Palace allows highway robbery?
Posted on January 4, 2010 - Filed Under Governance
Despite efforts by Piston and Bayan Muna to block the Land Transportation Office (LTO) from implementing its radio frequency identification (RFID) program, the LTO has started requiring all vehicle owners to install stickers containing a microchip that stores information about them and their vehicles. Each set of stickers costs P350 per vehicle.
At first glance, the LTO’s main objective appears to be justifiable: Empower its field agents and the PNP to solve car theft and other transport-related cases faster than their so-called old method, since it would facilitate detection of anomalies in vehicle information. But one wonders if LTO chief Arturo Lomibao and the Palace . . . which had said in Ocober last year that it would ask the LTO to reconsider the program due to alleged irregularities that former socioeconomic planning chief Ralph Recto had pointed out . . . had really done their homework before going ahead with this absolutely unnecessary burden on the the driving public. You see, a quick Google check would have pointed out to them that there’s an alternative that would cost vehicle registrants nothing.
That alternative is called Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) from PlateScan, a US-based firm. According to their website, digital license plate images are automatically captured as each vehicle passes a special camera that can be either mobile or fixed. The plate numbers can then be automatically cross-checked in real time against local, regional and, if necessary, national databases to identify vehicles that are of interest to authorities. Needless to say, carnapped vehicles would be spotted instantly, allowing appropriate and immediate action.
So what’s the key difference between ALPR and RFID? Unlike RFID, PlateScan’s technology does not require vehicle owners to install stickers with microchips.
PlateScan claims that it achieves its high level of accuracy through the use of neural networks, an artificial intelligence-like capability that enhances their system’s ability to recognize, interpret and report suspecious plate reads . . . all in a matter of seconds.
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