Leonardo ELSAG
🇮🇹 Italy — US ALPR arm (ELSAG)
The vendor that dropped the plate: SignalTrace builds "electronic fingerprints" from the wireless devices in your car — and as a passive receiver, it's invisible to radio certification.
The company
An Italian defence and aerospace giant, partially owned by the Italian state; the ELSAG ALPR line is run by its US subsidiary. US agencies; defence-contractor parent (Italy).
The platform: EOC + SignalTrace
The back office (Enterprise Operations Center) plus the system that drops the plate entirely: SignalTrace fingerprints the wireless devices in and around a vehicle.
- Device co-travel. Leonardo's own marketing: "identify groups of consumer electronic devices that routinely travel together" — Convoy Analysis for your Bluetooth.
- Plate-optional. Their words: works "with or without license plate readers."
- Certification-invisible. A receive-only sensor needs no radio authorization — there is no FCC or ISED paper trail for it, by design of the rules.
📎 On the record: No confirmed paying customers yet — a product looking for its first buyer.
Sources: Leonardo's SignalTrace page (their own claims) · 404 Media on SignalTrace · Forbes on EOC Plus (2024, no customers) · Independent RF analysis (O'Horo)
The hardware — model by model
Mobile Plate Hunter (MPH900)
In-car: dual roof cameras + trunk processor
- Radios
- Cameras radio-free. The company's only FCC certification ever is a 2009 2.4GHz Wi-Fi access point inside the trunk processor (FCC ID VTFADM3)
- Imaging
- Dual colour+IR CMOS, 1280×1024; reads at up to 150 mph closing speed; GPS-tagged reads
- Power
- Vehicle 12V
- Notes
- Seventh-generation product line.
Sources: FCC grant VTFADM3 (2009 processor Wi-Fi AP) · ELSAG mobile product page · ELSAG product catalog (PDF)
Street Sentry
Solar pole-mounted fixed ALPR
- Radios
- None in the camera — "cellular connectivity in a weatherproof utility box": an off-the-shelf router with its own certification
- Imaging
- AI LPR camera, GPS-tagged reads
- Power
- Solar + battery
Sources: Street Sentry product sheet (PDF)
Covert line
Disguised fixed units
- Radios
- Per unit configuration
- Imaging
- Cameras + processing in disguised housings
- Power
- Independent power
- Notes
- From ELSAG's own catalog: pole cameras disguised as weathered utility boxes, toolboxes, cargo carriers — plus radar/message-board trailers.
Sources: ELSAG product catalog (covert solutions section, PDF)
SignalTrace sensor
Passive RF device-signature sensor
- Radios
- Receive-only — captures identifiers from phones, Bluetooth wearables, RFID tags/key fobs, tire-pressure sensors, car infotainment. No FCC/ISED filing exists because passive receivers need none
- Imaging
- None — pairs with (or works without) a co-sited plate camera
- Power
- Not disclosed
- Notes
- Independent RF analysis suggests the visible antennas support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 915MHz RFID — not every claim in the marketing.
Sources: Leonardo's SignalTrace page · Independent RF analysis (O'Horo) · The Drive: expert analysis of the claims
⚠ See the antenna problem: the fastest-growing capability class has no certification trail and no retention statute anywhere mentions it. Sources: Leonardo's SignalTrace page
Every specification above traces to a certification filing, teardown, carrier device listing, or the vendor's own datasheet — the full paper trail with links lives in the open research base.