Improved Projection Algorithm for License Plate Characters Segmentation

An improved projection algorithm was put forward in the process of segmentation of license plate characters. According to the feature that trough created by the projection of space between the second and third character was very stable, the trough was detected as the starting point for locating the left and right boundary of characters. According to the feature that the width of license plate characters was fixed, when one side of the boundary of characters was located, a value was jumped firstly and then the other side of the boundary was located by traditional projection algorithm. The experimental result shows that compared to traditional algorithm, improved projection algorithm is not sensitive to the noise of things at left and right sides of license plate. And it can correctly segment the Chinese character with left-right or left-center-right structure.