Image Recognition: License plate scanners

The technology manufacturing cycle is at work with license plate (tag) scanners - decreasing prices lead to more sales and deployments, which lead to further cost decreases and so on.  We've all seen it with personal computers, cell/mobile phones, DVD players, flat screen displays, and a multitude of other devices.  Now this market force is at work with license plate scanners , which are now being deployed on police cars.  The scanners are automating what was before a completely manual process - namely running stolen tag numbers and such - and doing it much faster.