ALPR Pop Quiz: Can a License Plate Reader Work in This Situation?

An ALPR system's high speed cameras can do a lot of things very quickly. They can read hundreds of license plates per minute, capture contextual photos of vehicles, translate the image of a plate into alphanumeric characters, and ultimately aid in solving crimes and locating missing persons. Most systems can read plates day or night, in all types of weather conditions, and many manufacturers advertise they read plates from all 50 states in the U.S. and most foreign countries. 

But can they see through obstacles like this one below? 

Pop quiz: Do you think the ALPR system that captured this image was able to read the plate behind the "oversize load" banner? 

Answer: It worked. The banner had just enough opacity that the license plate reader was able to still capture the plate, pictured below. 

What else can it do? See these FAQs about LPRs.