we are looking to trial some form of Machine Vision solution to identify stenciled numbers on moving objects - identifying numbers on a train or wagon.
These numbers are using two predefined fonts and 0-9, so 20 different possibilities in total, and up to 4 digits per image.
The camera can be positioned where-ever it needs to be to take a decent photo, and will be used day and night so some form of lighting will be provided, probably in the form of some small led as power will be 'interesting' at the proposed sites - IR is another option.
I would be looking to only send the the number, not the image through to a Arduino or Raspberry Pi for further uploading back to our servers - no storage of images would be required or wanted.
If this could be done on the fly as these objects come into vision (video) could be the preferred option rather than do post processing after a still image is taken, as triggering an image would be additional equipment and smarts involved.
The wagons would be moving - up to max 15K/h but more like 5-10K/h- so something on the fly would be most beneficial.
I have had a look around here and there is work toward number recognition, I am wondering how that is progressing and or if it would be an option for stencil based numbering.
Below is a sample of what numbers I would like to retrieve, please note the two different fonts, mainly noticeable on the last of the sequence.
At the present time, it would not be cost effective to put QR codes on each, and with the limited quantity of April tags available, that too would not work, unless there were two per wagon as we have close to 2000 wagons in the fleet.
Thank you,
Isiman