Patent Application
20150063646
Embodiments are generally related to the field of parking management. Embodiments are also related to mobile communication devices and applications thereof. Embodiments are additionally related to image assisted parking space management.
A balance between supply and demand must be determined to meet the parking requirements of motorists. The ability to efficiently allocate and manage on-street parking remains elusive, even when parking requirements are significant, recurring, and known ahead of time. For instance, urban parking spaces characteristically undergo periods of widely skewed demand and utilization, with low demand and light use in some periods, often during the night, and heavy demand and use at other times. Real-time parking occupancy detection systems are an emerging technology in parking management.
Some prior art parking occupancy detection approaches utilize a puck-style sensor configuration that outputs a binary signal when detecting a vehicle in, for example, a parking stall or a particular parking spot.
On-street/curbside parking space reservation systems have also been proposed based on inputs from in-ground sensors. Such prior art parking space management and reservation systems are based on the use of binary sensor input data for determining parking spot availability only. Hence, customers are unable to preview the parking space before making a reservation or arriving at the desired parking spot.
Video-based parking occupancy detection systems, an example of which is shown in
The ability to identify a vehicle in an on-street parking situation is technologically difficult. In-ground sensor technology is inheritably not capable of identifying vehicles with precision. It is difficult even for video-based parking occupancy detection technology because once a vehicle is parked there is not always a good angle for a camera to take an image of the vehicle's license plate. One previous suggestion involved using one camera to capture the license plate of a vehicle before (or after) parking while another to track the vehicle to (or from) its parking position. However, robust vehicle tracking at street traffic condition is still an open and difficult research topic.
Vehicle identification is important for on-street parking management applications such as an automatic parking payment system where a user is allowed to set up an account for parking. Correct association of a parking vehicle with its account is crucial for charging the correct amount of parking fee to the user. Correct association between parking vehicles and parking accounts is important also for municipal authorities as on-street parking violation enforcement is an important problem and is also a great source of revenue for municipalities, cities, local governments etc.
Another proposed involves identifying the parking vehicle and associate it with an pre-arranged payment method. An in-car device that incorporates GPS and additional sensors can be installed inside the vehicle. This in-car device acts as an identifier among other vehicles in the area. While this solution solves the problem of identifying each parking vehicle, it has several drawbacks, First, a user's privacy may be compromised as the vehicle is forced to include the device all the time, and someone else other than the user knows where the user is all the time, Obviously, many users may not like this method. Secondly, the solution requires participating garages or street blocks to give a GPS location boundary map to know when a participating vehicle enters the boundary.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the disclosed embodiments and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
It is, therefore, one aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for an improved parking management methods and systems.
It is another aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for an improved system that utilizes video-based parking occupancy detection technology and mobile communication devices and wireless networks.
The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can now be achieved as described herein. Methods, systems and processor-readable media are disclosed for identifying a vehicle for street parking management. An initial identification of one or more vehicles detected parked along a street can be generated based on one or more of a group of factors. The initial identification can be communicated to a user of the vehicle by transmitting an image indicative of the vehicle parked along the street (e.g., via a mobile communications device). An operation can then be implemented for requesting a confirmation or a non-confirmation as to whether the vehicle detected and displayed on the image is associated with the user. Upon confirmation, an operation can be implemented for identifying the at least one vehicle as the initial identification. Upon non-confirmation, an operation can be implemented to query to identify the vehicle associated with the user from among a group of vehicles displayed via the image.
The disclosed embodiments utilize particular video-based parking occupancy detection technology (“VPODT”) as well as mobile technology to accurately identify a parked vehicle. The disclosed approach generally includes the following steps: (1) detecting vehicles parked on a street side or within a street block using our VPODT; (2) the customer or user (either pre-registered or registering for a parking account) sends a “start parking” message to initiate the parking session using his/her mobile device (or a vehicle on-board wireless communication device); (3) the VPODT matches at least one feature among a plurality of features for the detected vehicle to the vehicle profile from registration and the “start parking” message using GPS location, time stamp, vehicle color, and vehicle size.; and (4) a confirming image of the matched vehicle can be sent to the user's mobile device for review. If the association is accurate, the user's account will be debited; if not, the user selects the appropriate association. After correct association, the camera can monitor parking duration for the user. The exact parking fee based on duration can be charged to the user's account.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the present invention and, together with the detailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
a), 11(b), and 11(c) illustrate a user interface of a mobile communications device specifically varying screens displayable for permitting a user to verifying a detected vehicle, select the vehicle, and verifying initation of a parking session, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments; and
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
The embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the invention are shown. The embodiments disclosed herein can be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The disclosed embodiments employ video-based parking occupancy detection technology as well as the mobile/wireless communication technology to accurately identify a parking vehicle. The disclosed embodiments generally include a number of steps or logical operations. For example, an operation can be provided detecting vehicles parked on a street side or within a street block using the disclosed video based parking occupancy detection technology. The user/driver, who is already registered (or registering) for a parking account, can send a “start parking” message to initiate the parking session using his/her mobile device (or a vehicle on-board wireless communication device). Additionally, a step or logical operation can be provided to closely match features for one of the detected vehicles to the vehicle profile from registration and the “start parking” message using GPS location, time stamp, vehicle color, and vehicle size. The image of the closely matched vehicle can then be sent to the user's mobile device to ask if this is his/her vehicle. If yes, this vehicle is associated to the user's account. If no, an image of a larger section of the street is displayed and the user is requested to identify his/her vehicle in the image. User interlace tools such as sliding, re-sizing, pointing, etc., can be applied. Once the vehicle is identified, it is associated with the user's account. After correct association, the camera can monitor the parking duration for the user and an exact parking fee can be charged to the user's account.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the disclosed embodiments can be embodied as a method, data processing system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entire hardware embodiment, an entire software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all generally referred to herein as a “circuit” or “module.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, USB flash drives, DVDs, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, etc.
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language (e.g., JAVA, C++, etc.). The computer program code, however, for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages such as the “C” programming language or in a visually oriented programming environment such as, for example, Visual Basic.
The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to a user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), wireless data network e.g., VViFi, WiMax, 802.11x, and cellular network or the connection can be made to an external computer via most third party supported networks (e.g., through the Internet via an internet service provider).
The embodiments are described at least in part herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, systems, and computer program products and data structures according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the illustrations, and combinations of blocks, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block or blocks.
As illustrated in
The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, general description of suitable computing environments in which the system and method may be implemented. Although not required, the disclosed embodiments will be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions such as program modules being executed by a single computer. In most instances, a “module” constitutes a software application.
Generally, program modules include, but are not limited to: routines, subroutines, software applications, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types and instructions. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the disclosed method and system may be practiced with other computer system configurations such as, for example, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, data networks, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, networked personal computers, minicomputers, mainframe computers, servers, and the like.
Note that the term module as utilized herein may refer to a collection of routines and data structures that perform a particular task or implements a particular abstract data type. Modules may be composed of two parts: an interface, which lists the constants, data types, variable, and routines that can be accessed by other modules or routines, and an implementation, which is typically private (accessible only to that module) and which includes source code that actually implements the routines in the module. The term module may also simply refer to an application such as a computer program designed to assist in the performance of a specific task such as word processing, accounting, inventory management, etc. In one embodiment, module 252 can store and implement, for example, the instructions or steps shown in
The interface 253, which is preferably a graphical user interface (GUI), can serve to display results, whereupon a user may supply additional inputs or terminate a particular session. In some embodiments, operating system 251 and interface 253 can be implemented in the context of a “windows” system. It can be appreciated, of course, that other types of systems are possible. For example, rather than a traditional “windows” system, other operation systems such as, for example, a real time operating system (RTOS) more commonly employed in wireless systems may also be employed with respect to operating system 251 and interface 253.
Then, as described at block 64, a step or logical operation can be implemented for requesting a confirmation or a non-confirmation as to whether the vehicle(s) detected and displayed on the image is associated with the user (or particular users). Upon confirmation (i.e.<“YES”) as shown at decision block 65, a step or logical operation can be implemented as indicated at block 66 for identifying the vehicle(s) as the initial identification or part of the initial identification process. Upon non-confirmation (in response to a “NO” with respect to decision block 65), a step or logical operation can be implemented as depicted at block 68 for querying to identify the vehicle(s) associated with the user(s) from among a plurality of vehicles displayed via the image. The process can then terminate, as shown at block 69. Note that detection of the vehicle(s) occurs via, for example, a camera located with respect to a street (see, for example, the images shown in
As indicated previously, one of the features of the disclosed embodiments involves the ability to closely match features for one of the detected vehicles to the vehicle profile from registration and the “start parking” message using GPS location, time stamp, vehicle color, and vehicle size. Note that one of the principal advantages of the disclosed approach stems from the implementation of graphical feedback, which is described in greater detail in the next several paragraphs. The reliability of information provided by the vehicle color and size may be limited.
Another feature of the disclosed embodiments involves the ability to send the image of the closely matched vehicle to the user's mobile device to ask if this is his/her vehicle. If yes, an operation can be implemented to associate this vehicle to the user's account; if no, an image of a larger section of the street can be displayed and the user can be requested to identify his/her vehicle in the image. Mobile user interface tools such as, for example, sliding, re-sizing, pointing, etc., can be applied. Note that while in most cases where the closely matched vehicle is the correct vehicle, it is possible mismatches may occur even with added color and size as differentiators. For example, it would be difficult to distinguish two close colored and sized vehicles coming to park next to each other in space and time. To be absolutely sure (i.e., a requirement for account based parking payment system) that the right vehicle is associated with the right account, this step is preferably required.
a), 11(b), and 11(c) illustrate how this step can be accomplished.
Alternatively, the server can send a SMS to the user with the image and a message such as the one shown in
Note that throughout the following discussion, numerous references may be made regarding servers, services, engines, modules, interfaces, portals, platforms, or other systems formed from computing devices. It should be appreciated that the use of such terms are deemed to represent one or more computing devices having at least one processor configured to or programmed to execute software instructions stored on a computer readable tangible, non-transitory medium or also referred to as a processor-readable medium. For example, a server can include one or more computers operating as a web server, database server, or other type of computer server in a manner to fulfill described roles, responsibilities, or functions. Within the context of this document, the disclosed printers, assemblies, or space craft are also deemed to comprise computing devices having a processor and a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor that cause the device to control, manage, or otherwise manipulate the features of the assemblies.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
