i was trying to implement an ANPR algorithm in matlab. I will try to follow this simple algorithm proposed by rodrigoap in comments
What are good algorithms for vehicle license plate detection?
first I applied the Sobel operator and then masked all the image with an image of a plate (with the Sobel operator applied too). The region of maximum coincidence is where the plate is. Then apply an OCR to the selected region to get the number.
my question is: what does masking an image mean?
does it mean to convolve it with the whole image or does it mean to simply look for the portion of the image where the difference between the subimage and the test number plate is minimum?
your help will be highly appreciated. Thanks