Best Practice Guide for Tire Sidewall Data Capturing (on Cloud API)

Low light reduces the contrast of the image, making it harder to separate the characters from the background.

Make sure that the image was taken under good and consistent lighting conditions. Avoid shadows or reflections in the image.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good Lighting Conditions	Open Bad Lighting Conditions

To achieve more accurate results and a better overall scanning experience, please ensure that the image has the tire directly in line and not angled incorrectly. If the angle is too low or too high, the characters may not be as clear to get an accurate read.

Also, avoid using angles where any textured backgrounds could surround the scannable area.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good Camera Positioning	Open Bad Camera Positioning

Make sure that the focus of the shot is on the tire. Improper focus caused by a poor auto-focus or incorrect handling will result in a blurry image.

Likewise, make sure that no strong image compression is applied to the image. As a rule of thumb, the DOT number must still be readable after zooming in on the image.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good In-Focus Image	Open Bad Out-of-Focus Image

If the object is too far away, it makes it all the more difficult to get a clear reading on the Tire Side Wall.
Always ensure to keep the Tire within a clear and readable range, to ensure an optimal scanning experience.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good Distance	Open Bad Distance

Position the tire in the centre of the image, making sure that the tire is completely in the image and not cut off. Make sure that only one tire is visible in the image. The image should be taken as parallel as possible to the tire.

Make sure that the background of the shot is as neutral as possible and that the tire stands out well against the background. Avoid particularly bright objects in the background or backlighting.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good Tire Positioning	Open Bad Tire Positioning

Make sure that relevant information on the tire is clearly visible and not covered by dirt. Damage that makes relevant information unreadable will degrade the reading rate.

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice

Correct Practice	Incorrect Practice
Open Good clear image with no damages	Open Bad unclear image with dirt

Make sure your users are taking good pictures. For example, show good and bad examples, or show an instruction video before they take the image in the process. Since the method of capturing (described in the "Quality Drivers" section) has a great influence on the quality of the results, it is important to instruct the users well.

Among other things, you can place an overlay of a tire over the camera stream in the image capture process that will help both your website visitors and workers to aim correctly and therefore take the perfect picture. This can increase the likelihood that you gather all tire sidewall info.

Our Anyline experts are happy to consult you during the integration process to ensure the best possible user experience for your users.

It is completely up to you to use or display only the information that is required for your use case. To optimise the user experience of your application, you should only use the information that is actually needed.