An Illegal Dumping Detection System Based on Image Processing in OpenALPR

Tipping or depositing large waste onto land using unauthorized and unlicensed methods are considered as illegal dumping. The increasing rate of illegal dumping becomes a crucial nation issue because this activity causes negative impacts to social, economy and environment. Thus, study on detecting the dumping activities is conducted to control the illegal dumping activities in Malaysia. Raspberry Pi with Python language is used as the microprocessor and a Raspberry Pi camera module with a microwave radar sensor are interfaced to it to capture the image of any vehicles entering the illegal dumping site. The image is captured to recognize the license plate of the vehicle. The method in this study is by using Open Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR), Open Computer Vision (CV) libraries and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to detect the character of the plate registration number. The outcome of the study consists of recognition of Malaysia vehicles’ plate number and the automatic real time email notification on the illegal dumping case. The detection system can be used for case monitoring since the plate number recognition is done in real time. The system can be upgraded to ensure its sustainability in the harsh and isolated environment.