ANPR or LPR: What is the difference?

Sometimes we come across cases where completely different terms are used to describe similar processes;  but in the tech world, “similar” is far from being “the same”; when it comes to precise figures that imply less or more performance (money), you will have to dig deeper until you understand even the slightest difference.

This is the case of the two terms: ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) vs. LPR (License Plate Recognition); are they the same thing, or are there hidden subtle differences?; let’s dig.

ANPR and LPR are two acronyms generally referring to the capacity to capture photographic video or images from license plates and transform the optical data into digital information in real-time. 

It would help if you didn’t waste time looking for the differences, so we will start with the technical aspect; in this order of things, the answer is YES: ANPR and LPR refer to the same process… BUT!

Learn more about what is LPR/ANPR

Some more delicate aspects of this duality may interest those looking for the best way to implement this growing and powerful technology.

The primary source of the discrepancy between the use of LPR and ANPR terms comes from the fact that this technology is used in at least four different application fields with very different cultures and histories.

We have discovered that the acronym ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) is mainly used in Europe and British English Tolling and Security fields; meanwhile, LPR (License Plate Recognition) is widely used in the U.S. Parking industry. 

The second source comes from differences in the preferred terminology of the provider; U.S. providers will more likely use “LPR” to describe what they do (whatever they do), while European providers will prefer ANPR. 

The third and more important is related to the evolution of LPR/ANPR: There are significant differences in the underlying technology and capability of each commercial solution on the market. Different providers or operators may call LPR or ANPR to what they do, even if it’s different from others.

For example, in the traditional Access Control business, some use LPR to refer to “cameras that read license plates AND THEN get connected” to a server with an” ANPR software” to transform images to text, distinguishing between the camera and the server.

Some Chinese providers call LPR a simple CCTV camera with conventional/generic OCR software.

For us, ANPR or LPR is an integrated function of ONE specialized ANPR / LPR Camera that can read, process and transmit the LPR data in real-time without needing any other hardware. The only difference is that we use LPR to talk to the American market and ANPR to talk to the European market.

As you can see, if you are not well-informed, LPR/ANPR can mean either a complex and expensive set of triggers, cameras and servers, a cheaper set of generic equipment or a specialized all-in-one camera! 

The differences between these types of solutions in terms of performance/cost/benefit are huge! You will want to be aware of them; we are talking about thousands of dollars more or less to achieve the same.

The benefits of specialized All-in-One LPR cameras are hard to ignore:

• Much Lower costs: Avoiding triggers and servers represents considerable savings in infrastructure.
• Much More Accuracy: focused on License plates, LPR cameras’ AI-powered firmware delivers higher accuracy rates in less time than generic OCR cameras.
• Lower Network footprint: Sending processed digital data (No more than 50K per log) instead of a constant VIDEO stream represents enormous savings on data transmission, more stability, and, therefore, fewer chances of failure.
• Easy and cheap to scale: To extend the installation, add more LPR cameras, not servers or software licenses.
• Robustness: By having independent, serverless LPR cameras on each lane, widespread failures are unlikely to happen. 

Read more about our unique take on LPR technology applied to our cameras

Whether you call it ANPR or LPR, All-in-one cameras are the best solution if you are looking forward to integrating this technology into your site.