# Find characters in the resulting images
def segment_characters(image) :

    # Preprocess cropped license plate image
    img = cv2.resize(image, (333, 75))
    img_gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
    _, img_binary = cv2.threshold(img_gray, 200, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY+cv2.THRESH_OTSU)
    img_erode = cv2.erode(img_binary, (3,3))
    img_dilate = cv2.dilate(img_erode, (3,3))

    LP_WIDTH = img_dilate.shape[0]
    LP_HEIGHT = img_dilate.shape[1]

    # Make borders white
    img_dilate[0:3,:] = 255
    img_dilate[:,0:3] = 255
    img_dilate[72:75,:] = 255
    img_dilate[:,330:333] = 255

    # Estimations of character contours sizes of cropped license plates
    dimensions = [LP_WIDTH/6, LP_WIDTH/2, LP_HEIGHT/10, 2*LP_HEIGHT/3]

    # Get contours within cropped license plate
    char_list = find_contours(dimensions, img_dilate)

    return char_list