The team at QRO Solutions were approached recently by Louise Smyth of the globally published Traffic Technology International (TTi) magazine.  Louise has been writing an article about ANPR (or ALPR – Automatic License Recognition Systems) and invited QRO to comment on a number of areas. The 5 page article can be read in full in the October/November 2007 edition of the magazine, and here are a couple of extracts that make for interesting reading:

\"Continual references in the mainstream press to ‘Big Brother’ and how society is veering toward some kind of ‘Orwellian dystopia’ are frustrating. A recent talking point to be adorned with such comparisons, in the UK at least, was the possibility of a national DNA database. It’s lazy journalism and guilty parties should be sent to Room 101. The comparison is not even particularly apt – a Catch-22 analogy seems more appropriate. With reference to our roads, a Joseph Heller-style conundrum works well. We want free-flowing traffic, criminals removed from the road, cheaper car insurance, and the threat of terrorism dissolved – yet we appear equally desirous of personal freedom, liberty and the ‘right’ to live our lives free from omnipresent surveillance. Education and logic are key: do the advantages of potential systems outweigh the disadvantages? In the field of ALPR, it’s a no-brainer. As much as the moral issues surrounding ALPR are interesting, the business side is also intriguing. Some companies in the field offer complete systems from software engine to camera, while others buy in components and tailor products to their own individual needs (badge engineering).

QRO Solutions … works closely with police authorities in the UK and abroad. … “Our products provide an integrated approach to security, allowing the output of numerous ALPR systems to be monitored in one location by a small team of staff,” explains QRO’s Vic Way. “Using mobile phone technology, the output of several ALPR systems can be linked to security control rooms, allowing vehicles entering a specific area to be screened in real time, and providing information to officers should a breach occur.” As well as portable solutions, QRO systems are also installed permanently to provide surveillance of strategic points on the roads network.\"

For further information about the ANPR solutions which the QRO team can implement for you please call Vic Way or Gary Austin at the Northampton office on (01604) 781 890.