Copyright 2024 V0LT - Conner Vieira
The ultimate customizable dashcam/license plate recognition platform.
While Predator is designed to be stable and reliable, you should not depend on it for safety or security critical tasks. See the SECURITY.md document for more information.
Downloads for stable releases of Predator can be found here.
Installation, set-up, and usage documentation can be found in the DOCUMENTATION.md file.
Predator is a customizable camera platform focused primarily on license plate recognition in an automotive context. Predator is similar to a traditional dash-cam, but adds license plate recognition, object identification, motion detection, and many more features. It can detect license plates and recognize objects in both pre-recorded video and real-time video streams, or simply capture video like a typical dash-cam. Predator strives to be the ultimate dash-cam platform for both technical hobbyists and customers with unique needs.
Predator is an extremely versatile platform, and supports several different modes to better support all situations and use cases.
Management mode isn't a primary mode of Predator, but it allows the user to configure, maintain, and manage Predator from within the program.
Pre-recorded mode allows Predator to analyze pre-recorded video, and detect license plates and objects.
Real-time mode allows Predator to detect license plates and objects in real-time video streams.
Dash-cam mode allows Predator to record video without running any analysis or computer-vision processing.
Since Predator is open source, self hosted, offline, and self contained, you can rest assured that it's completely private, and that it doesn't share any of the information it collects.
Predator works entirely offline, and never needs to connect to the internet to function. All internet based functionality is entirely optional and non-critical to normal operation.
Predator, and all of its dependencies, are free and open source from top to bottom, meaning you can study how it works, make changes, and distribute it to others freely.
By design, Predator doesn't require specialized hardware to run. While higher resolution cameras will obviously yield better results, any video format supported by FFMPEG will work with Predator.
While being technically minded will certainly help, Predator doesn't require professional installation or setup to function. As long as you're reasonably experienced with the Linux command line, setting up Predator should be a piece of cake.
Predator is extremely customizable, making it easy to fit into any use case. Whether you want an intelligence security camera, or a powerful dashcam device, Predator can be adjusted to fit your needs.
Predator is designed to support low-energy-usage hardware such that it can be easily installed in a vehicle. A single USB port is enough to power an entire Predator system.
Predator supports GPX files to allow for correlating license plates detected in pre-recorded video to their physical coordinates. This makes information gathered from analyzing long streams of dashcam video much more useful and effective.
Predator supports customizable real-time alerts, allowing the user to be notified when a license plate matching one on a list is detected through audible sound alerts, visual cues, and push notifications!
Predator is designed to be safe, regardless of the installation context. It's easy to configure Predator to completely hands (and eyes) free, ensuring that you don't have to look away from the road when Predator runs in a mobile context.
Predator comes with a fully featured dash-cam mode, allowing for customizable ecording without processing license plates. Dash-cam videos can later be processed by Predator in pre-recorded mode if desired. Predator's dash-cam mode allows for multi-channel recording, provided the hardware supports it, making it easy to simultaneously record multiple angles using multiple cameras.
While Predator comes with a straight-forward command-line interface, it can be fully configured to run in headless mode, without any user interaction necessary. This makes it perfect for vehicle installations, where the driver wants Predator to automatically start when the vehicle turns on.
In addition to license plate scanning, Predator also supports general object recognition. It can collect a list of common objects and save them to a file, making it easy to find important events.
Predator's extreme customizability can be a bit overwhelming to new users. For this reason, Predator is extensively documented, and comes bundled with step-by-step guides on how to download, install, configure, and run it.
While it shouldn't be fully relied upon for safety critical tasks, Predator is designed to be extremely dependable regardless. When configured appropriately, steps are taken to decrease the likelihood that Predator will false negative due mistakes in the analysis.
Predator automatically adapts to changing lighting conditions in both real-time and dashcam mode by allowing the frame-rate to change dynamically over time. Predator automatically detects frame-rate changes, and updates the playback speed of saved video files accordingly.
Predator supports automatic parking dashcam functionality, where recording stops when the vehicle is parked, until motion is detected. This allows Predator to run continuously while only capturing important events on video.
In dash-cam mode, when parking mode is active, Predator will keep a video buffer of customizable length at all times. This means that Predator can go "back in time" when motion is detected, and save the last few seconds of video retroactively.
When operating in real-time mode, Predator can display alerts when it detects a plate found in a configured database.
While operating in pre-recorded mode, Predator can analyze any video, including dashcam video. Note that the screenshot below is for demonstrative purposes, and shows what kinds of information Predator can detect. It does not accurately reflect the Predator user interface.
After scanning through an entire pre-recorded video based on user-configured preferences, Predator can display and export all of the plates it detected.
