Connecting mobile Sharp units to Genetec Patroller™ - Genetec Patroller™ 6.6

Sharp units are automatically added to the in-vehicle network so they can capture license plates and send the data to Genetec Patroller™ and Security Center.

1. Open Genetec Patroller™ Config Tool.
2. Go to the Cameras page. The default IP addresses for the connected camera units is displayed.
   • Default port for ALPR module ports 1 and 2: 192.168.10.1
   • Default port for ALPR module ports 3 and 4: 192.168.10.2

   
3. Make sure each camera in the Units list has the correct orientation. To do this, click on a camera, click the Edit button (), and then change the orientation of the camera to match where it is located on the vehicle.
   IMPORTANT: Do not modify the camera names. They are case sensitive and must appear exactly as shown: Lpr Camera and Lpr Camera 2.

   

   NOTE: Depending on the hardware installed, you might see up to two cameras (SharpZ3) or four cameras (SharpX) controlled by a single unit. For more information on camera options, see the Deployment Guide for your SharpX or SharpZ3 system.

   Tip: Tap Video () to verify that you have correctly configured the camera orientation.
4. If you want to manually add a Sharp camera instead of using the automatic discovery feature, click the Create button (), and do the following:
   1. Under Unit, enter the Sharp unit's IP address, for example, 192.168.10.1, or the Sharp name as it appears on the base unit’s label, for example, Sharp1234.
      Depending on the hardware options, SharpX or SharpZ3 systems can contain one or two SBCs (Single Board Computers) which are referred to here as Units.

      Hardware	Options	SBC (unit)	Cameras per SBC (max)
      SharpZ3	2-camera ALPR module	1	2
      	4-camera ALPR module	2	2
      SharpX	X1S or X1SU ALPR Processing Unit	1	4
      	X2S or X2SU ALPR Processing Unit	2	2

   2. When more than one camera is connected to an SBC, click the Create () button to add additional cameras.
      IMPORTANT: Enter camera names as “Lpr Camera” and “Lpr Camera 2” (case-sensitive).
   3. Choose the camera’s orientation from the drop-down list.
5. Click Pause reads on startup if you want to start Genetec Patroller™ with plate reading paused.
6. For patrol vehicles that are configured with forward-facing and rear-facing cameras, you can Fuse reads from multiple cameras to improve the capture rate and read rate. If the vehicle includes front and rear-facing cameras, enabling this feature associates the cameras that might read the same license plate. This means reads from both left-facing cameras are fused and reads from both right-facing cameras reads are fused.

   You might want to configure read fusing if license plates in on-street parking are sometimes missed because vehicles are parked too close together. When read fusing is activated and two Sharp cameras read one or both of the vehicle's plates, only the best plate read from the two fused cameras is kept. The other plate read is discarded.

   IMPORTANT: To fuse reads, you must enable the Give a confidence score for reads feature in the Analytics section of the Sharp Portal Configuration page.

   NOTE: When this feature is enabled, there is a short plate read delay which allows both cameras to read the plate and then display the image with the best confidence score. You can configure how long the system waits for the second plate read (Maximum latency default: 3 seconds) in the Advanced configuration page.
7. Configure the Minimum confidence score.

   You might want to configure a minimum confidence score if you notice too many incorrect reads. License plates that contain similar characters such as 8 and B are more difficult to read and generally produce reads with a lower confidence score.

   The Sharp camera assigns a numerical value (from 0 to 100) to each license plate read, indicating how confident the Sharp is in the accuracy of the read. Genetec Patroller™ ignores reads that are below the minimum confidence score you define.

   IMPORTANT: For the confidence score analytic to be available in Genetec Patroller™, the analytic must first be enabled in the Sharp Portal.

   NOTE: Setting the minimum confidence score to 0 (default) accepts all plate reads and hits.

   To decide on an appropriate setting, you can view the confidence score of plate reads in the following ways:

   • Configure Genetec Patroller™ to display the confidence score with all reads and hits in the Cameras - Analytics tab in Genetec Patroller™ Config Tool.
   • Add Confidence Score (case sensitive) as an annotation field in Security Center so that you can query it in Security Desk reports. For more information, see Adding user custom fields to reads and hits in the Security Center Administrator Guide.
8. (Optional) Configure the Camera exposure on startup.
   In general, higher exposure is for darker environments, and lower exposure is for brighter environments.
   NOTE: Sharp cameras have auto-exposure capability that compensates for different plate reflectivity, as well as exterior ambient light. You shouldn’t need to change the default value for this setting.
9. Click Apply.