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I started building ALPR and speed detection systems for my house based on RTSP feed. I kind of want to finish this with an outdoor TV that has a leaderboard of

I started building ALPR and speed detection systems for my house based on RTSP feed. I kind of want to finish this with an outdoor TV that has a leaderboard of the drivers that drive the fastest and their license plate in public display on my property, but visible to the street. In part to make my neighbors aware of how powerful ALPR technology is now, but also many of my neighbors should slow the heck down. I am not sure how popular this would be, but also I kind of like starting the right kind of trouble :)

p_ing 9mo ago
There is a sign put up by the county on a downward hill with some nice curves in it. It _used_ to display your speed but that was removed in favor of just flashing "Slow Down" once people used it to see how fast they could navigate the bends.
- bitexploder 9mo ago
  Unintended consequences. Maybe it can just be annoying and show each car its count of speed 10mph over the limit as they pass
kortex 9mo ago
Hilarious! If i didnt already have too many projects and hobbies, this is the kind of thing i'd do. Maybe not a speed leaderboard, that just seems like a challenge to choon heads. But perhaps a "violation count". Also toss in a dB meter for loud exhaust (again dont make it a contest). Edge compute with alpr/face/gait/whatever object detection at the camera is basically solved. Genie is out of the bottle. I think the most fruitful line of resistance is to regulate what can be done with that data once it leaves the device.
- bitexploder 9mo ago
  I am the loud exhaust. Where we live the noise pollution is not a concern and I have no complaints around that. Many of my neighbors have lifted trucks and go vroom cars. Ironically the performance cars are the nicest drivers :)
  - kortex 9mo ago
    I get it, I used to drive a GTI. I don't mind just loud exhaust by itself, as long as they are tuned well. It's the pops/crackling/backfires that set off all the neighborhood dogs and sound like they split the air that are a scourge around here. These folks also are the ones driving like maniacs in inappropriate contexts.
varenc 9mo ago
If you're in CA, I learned recently that any use of automatic license plate recognition here is regulated and has a bunch of rules. Technically just turning on the ALPR feature in your consumer level camera is illegal if you don't also do things like post a public notice with your usage and privacy policy. The law is a bit old and seems like it was written under the assumption that normal people wouldn't have access to ALPR tech for their homes. I suspect it gets very little enforcement. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB34 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...
- Karrot_Kream 9mo ago
  Cities in CA also often put their own ALPR restrictions on btw so you'll want to check both state and local laws.
  - bitexploder 9mo ago
    I feel if you have a camera on your property with a view of public spaces they have a losing argument. I doubt none of that holds water constitutionally. This is first amendment protected. If you are filming a public space with no expectation of privacy the government has no constitutional authority to restrict you if you are retaining the data private and never sharing it. So far the only legal area that matters is the government itself being regulated in how they use ALPR since they are the entity that can actually infringe upon constitutional rights.
    - LocalH 9mo ago
      I fail to see how passively recording a space that you don't own is "first amendment protected". Passively recording a space isn't in and of itself speech.
      - 15155 9mo ago
        I can photograph and publish whatever I am allowed to see in public (with very few exceptions - think Naval Air Station Key West), this has been affirmed and reaffirmed by countless courts. The best part about publishing? You have no right to question when, how, or if I am going to do it - that discretion is also free speech.
AdamJacobMuller 9mo ago
I'm curious what does your hardware/software stack look like for your ALPR system?
- bitexploder 9mo ago
  It is very janky. The speed camera I have an old Core i5 that is running YOLOv8 on the integrated GPU and it can just /barely/ handle 30FPS of inference. The code is all Python and vibe coded (for science). The speed camera needs a perpendicular view to work best for how I set it up (measuring two reference points with a known distance). So the ALPR camera is separate and I basically just buffer video and built this ultra janky scheme where I call an HTTP endpoint and it saves the last few seconds and then I batch process to associate the plate later in the web app. It is all CSV and plain files; this is a perfect append only DB scenario. Eventually it will need the wonders of the big data format SQLite probably, but I am sure Claude will know what to do ;) The long term solution would be to have a proper radar circuit and two cameras facing both road directions to capture the rear plate as people often don't use front plates here even though they are required to by law. (the point, though, is you don't need a lot of GPU power to do say YOLOv8 inference on the pre-trained models) and OpenCV makes this all pretty darn easy.
hypercube33 9mo ago
Look up the YouTube on project Argus that uses drone cameras in like 2010 or something. every moving object inside a city is classified, identified and tracked in and out of buildings, cars and that's just the declassified part. I've talked to people who've told me or shown me a lot more wild systems they've built for retail decades ago to track user product interactions then tied it to loyalty and credit cards so they know what you looked at vs purchased and how long and mood age etc just from video. tie all that to public data or purchased or given data and it's basically game over for being anonymous.

p_ing 9mo ago

There is a sign put up by the county on a downward hill with some nice curves in it. It _used_ to display your speed but that was removed in favor of just flashing "Slow Down" once people used it to see how fast they could navigate the bends.

bitexploder 9mo ago
Unintended consequences. Maybe it can just be annoying and show each car its count of speed 10mph over the limit as they pass

kortex 9mo ago

Hilarious! If i didnt already have too many projects and hobbies, this is the kind of thing i'd do. Maybe not a speed leaderboard, that just seems like a challenge to choon heads. But perhaps a "violation count". Also toss in a dB meter for loud exhaust (again dont make it a contest). Edge compute with alpr/face/gait/whatever object detection at the camera is basically solved. Genie is out of the bottle. I think the most fruitful line of resistance is to regulate what can be done with that data once it leaves the device.

bitexploder 9mo ago
I am the loud exhaust. Where we live the noise pollution is not a concern and I have no complaints around that. Many of my neighbors have lifted trucks and go vroom cars. Ironically the performance cars are the nicest drivers :)
- kortex 9mo ago
  I get it, I used to drive a GTI. I don't mind just loud exhaust by itself, as long as they are tuned well. It's the pops/crackling/backfires that set off all the neighborhood dogs and sound like they split the air that are a scourge around here. These folks also are the ones driving like maniacs in inappropriate contexts.

varenc 9mo ago

If you're in CA, I learned recently that any use of automatic license plate recognition here is regulated and has a bunch of rules. Technically just turning on the ALPR feature in your consumer level camera is illegal if you don't also do things like post a public notice with your usage and privacy policy. The law is a bit old and seems like it was written under the assumption that normal people wouldn't have access to ALPR tech for their homes. I suspect it gets very little enforcement. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB34 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...

Karrot_Kream 9mo ago
Cities in CA also often put their own ALPR restrictions on btw so you'll want to check both state and local laws.
- bitexploder 9mo ago
  I feel if you have a camera on your property with a view of public spaces they have a losing argument. I doubt none of that holds water constitutionally. This is first amendment protected. If you are filming a public space with no expectation of privacy the government has no constitutional authority to restrict you if you are retaining the data private and never sharing it. So far the only legal area that matters is the government itself being regulated in how they use ALPR since they are the entity that can actually infringe upon constitutional rights.
  - LocalH 9mo ago
    I fail to see how passively recording a space that you don't own is "first amendment protected". Passively recording a space isn't in and of itself speech.
    - 15155 9mo ago
      I can photograph and publish whatever I am allowed to see in public (with very few exceptions - think Naval Air Station Key West), this has been affirmed and reaffirmed by countless courts. The best part about publishing? You have no right to question when, how, or if I am going to do it - that discretion is also free speech.

AdamJacobMuller 9mo ago

I'm curious what does your hardware/software stack look like for your ALPR system?

bitexploder 9mo ago
It is very janky. The speed camera I have an old Core i5 that is running YOLOv8 on the integrated GPU and it can just /barely/ handle 30FPS of inference. The code is all Python and vibe coded (for science). The speed camera needs a perpendicular view to work best for how I set it up (measuring two reference points with a known distance). So the ALPR camera is separate and I basically just buffer video and built this ultra janky scheme where I call an HTTP endpoint and it saves the last few seconds and then I batch process to associate the plate later in the web app. It is all CSV and plain files; this is a perfect append only DB scenario. Eventually it will need the wonders of the big data format SQLite probably, but I am sure Claude will know what to do ;) The long term solution would be to have a proper radar circuit and two cameras facing both road directions to capture the rear plate as people often don't use front plates here even though they are required to by law. (the point, though, is you don't need a lot of GPU power to do say YOLOv8 inference on the pre-trained models) and OpenCV makes this all pretty darn easy.

hypercube33 9mo ago

Look up the YouTube on project Argus that uses drone cameras in like 2010 or something. every moving object inside a city is classified, identified and tracked in and out of buildings, cars and that's just the declassified part. I've talked to people who've told me or shown me a lot more wild systems they've built for retail decades ago to track user product interactions then tied it to loyalty and credit cards so they know what you looked at vs purchased and how long and mood age etc just from video. tie all that to public data or purchased or given data and it's basically game over for being anonymous.