OK! I'm seeing what you have done. ummm, it sounds interesting, tell me what kind of equipment you need?
Umm, looking at the project you have defined here, I personally think that all you need it just a simple , oh no may be not simple, but a good camera. ummm, of course the movement of the plate can cause problem however I think that it can be solved. then, looking at the other parts of your system, I think that there is no need to any special equipment, except a good CPU , Matlab, and ? what more? aowww, of course a good programmer, plus some amount of experience on neural networks and image processing. please tell us, where is the problem exactly.
thanks.