Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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ANPR 'chaff' car wrap

Car wrap to confuse number plate recognition systems
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ANPR or ‘Automatic Number Plate Recognition’ systems are used to enforce traffic regulations and catch felons. (I don't advocate this, it's more of a thought experiment)

The idea is to design a custom wrap pattern for your car that resembles many many standard registration plates enough to overload the ANPR algorithm. The algorithm would run out of time trying to find the actual registration plate amongst the many decoys.

The pattern could not simply be other registration plates as this would break the law. But it could be lots of collections of different sized numbers and phrases in various colours, or even shapes resembling numbers and letters.

A machine vision equivalent of chaff if you like.

This idea has been baking for some, but I was reminded of it by the recent story of the driver issued with a bus lane contravention fine due to a woman with a T shirt sporting the phrase ‘KNITTER’ walking in it. His registration was KNIG TER

It may work in other countries too with careful design.

Over time the ANPR designers might modify their algorithms to detect the car shape, thus enabling them to concentrate processing power in the actual number plate location. A further countermeasure would then be required to disguise the outline of your vehicle. A kind of automotive Ghillie suit. Which maybe be achieved by inserting polystyrene shapes under the wrap before it is heat-shrunk on. Note: this may adversely affect drive-ability and fuel economy.

TonyDeaf, Oct 25 2021

SQL injection https://hackaday.co...clears-your-record/
[hippo, Oct 26 2021]

Dazzle Camouflage https://en.wikipedi...i/Dazzle_camouflage
[bs0u0155, Oct 26 2021]

Berlin Camouflage https://commons.wik...y:Berlin_camouflage
[Frankx, Oct 26 2021]

[link]






       I mean it would work fine right up until the machine learning algos got hold of all of the recaptcha database of "all squares with license plates.   

       But more to the point the most likely immediate result would be flagging as "deliberate avoidance" and the full image would be passed over to a human for identification.
MechE, Oct 25 2021
  

       The next stage is where the human exception- handler's attention is caught by a message which seems to emerge from all those letters.   

       Wait; that gives me an idea ...
pertinax, Oct 25 2021
  

       //Privacy advocates will probably groove on it too.//   

       Grooving so hard my feet fell off and I'm grooving on bloody stumps
Voice, Oct 25 2021
  

       (+) hmmmmm...   

       I asked a Mountie friend what he wrote down when a car was missing plates. He said 'No Plate'. I asked what he would write if I had a custom plate 'NOPLATE' and he was flummoxed. I thought better of it and sure enough a few years later I saw someone in the States had the same idea. Every speeding fine or criminal inquiry within his state was automatically sent to his address by the DMV computer system whenever the suspect vehicle had 'no plate'.   

       Having said that, this is an interesting idea but a human might be able to parse it where the ANPR system wouldn't.
AusCan531, Oct 26 2021
  

       Groovy!
xenzag, Oct 26 2021
  

       + yes privacy advocates and * piratey* advocates… me!
xandram, Oct 26 2021
  

       Next level - SQL injection (see link)
hippo, Oct 26 2021
  

       // A further countermeasure would then be required to disguise the outline of your vehicle.//   

       Or some version of WW1 "Dazzle camouflaged". <link>
bs0u0155, Oct 26 2021
  

       “What tank?”   

       [link]
Frankx, Oct 26 2021
  
      
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