My uncle is a cop in DC and he says >90% of the hits on plates are for the same number but a different state. Is there any work in identifying the state a license plate is from? Just the style is often enough to narrow it down, despite the fact that most license plate frames partially or totally cover up the state name.
> My uncle is a cop in DC and he says >90% of the hits on plates are for the same number but a different state. Is there any work in identifying the state a license plate is from?
As is so often the case, it seems like it'd be easier to move ourselves to the machine, by including the state information in the code. If a code can only belong to one state, this problem just can't arise.
It's possible but not necessary. License plates already feature non-overlap -- a standard California plate is 2AAA222, while a New Mexico plate is AAA222. Neither template can be confused for the other.
> a standard California plate is 2AAA222, while a New Mexico plate is AAA222.
And the New Mexico AAA222 pattern is currently shared with Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, one of the optional Michigan designs, Mississippi, one of the Montana designs, some Nebraska plates, North Carolina, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Vermont, and the US Virgin Islands.
To be fair, only NC, OK, and PR share NMs use of a dash between the alpha and numeric portion.
Virginia used to issue in that pattern, with a dash between. Then they ran out and added a 4th digit. However, there are plenty of VA plates still around with the old pattern.
I’m. It aware if efforts to identify same plate, different state. If the data quality is so good you’re getting exact same plate different states, that is impressive.
Instead, I’d look at vehicle type identification. There is at least one startup selling an API that determines make / model info that when combined with license plate you would very likely find unique data.
