Character Segmentation with Bounding Box Filtering on Indian License Plates

Abstract

This paper presents a simple but effective method to segment characters through contour detection by filtering out contours of imperfections, but retaining that of the characters. This is done by filtering bounding boxes based on their height. The approximate height at which most bounding boxes lie is selected and those bounding boxes are retained, while the rest are filtered out. This method has significant potential in the application of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems. Compared to vertical project, which is the most common way to segment characters, this method is more versatile and provides better accuracy.