How to detect vehicle license plates in photos in Python

First install the client using pip installer:

pip install git+https://github.com/Cloudmersive/Cloudmersive.APIClient.Python.ImageRecognition.git

Next call recognize_detect_vehicle_license_plates:

from __future__ import print_function
import time
import cloudmersive_image_api_client
from cloudmersive_image_api_client.rest import ApiException
from pprint import pprint
# Configure API key authorization: Apikey
configuration = cloudmersive_image_api_client.Configuration()
configuration.api_key['Apikey'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
# Uncomment below to setup prefix (e.g. Bearer) for API key, if needed
# configuration.api_key_prefix['Apikey'] = 'Bearer'
# create an instance of the API class
api_instance = cloudmersive_image_api_client.RecognizeApi(cloudmersive_image_api_client.ApiClient(configuration))
image_file = '/path/to/file' # file | Image file to perform the operation on.  Common file formats such as PNG, JPEG are supported.
try:
    # Detect vehicle license plates in an image
    api_response = api_instance.recognize_detect_vehicle_license_plates(image_file)
    pprint(api_response)
except ApiException as e:
    print("Exception when calling RecognizeApi->recognize_detect_vehicle_license_plates: %s\n" % e)

Here is a quick example image and output:

{
  "Successful": true,
  "DetectedLicensePlates": [
    {
      "LocationX": 638,
      "LocationY": 770,
      "Width": 128,
      "Height": 62,
      "LicensePlateText_BestMatch": "G402205",
      "LicensePlateText_RunnerUp": "G40ZZ05",
      "LicensePlateRecognitionConfidenceLevel": 0.8761985778808594
    }
  ],
  "DetectedLicensePlateCount": 1
}

As you can see, we are provided with the number of total license plates, a best guess and second guess of the license plate string, it’s location and dimensions, and a confidence rating of the text recognition.