NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
Summer 2010 - Computer Vision and Multi-Agent Systems
Department of Computer Science, Utah State University

  Name:

  Nathan Woods

  Major:

  Computer Science and Mathematics

  School:

  Carroll College

  Home Town:

  Columbia Falls, Montana

  About Me

  I am a second year, Computer Science - Mathematics major and playing football for the Carroll College Fighting Saints. I grew up in Columbia Falls, MT as an only child with two wonderful parents. Hiking and biking through Glacier National Park was my main source of outdoor fun in the Flathead Valley.

Even though I am a CS and Math major and am naturally attracted to sitting in front of a computer for extended periods of time, there are many things to do around. I had a ton of fun enjoying the outdoor fun that Logan, Utah has to offer. Hiking and just working out outside were my main sources of outdoor entertainment. Some other things available are rock climbing and biking.

  Project

  This summer, I researched license plate recognition, or more specifically, license plate localization. The process of license plate recognition consists of two main parts. With an input of a live video feed or static pictures, first find a license plate in the picture (license plate localization) then convert the sub-image to plain text. My work is based off of Shen-Zheng Wang and His-Jian Lee's work in A cascade Framework for a Real-Time Statistical Plate Recognition System. The main focus of their work was to grab as many possible license plates in a picture and eliminate possibilities later using properties of a license plate and conditions of surrounding areas of license plate.

  Results

  I proposed an algorithm that uses a searching technique to find concurent columns in pictures in order to find a license plate. This searching technique looks for similar sized parallel and vertical lines in a similar region on an image that has been processed to exaggerate vertical changes. More in depth results can be found in my final presentation or final project.

  Contact

  Feel free to contact me at: