Career Episode 2

Introduction:

2.1 This career episode imitates my experience in project while I was studying in seventh
semester of my undergraduate degree in Telecommunication. This project report was submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of Bachelor of Science. The title of
project is “Automated barrier system for fake vehicles”. The project started in January 2, 2006 and
completed in Feb 2, 2007. The project was based on digital image processing, database, security and
mechanical automation.

Background:

2.2 University of Lahore was established 1999.University of Lahore (UOL) has created a
name for itself in the field of higher education and is regarded as one of the premier private
sector General Universities of Pakistan with diverse disciplines ranging from Medicine and
Engineering to the Arts and Social Sciences. University of Lahore (UOL) has more than 13000
students across four ‘purpose built’ campuses in Lahore and Islamabad with students
reading in seven diverse faculties. It is chartered with “W” ranking with the Higher
Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and accredited by Pakistan Engineering Council,
Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and The Pharmacy Council of Pakistan against
respective faculties and courses. Its engineering campus is located at 1-km, Raiwind Road,
Lahore, Pakistan.

2.3 My career episode further elucidates that detection of fake/unregistered vehicles

with just 1 input which was number plate and performing vehicle authenticity by analyzing
database. The system, here, thus refers to generate alarm if fake / unregistered vehicle tend
to enter through barrier and also control the opening and closing of barrier. The Project was
carried out in the Electrical & Electronics laboratory of the Electrical Engineering
Department. The laboratory comprised of Oscilloscopes, digital multi-meters, work stations
loaded with Windows operating systems various other electrical & electronic components
like transistors, Op-amps, Diodes, SCRs etc. During the whole phase of the project, I
supervised the other team members in order to keep the project progressing in the right
direction. I also had the responsibility of contributing to the design phase of the project. It
gave me opportunity to work within team. I was appointed as Team leader of the project
and was responsible to report and interact with my Supervisor on behalf of my team.

2.4 The scope of this project was to detect unregistered vehicles at entry point of any
main city barrier and then generate automated alarm and control the opening and closing of
barrier. These vehicles might be involved in crime and non-custom paid etc. Generally, it
was an automated networked security system to detect fake vehicles and control the entry
of such vehicles. The system consisted several components Capturing device, display system
alarm, barrier, database, Network security stations. I first implemented the database of
vehicles in which added following characteristics against each registration number.
1. Manufacturer Company (Toyota, Suzuki etc.)
2. Year of manufacturing.
3. Color
4. FIR in any Police station ( Vehicles was theft or not , yes or no)

Problems and douching to solve:

1. Vehicle having fake registration number.
2. Vehicle having FIR.

2.5 The below mentioned hierarchy gives a glimpse of my standing as Team Leader
under the supervision of Project Supervisor. Having good repute among my classmates, I
was selected as Group Leader for this project. In UOL, I learnt a lot about team work and
coordination of different departments to carry out a successful project. I also got a chance
to work with specialists from different engineering disciplines which really helped to add to
my knowledge.

Usman Raza
Team Member

Mr Ramzan
Dean Supervisor M.Asif iqbal Sohail Bashir
Head of
Mr Rauf Malik Mr Zeshan khan Team Leader Team Member
Department

Abid Ghafoor
Team Member

2.6 My responsibilities were:

 Preparation of project Plan.
 Assign different task to my group members and I was also upfront if there was any
problems to be discussed about the project with our supervisors.
 Planning and execution of the design constraints for automated networked security
system.
 Preparing and submitting detailed design to my Supervisor.
 To gather all components required for project.
 Noting and devising the solution of minor and major problem occur during the project.
 Compilation of report as well as preparation of complete slide for presentation.
 Coordination and integration of all components.
 Preparing a final report.
Work Place Activities:

2.7 At First I devised the strategy by considering the major steps with subsequent
specific steps and actions which were required to accomplish objectives and finally the
target. I tried to manage all these activities according to priority, time and responsibility by
assigning priority number to each activity, its starting, ending date and the person
responsible to carry out those particular tasks. In this connection I also prepared
Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). Finally I became successful in preparation of
strategy. In a kick off meeting, I discussed this plan with my Supervisor and team member.
After getting approval of the strategy, I inquired their interests and detailed the tasks
among my team mates accordingly.

2.8 For myself, I selected the most challenging part of designing where I had to design
fast security automated system which took input from plate registration. Following my
strategy, I divided my project in stages and encompassed my scope of work. In early stage I
worked and developed on new algorithm to number detection. In second stage, I worked on
the system to generate information as model, maker name, and color, city of registration,
owner name etc. and then display on monitor. At third stage I came up with new research
based algorithm for database searching and data mining. The last work of the system was to
control barrier and alarm on the bases of security policies for example if the vehicle was
non-registered then generate alarm and control the barrier.

2.9 It was Research and development project which required intensive and in-depth
study. So, I consulted library of my college to take help from books besides taking useful
information from internet. As a daunting tasks, I faced various problems which I solved by
employing my engineering as well as general knowledge. For instance, one problem that I
faced was to capture number plate in different timings. Because day light conditions varied.
In day it produced illuminations; blur in input image which effects in detecting characters of
number plate. I did brainstorming and outlined various options including changing of
sensors etc. but I resolved this problem by using new LPR algorithm with Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) technology and color segmentation which reduces blur effects in images.

2.10 The other problem encountered was with Graphical User Interface (GUI). It was
challenge to design User interface. The security staff at Pakistan Ordinance Factory (POF)
was not highly skilled to use computer so for those people interface had to be very user
friendly. I finalized the design by taking input from end user/ security staff.

2.11 The detection of vehicle number plate was challenging issue in different conditions,
environmental, vehicle character, illumination during data acquisition, Segmentation of the
plate characters and recognition of each character. There was a need for a common
platform where different methods could be evaluated based on execution time, percentage
of false alarm, percentage of detection and recognition rate. I used MATLAB to sort out blur
and color image and did character recognition in different color condition. From the sample
data, I calculated the mean, standard deviation and variance of hue, saturation and
intensity. The important part dealt with the conversion of the blur colored image to
readable image. The RGB color model consisted of three basic colors namely red, green and
blue.

2.12 One of the most important factor involved in this project was cost and reliability of
project. I performed various cost calculation including equipment cost etc. and link
budgeting of the project.

2.13 While project execution, I followed general safety rules not only for equipment but
also for personnel involved. For instance, during installation I implemented all necessary
safety procedure, use proper tools, standard power and Ethernet cables, use safety gloves,
dress, and hazard boards on walk ways during work. All cables and equipment tested and
fixed up to mark.

2.14 The team work during the project was quite co-operative and productive in relation
to achieve the objectives of the project. Our HOD and Supervisor were also co-operative
towards me hence I did not face any project delaying problem. Being part of active member
of team, I led the project with my other team member, installed and commissioned all the
devices properly and secured at once.

2.15 Though, there were some productive arguments and discussions for the successful
execution of the project, all the team members have taken it seriously and did not have any
problem with any team members. I tried to take some pleasure out of the team work and
learned how to deal with the team members in a lucid and striking manner. Overall, I found
that our team was quite dynamic and had capability to tackle any problem without having
any pressure.

2.16 I introduced online surveillance and group generated messages which directly sent
to special person who was in group list in any security threat and possible risk of negligence
of duty person on entrance.

2.17 In the end of project, I composed my findings in the form of report along with my
group mates which I later on submitted to project advisor for assessment.

2.18 This project provided me an opportunity to realize the significance of applying

theoretical knowledge in practical engineering applications. I was successful in
understanding and implementing theories in practical aspects and their problems. This
experience helped me to improve my analytic abilities and troubleshooting. It made me
more responsible and gave me an excellent exposure and confidence of handling the
project. Beside this; it was the example of perfect team work and successfully resembles the
importance of team spirit for successful outcome. I was involved in all aspects of the project
right from the beginning to the end. In general it was a very good learning experience and
will be helpful to do any project in an effective and efficient manner in future.

Summary:

2.19 This was an opportunity to implement theoretical knowledge to achieve the

objectives of project. I think it was a good project which can be used for more security
purpose as well. It required the thorough understanding of various digital image processing
techniques and databases and troubleshooting ability for the successful outcome of the
operation. The project went very good without any major problem and successful
implementation of the project justified its practical application at entry point of vehicle at
POF wah.