use white...
  7. wtimothyholman

    AI Cameras for Community Security

    You've gotten some good advice so far, but I'll add one low-cost measure to consider for your Crime Watch meeting: ask homeowners to set up a Wyze Cam v4 to monitor the streets in front of their homes with continuous-time recordings. The Wyze Cams will provide context to supplement whatever...
  8. wtimothyholman

    LPR Fighting Crime - IPC Member?!?

    I've had many people ask me the same thing over the years: "Aren't you afraid someone will retaliate against you for providing video from your cameras to the police?" Yet it has never been an issue. It's not me that is providing the evidence against them - it's my cameras. You can try to...
  9. wtimothyholman

    LPR Fighting Crime - IPC Member?!?

    What I'm saying is that Wyze could produce a camera with the capability to read license plates, but they would never market it as such. It would be a nightmare trying to guide most of their customers through the process of setting up a "Wyze License Plate Cam Pro". But if they marketed a 10X...
  10. wtimothyholman

    LPR Fighting Crime - IPC Member?!?

    All joking aside with respect to clueless TV reporters, from my tests the Wyze OG Telephoto is fully capable of LPC for moving vehicles at a distance of about 40 feet in the daytime. Day or night it can read the license plate of a stationary vehicle from 70 feet away. Wyze could produce a...
  11. wtimothyholman

    LPR Fighting Crime - IPC Member?!?

    Thank you! I just did a quick count of my current setup. Counting the five Wyze Cam models I use to show people how to set up a low-cost system, I have 26 cameras online, with 21 IP cameras managed by SecuritySpy on my office iMac, streaming continuous time video to a 16 TB disk array. Yes, I...
  12. wtimothyholman

    LPR Fighting Crime - IPC Member?!?

    Actually, my LPR cameras are the original IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 models, still working fine after many years. My wife is giving me a couple of IPC-B52IR-Z12E-S2 cameras for my birthday as an upgrade.
  13. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I would much rather see a 730nm or warm white light version of the -Z12E camera. A friend of mine has tested the built-in ANPR function in the Dahua ITC413-PW4D-Z3, and found that external LPR software (i.e. Rekor Scout) did a much better job of reading plates. He was completely unimpressed...
  14. wtimothyholman

    Ring no longer allows unrestriced Police access

    I think the reason Amazon stopped this program was because it wasn't working. Residents had to agree to allow the police access. I'll bet only a very tiny fraction of Ring users ever bothered to grant that permission. Plus, as a cop I spoke to explained to me, there was no point. He'd just...
  15. wtimothyholman

    UFOs, Extraterrestrials, Advanced Technology and Other Associated Weirdness

    And of course, who you go hunting, it has to be in person. :)
  16. wtimothyholman

    UFOs, Extraterrestrials, Advanced Technology and Other Associated Weirdness

    He's a professor at Harvard. It goes with the territory. :) Most of his colleagues in astrophysics completely disagree with his opinions, but they can't outright dismiss someone from Harvard. Loeb absolutely believes that earth is at least being surveilled by extraterrestrials, and his...
  17. wtimothyholman

    Mailbox Jacked, Camera Disguise Questions

    The last thing you should be concerned about is being thought of as "that guy". First of all, most people won't even notice the cameras in the trees. Second, the people who may think you are a bit weird are also the same people who will come to you for help when they are victimized. Embrace...
  18. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    "Yet" being the operative word. I think the use of 3M printed plates is a growing trend in a lot of states. Even if Texas plates are still readable at 850nm, you'll still find yourself missing plates from other states. I think that 730/740nm IR, or warm white light illumination, is the wave...
  19. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    As it turns out, a fellow resident here in Nashville has purchased two -Z3 cameras to set up a custom LPR system for his neighborhood. He has the budget and know-how to install them, and I've been providing some advice to him. He has promised to provide me with some images once they're up and...
  20. wtimothyholman

    Is Rekor Scout still the best option?

    Then I can only assume that he has his own internal web server running, and Rekor Scout doesn't phone home otherwise.
  21. wtimothyholman

    Is Rekor Scout still the best option?

    You may fool the agent into working on a PC, but the agent uploads license and thumbnail metadata from your cameras into Rekor's servers. They would know in an instant if you have an unauthorized camera running. Of course, you could run your own web server and point your agent at that server...
  22. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    I contacted the Assistant DA who prosecuted the case to find out exactly why the gun charge was dropped, and why the felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. Here's what he told me: (1) The "Felon in Possession of a Gun" charge was dropped because his felony charge in Kentucky was resolved as a...
  23. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    What is particularly frustrating is that that one of them was a convicted felon carrying a gun when they were arrested with my neighbor's catalytic converter. That should have resulted in a mandatory prison sentence. What happened instead was that the gun charge was dropped, and the felony...
  24. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    A final report on this crime: today the District Attorney's office allowed the two catalytic converter thieves to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of theft and vandalism. Both received a one-year suspended sentence, with restitution for my neighbor's out of pocket expenses. My neighbor...
  25. wtimothyholman

    Is Rekor Scout still the best option?

    I've been using Rekor Scout for a few years. The original developer of OpenALPR (Matt Hill) left Rekor last year, and seems to be semi-retired and working on open source projects. Despite that, Rekor has been upgrading Scout. The latest client (4.1.7) definitely has improved accuracy...
  26. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Not only would this feature save power, it would also provide much better nighttime images with reduced (or eliminated) motion blurring. Even discrete LEDs can easily be strobed at tens of kilohertz, well beyond what would be needed for a security camera. It would be a very simple and obvious...
  27. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    You are correct, but it's a self-defeating tactic. Any type of cover over a license plate is strictly illegal where I live. So these people who think they're being clever, and outwitting the "man" by obscuring their plates, are doing nothing more than giving the police all the justification...
  28. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    That I don't know yet. Tennessee only has rear plates, so I'll have to wait until I can record a front plate from another state.
  29. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    There's not much I can do about that. However, I've always had bugs swarming around my porch lights in the summer, and they rarely have caused problems with my cameras.
  30. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    To give everyone an idea of how it will work, below is a photo made tonight from the illuminator mounted below my camera, with the camera operating in daytime mode. For this test the illuminator is running at continuous output, which means it is too bright. Fortunately I now have a current mode...
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