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https://github.com/sclaflin/Plate-Minder

Monitor a video source for license plates and record them. Zero cloud dependencies.
https://github.com/sclaflin/Plate-Minder

camera home-assistant home-automation homeassistant lpr mqtt no-cloud rtsp sqlite

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

Monitor a video source for license plates and record them. Zero cloud dependencies.

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/sclaflin/Plate-Minder
Owner: sclaflin
License: mit
Created: 2021-12-05T23:12:15.000Z (about 3 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2023-08-17T14:09:50.000Z (over 1 year ago)
Last Synced: 2024-08-02T15:50:45.972Z (5 months ago)
Topics: camera, home-assistant, home-automation, homeassistant, lpr, mqtt, no-cloud, rtsp, sqlite
Language: JavaScript
Homepage:
Size: 29.4 MB
Stars: 147
Watchers: 15
Forks: 21
Open Issues: 7
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

# Plate Minder #

[GitHub](https://github.com/sclaflin/Plate-Minder) | [Docker
Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/sclaflin/plate-minder)

***Please note: This project is in a very early stage of development. The API is
currently very unstable and not suitable for anyone that's not into tinkering as
things evolve.***

Monitor an MJPEG stream for license plates and record them.

Currently RTSP & video files can be converted to an MJPEG stream. See the
`config.yaml` example below.

Short term goals:

* Provide better support for hardware accelleration
* ~~Provide MQTT support for recording found plates~~
* ~~Provide original image and not just the ROI~~
* ~~Draw an ROI box in original image~~
* ~~Multiple camera support~~
* ~~Customizable base topic~~
* ~~Use home assistant autodiscovery~~
* ~~Storage of images where plates have been detected.~~
* ~~Customizable & tokenized file names.~~
* ~~Web UI for configuration~~
* ~~Add RESTful API to manage configuration~~

## Components ##

Plate minder consists of extensible and loosely coupled components.

```mermaid
flowchart LR

MJPEGReadable --> MJPEGToJPEG
MJPEGToJPEG --> ImageFilter
ImageFilter --> OpenALPRDetect
OpenALPRDetect --> PlateRecorder
```

`MJPEGReadable` converts a video source to MJPEG.
- `RTSPMJPEGReadable` converts an RTSP stream into an MJPEG stream.
- `MJPEGMJPEGReadable` passthrough for an MJPEG stream.
- `FileMJPEGReadable` converts a video file from disk into an MJPEG stream.

`MJPEGToJPEG` extracts JPEG images from an MJPEG stream.

`ImageFilter` performs pre-processing of images.
- `MaskImageFilter` masks out polygon shapes from an image.
- `MotionImageFilter` crops an image to the largest area of detected motion.

`OpenALPRDetect` sends JPEG images to an open-alpr-http-wrapper service and
captures detected license plate information.

`PlateRecorder` stores/transmits captured license plate information.
- `SQLitePlateRecorder` stores captured license plate data in a SQLite database.
- `MQTTPlateRecorder` sends captured license plate date to an MQTT broker.
- `FilePlateRecorder` stores captured license plate images to disk.

## Installation ##

**Getting Started**

The following steps assume you're installing & configuring Plate-Minder all on
the same machine.

0. Install [docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) & [docker-compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/)
1. [Download](https://github.com/sclaflin/Plate-Minder/blob/master/examples/basic-install.zip)
and extract the bare-bones configuration.
2. Within the 'plate-minder' folder, run
```
docker-compose up -d
```
3. From the same computer, navigate to http://localhost:8080
4. Enter your RTSP sources, filters, and recorders.
5. Captured images & data will be placed in the `./data` folder.

Read on if you'd like to configure it further.

### docker-compose.yaml: ###

Plate-Minder minimally consists of two services: plate-minder &
open-alpr-http-wrapper. Optionally, a plate-minder-web service can be used to
help with setting up plate-minder. Below is an example docker-compose.yaml.

```yaml
version: "3.9"
services:
plate-minder:
container_name: plate-minder
restart: unless-stopped
image: sclaflin/plate-minder:latest
ports:
- 4000:4000
environment:
# Set an environment variable for the container timezone.
# See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
- TZ=America/Chicago
volumes:
# Set's the docker container to the host container local time
- ./data:/app/data
- ./config.yaml:/app/config.yaml
open-alpr-http-wrapper:
container_name: open-alpr-http-wrapper
restart: unless-stopped
image: sclaflin/open-alpr-http-wrapper:latest
# This service is not required, but exists to help with configuration. Once
# Plate-Minder has been configured, feel free to disable this service.
plate-minder-web:
container_name: plate-minder-web
image: sclaflin/plate-minder-web:latest
restart: unless-stopped
# The default configuration assumes docker is running on the same machine
# you're viewing the web UI with. If you're accessing the service from a
# different computer, you should set the PLATE_MINDER_URL to whatever host
# & port Plate-Minder's RESTful service is accessible from.
environment:
- PLATE_MINDER_URL=http://localhost:4000
ports:
- 8080:80
```

### No docker-compose? Here's some docker commands. ###

I can't pretend to know the specifics of your container host or how you intend
to run things. The below commands provide the bare-minimum required to get
plate-minder up and running. At a minimum, you're likely going to want some type
of watch dog to keep the services running.

Given:

* Your docker host ip address is `192.168.0.1`
* Your data folder is located at `/plate-minder/data`
* Your config.yaml file is located at `/plate-minder/config.yaml`

```bash
# Open ALPR HTTP Wrapper
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 --name open-alpr-http-wrapper sclaflin/open-alpr-http-wrapper:latest
```

```bash
# Plate-Minder
docker run -d -p 4000:4000 --name plate-minder -v /plate-minder/data:/app/data -v /plate-minder/config.yaml:/app/config.yaml sclaflin/plate-minder:latest
```

```bash
# Plate-Minder Web (optional)
PLATE_MINDER_URL=http://192.168.0.1:4000 docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name plate-minder-web sclaflin/plate-minder-web:latest
```

With the above settings, you should be able to view the web ui and configure
plate-minder at `http://192.168.0.1:8080`.

### config.yaml ###

Configuration of Plate-Minder itself is handled through config.yaml. Minimally,
this can be an empty file if you intend to configure it via the plate-minder-web
service. Below is a complete config.yaml example:

```yaml
sources:
# Have an RTSP stream?
- type: rtsp
name: Northbound
url: 'rtsp://'
# How often an image should be captured.
# Increments are in seconds. Fractional values (i.e. "0.5") can be used for
# sub-second capturing.
captureInterval: 1
# By default, plate-minder will restart a source if it ends with an error
# code. Setting alwaysRestart to true will restart a source whether it ends
# with an error code or not.
alwaysRestart: false
# Have an MJPEG stream?
- type: mjpeg
name: Garage
url: 'rtsp://'
captureInterval: 1
alwaysRestart: false
# Have a video file you want to process?
- type: file
name: Southbound
file: ./
captureInterval: 1
alwaysRestart: false

# Globally applied filters
# Filter jpeg frames. Currently 'motion' and 'mask' filters are available.
# Filters are processed in the order they are defined
filters:
# Masks out a portion of the frame. Note that any pixels within the mask
# cannot be used for detection.
- type: mask
# Optional. Outputs an image to the './data' path
# debug: true
shapes:
# Shapes are a series of x/y coordinates
- 1267,0,1920,0,1920,100,1267,100 # Timestamp, top right
# Crops the frame down to the largest area of motion detection
- type: motion
# Optional. Outputs an image to the './data' path
# debug: true

openALPR:
# Path to ALPRToHTTP server
url: http://open-alpr-http-wrapper:3000/detect
# OpenALPR supports the following country codes:
# "au" => Australia
# "auwide" => Australia Wide
# "br" => Brazil
# "br2" => Brazil Two Line
# "eu" => Europe
# "fr" => France
# "gb" => United Kingdom
# "in" => India
# "kr" => South Korea
# "kr2" => South Korea Two Line
# "mx" => Mexico
# "sg" => Singapore
# "us" => United States
# "vn2" => Vietnam Two Line
country_code: 'us'
# Attempts to match the plate number against a plate pattern
# (e.g. md for Maryland, ca for California)
# OpenALPR supports the following pattern codes based on the selected country
# See: https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr/tree/master/runtime_data/postprocess
pattern: 'ca' # optional

# Record detected license plate information
recorders:
# Output to a SQLite database
- type: sqlite
# Output to an MQTT host
- type: mqtt
url:
# Optional - Default base topic is 'plate-minder'
baseTopic: plate-minder
# Optional - Home Assistant Auto Discovery support.
hassDiscovery:
enable: true
discoveryPrefix: homeassistant
# Connection options can be found here:
# https://github.com/mqttjs/MQTT.js#client
mqttOptions:
username: username
password: mypassword
# Output files to a folder
- type: file
# Naming pattern of files to store.
# Tokens ({{DATE}}, {{TIME}}, {{SOURCE}}, and {{PLATE}}) are replaced with
# dynamic values.
pattern: './data/images/{{DATE}}/{{SOURCE}}/{{TIME}}_{{PLATE}}.jpeg'
# Files older than retainDays will be removed.
retainDays: 30

# RESTful service to alter this yaml file. Please note that this service
# will end up stripping out the comments.
restService:
# Defaults to true
enable: true
# Port # for the service to run on.
port: 4000
```

## Usage ##

### SQLite ###

Enabling the sqlite recorder will save the detected plate information into a
SQLite database file (`./data/database.db`). Reporting & analytics queries can
be run against it.

### MQTT ###

Enabling the MQTT recorder will publish detected plate information to the
`plate-minder` base topic. The following subtopics are available:

`plate-minder/detect` contains a JSON string containing the most recent
detection info:

```json
{
"epoch_time": 1640031280937,
"results": [
{
"plate": "ABC123",
"confidence": 89.232658,
"matches_template": 0,
"plate_index": 0,
"region": "",
"region_confidence": 0,
"processing_time_ms": 18.699596,
"requested_topn": 10,
"coordinates": [
{
"x": 510,
"y": 516
},
{
"x": 698,
"y": 516
},
{
"x": 698,
"y": 611
},
{
"x": 508,
"y": 611
}
],
"candidates": [
{
"plate": "ABC123",
"confidence": 89.232658,
"matches_template": 0
}
]
}
]
}
```
`plate-minder//plate` contains the most recently detected plate
number.

`plate-minder//image` contains a JPEG image of the most recently
detected plate number.

`plate-minder//roi` contains a cropped JPEG image of the region of
interest where the plate was detected.

`plate-minder//timestamp` contains the epoch timestamp (includes
milliseconds) of the plate detection.

### File ###

Enabling the file recorder will store images with a plate detected to disk. A
customizable dynamic file path is used to keep the images organized.

Given:

1. a source name of "Southbound"
2. a date of "2021-12-25", a time of "1:30:27.123PM"
3. a detected plate number of "ABC123"
4. a file pattern of
`./data/images/{{DATE}}/{{SOURCE}}/{{TIME}}_{{PLATE}}.jpeg`

The resulting file path would be:

`./data/images/2021_12_25/Southbound/13_13_27_123_ABC123.jpeg`

`retainDays` Sets the number of days images should be kept. After expiring,
images and their folders will be removed automatically.

### Home Assistant ###

Assuming Plate-Minder is sending data to your MQTT broker, the following entites
should be auto-discovered per video source:

*Please note that entities will not appear until the first license plate has
been detected.*

* `sensor._plate`
* `camera._image`
* `camera._roi`
* `sensor._timestamp`
* `image._image`
* `image._roi`

Picture entity card & entities card examples:

![Home Assistant Example](/images/home_assistant.png)

## Hardware Acceleration ##

### Intel Quicksync ###

1. Add the `/dev/dri/renderD128` device to your `docker-compose.yaml` file.
```yaml
plate-minder:
...
devices:
# For Intel related hardware acceleration
- /dev/dri/renderD128
```
2. Determine the group that `/dev/dri/renderD128` belongs to:
```bash
$ ls -l /dev/dri/renderD128
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 128 Jan 24 23:03 /dev/dri/renderD128
```
In the above case, the device belongs to the "render" group.
3. Get the group id:
```bash
$ getent group render
render:x:107:
```
In the above case, the group id is "107".
4. Set the group id that the docker container user will run as.
```yaml
plate-minder:
...
# For Intel related hardware acceleration, the container needs the same
# group id as /dev/dri/renderD128.
user: 1000:107
```
5. Set `preInputArgs` and `preOutputArgs` for each video source you have set in
your `config.yaml`:
```yaml
sources:
...
- type: rtsp
...
# FFMPEG arguments to apply before the input argument. This can be used for
# several things. In this example, we are leveraging Intel's QuickSync for
# hardware decoding of an h264 stream.
preInputArgs:
- -hwaccel
- qsv
- -c:v
- h264_qsv
# FFMPEG arguments to apply before the output argument. This can be used for
# several things. In this example, we are leveraging Intel's Quicksync for
# hardware encoding of the MJPEG stream.
preOutputArgs:
- -c:v
- mjpeg_qsv
```

### Nvidia NVENC ###

TODO: Find a kind soul with the appropriate hardware willing to work this out.

### AMD ###

TODO: Find a kind soul with the appropriate hardware willing to work this out.
## Common Problems ##

> The plate-minder container keeps crashing. What do?

The plate-minder process runs internally as uid 1000 and **not as root**. This
is for your security. This is also usually why things are going poorly.

Any volumes you mount in the container that plate-minder writes to need to be
writable by uid 1000. The best way to do this is to set uid 1000 as the owner
of those volumes.

For example, if you want to mount `/path/to/plate-minder/data`, you need to
first make sure that the path actually exists. Next you need to make sure it's
owned by uid 1000:

```bash
chown 1000 /path/to/plate-minder/data
```

> The web UI is just an empty page.

Plate Minder's web UI is written against the latest versions of web-browsers.
Please update your browser and try again.

> The web UI loads, but there's an error dialog that says "Failed to fetch".

The most likely reasons are:

* You are trying to view the web UI from a different computer and didn't update
the `PLATE_MINDER_URL` environment variable in your docker-compose.yaml file.
* The plate-minder service isn't running.
* Your feet stink.
* Two of these reasons are inappropriate.

> RTSP Stream is not loading

If you're certain you've got the camera configured correctly, give this a shot.
Some users have reported issues with getting an RTSP stream working. For them,
forcing FFMPEG to use TCP solves their issue.

Add the following `preInputArgs` to the camera source:
```yaml
sources:
...
- type: rtsp
...
# FFMPEG arguments to apply before the input argument. This can be used
# for several things. In this example, we are forcing ffmpeg to use tcp
# on the camera's RTSP stream.
preInputArgs:
- -rtsp_transport
- tcp
```

## Thanks ##

This project has been a pleasure to develop due largely to standing on the
shoulders of giants.

* [Docker](https://www.docker.com/)
* [FFMPEG](https://ffmpeg.org/)
* [jellyfin-ffmpeg](https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-ffmpeg)
* [Git](https://git-scm.com/)
* [MQTT.js](https://github.com/mqttjs)
* [node.js](https://nodejs.org)
* [node-sqlite](https://github.com/kriasoft/node-sqlite)
* [node-sqlite3](https://github.com/mapbox/node-sqlite3/)
* [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/)
* [OpenALPR](https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr)
* [OpenCV](https://opencv.org/)
* [Sharp](https://github.com/lovell/sharp)
* [VSCode](https://code.visualstudio.com/)