Hi all - I’m new here and new to raspberry pi. I have a project I’d like to build over the next few months for use in a kayak race event later this year. I would like to have a camera capture images which can then have the race number extracted off them and put into a database. The idea being to keep track of which boats have passed a checkpoint. The system is part of the safety framework of the event, not for race timing, although ideally the database will also extract the location and time that the image was captured.
The kayaks have a vertical race number on a plastic card that is attached to the boats. The race is in the bush so the only text in the images will be on the kayaks, and the camera will be up to 20m away from the kayaks when the images are taken. I’m thinking about using a GoPro Hero 4 Black or Session 5 as I already have both those units available for the task.
As I said at the outset, I’m new to this. I have tinkered around with an arduino starter kit and I build drones for work and as a hobby, so I have some basic skills but very little code knowledge. I’ve been searching via google and I’ve found a lot of stuff on number plate recognition, which seems like a good place to start.
Any help, guidance or pointers gratefully accepted! I’d like to build something rather than buy a system, it’s as much to learn as it is to have a working system.
If anyone is in Melbourne with the time, skills and knowledge to guide me through this, I’d love to hear from you…
Cheers,
Adam