Racal Electronics Plc’s Racal Radio Ltd unit has launched a new camera sytem that reads vehicle number plates and is claimed to have a wide range of potential uses from security to road traffic monitoring: the system, called Talon, uses neural network technology for pattern recognition and is claimed to read registration plates by day or night and to function even if the plates are dirty or skewed; the company reckons that it would generate ?700m of business if it were to be used in a road pricing system for the 2,000 miles of UK motorway; Cambridge Neurodynamics Ltd, an engineering company that specialises in research into pattern recognition, helped with the design.
