Patent Application
20150073880
1). Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a metered parking system and its method of use.
2). Discussion of Related Art
Various metered parking systems exist in the art. A parking provider may for example have meter units at parking spaces and a user may pay at the respective meter unit using cash or a credit card. Alternatively, a parking lot may have a central kiosk where a user can purchase parking time for display on a dashboard of their vehicle.
A parking provider often controls parking by providing a mobile parking unit that an attendant can use remotely from a server to determine whether parking has been paid for by a respective vehicle or for a particular parking location. This allows the attendant to determine whether a ticket or a fine should be issued.
Paying by cash can be cumbersome because a user may not have the exact change to enter into a meter unit or kiosk. Credit cards are also restrictive in that many people do not own credit cards. When paying by cash or credit card it is also necessary to interact with a particular meter unit or kiosk, which does not allow for a user to increase their parking time when away from the meter unit or kiosk.
The invention provides a method of processing a payment for parking with a billing server including receiving, with the billing server, a charge Application Programmable Interface (API) call from a parking server at the billing server, the charge API call including a custom text, an amount to be billed and a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network-Number (msisdn), charging, with the billing server, an account at a carrier server corresponding to the msisdn for an amount that is based on the amount in the charge API call, transmitting, with the billing server, a billing result to the parking server to indicate that the account has been charged and transmit, with the billing server, a parking confirmation text message to the user mobile phone at the msisdn, the parking confirmation text message including the custom text.
The invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable medium having a set of instructions thereon that are executable by a processor of a computer to carry out a method of processing a payment for parking with a billing server including receiving, with the billing server, a charge Application Programmable Interface (API) call from a parking server at the billing server, the charge API call including a custom text, an amount to be billed and a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network-Number (msisdn), charging, with the billing server, an account at a carrier server corresponding to the msisdn for an amount that is based on the amount in the charge API call, transmitting, with the billing server, a billing result to the parking server to indicate that the account has been charged and transmit, with the billing server, a parking confirmation text message to the user mobile phone at the msisdn, the parking confirmation text message including the custom text.
The invention further provides a billing server for processing a payment for parking comprising a processor, a computer-readable medium connected to the processor and a set of instructions on the computer-readable medium, the set of instructions being executable by the processor. The set of instructions includes a billing server charge method Application Programmable Interface (API) receiving a charge API call from the parking server at the billing server, the charge API call including a custom text, an amount to be billed and the msisdn, a carrier billing module charging an account at the carrier server corresponding to the msisdn for an amount that is based on the amount in the charge API call, wherein the billing server charge method API transmits a billing result to the parking server to indicate that the account has been charged and a short message service (SMS) code processor transmitting a parking confirmation text message to the user mobile phone at the msisdn, the parking confirmation text message including the custom text.
The invention is described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
A plurality of carrier Short Message Service (SMS) networks 24 are provided. The user mobile phone 12 is connected over one of the carrier SMS networks 24 to the parking server 14 and the billing server 16. The relevant carrier SMS network 24 belongs to the same carrier as one of the carrier servers 18. The relevant carrier server 18 monitors traffic over the relevant carrier SMS network 24. SMS text messages traveling through the carrier SMS network 24 can be augmented by the carrier server 18 with an identification of the respective carrier server 18. The billing server 14 can identify the respective carrier server 18 from the carrier identifier in the text message.
The billing server 16 is connected over the Internet 26 to the parking server 14 and to the carrier servers 18.
The billing server 16 includes a billing gateway 34. The billing gateway 34 has an SMS short code processor 38, a billing server charge method Application Programmable Interface (API) 40, a carrier identification module 42, and a carrier billing API 44. The SMS short code processor 38 are connected over the carrier SMS network 24 in
The parking server 14 includes an SMS long code processor 46, a merchant server charge method API 48, parking time management module 50 and a clock 52. The SMS long code processor 46 is connected over the carrier SMS network 24 in
The carrier server 18 has an accounts database 54. The accounts database 54 holds a plurality of accounts, each account being identified by a respective msisdn. In the present example the carrier server 18 has a direct billing API 56 that is connected over the Internet 26 in
The sign 20 includes a parking identification in the form of “17*SPACE” that represents a particular parking space that a user of the user mobile phone 12 wishes to occupy. The sign 20 includes instructions to text the parking identification to a long code “415-123-1234.” In another example, the parking identification may be a zone number, a space number, a license plate number or a combination thereof. The sign 20 also states that a particular time interval will be purchased for a particular amount, in the present example one hour (1 hr) and $2.00, respectively. In another example, the sign 20 may display other time intervals, for example a garage day pass, a 24 hour time period, etc.
The parking request text message 58 is received with the SMS long code processor 66 of the parking server 14. The long code in the parking request text message 58 is used by the parking server 14 to identify the particular parking location 22 in
At 62, the parking server 14 invokes the merchant server charge method API 48 to make a charge API call to the billing server charge method API 40 of the billing server 16. The charge API call 62 includes the msisdn, an amount and a custom text. The custom text is generated by the parking time management module 50. For example, if the message is forwarded at 60 at a time 12:35 pm on Jun. 14, 2013, then the parking time management module 50 calculates an expiration time that is equal to the time that the message is forwarded at 60 plus the time that is indicated on the sign 20. The expiration time will thus be 1:35 pm on Jun. 14, 2013. The custom text will then include “You paid $2.00 for 1 hr parking, zone 17 with Mobile Parking Co. Valid until 1:35 PM 6/14.”
The charge API call transmitted at 62 is made to a dedicated Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the billing server 16.
At 64, the billing server 16 invokes the SMS short code processor 38 to transmit an authorization request to the user mobile phone 12. The authorization request may for example indicate that the user of the user mobile phone 12 should send a reply text with “Y” to a short code of the billing server 16.
At 66, the user enters “Y” and using the SMS application 32 transmits an authorization text message with the authorization “Y” to the billing server 16. The short code processor 38 of the billing server 16 receives the authorization text message and invokes the carrier identification module 42 and the carrier billing API 44. The carrier identification module 42 identifies a select carrier among the carrier servers 18 in
The direct billing API 56 of the carrier server 18 receives the charge request transmitted at 68 and attempts to charge an account corresponding to the msisdn 30 of the user mobile phone 12. If the carrier server 18 is successful in charging the respective account in the account database 54, then the direct billing API 56 at 70 returns a charge confirmation to the billing server 16. Only if the billing server 16 receives the charge confirmation 70 does the billing server 16 at 72 transmit a billing result to the parking server 14 and at 74 transmit a parking confirmation text message to the user mobile phone 12.
Table 1 shows request parameters for the charge API call at 62 in
The parking confirmation text message 74 includes the custom text received at 62. In the present example the parking confirmation text message 74 includes the text “Valid until 1:35 PM 6/14.”
As further shown in
The various components shown in
The memory 1020 may include high-speed random access memory and may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memory devices. Access to the memory 1020 by other components of the user mobile phone 12, such as the CPU 1200 and the peripherals interface 1180, is controlled by the memory controller 1220.
The peripherals interface 1180 connects the input and output peripherals of the device to the CPU 1200 and memory 1020. The one or more processors 1200 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructions stored in the memory 1020 to perform various functions for the user mobile phone 12 and to process data.
The RF (radio frequency) circuitry 1080 receives and sends RF signals, also called electromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry 1080 converts electrical signals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates with communications networks and other communications devices via the electromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry 1080 includes well-known circuitry for performing these functions, including an antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner, one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. The RF circuitry 1080 may communicate with networks, such as the Internet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranet and/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The wireless communication may use any of a plurality of communications standards, protocols and technologies that are known in the art.
The audio circuitry 1100, the speaker 1110, and the microphone 1130 provide an audio interface between a user and the user mobile phone 12. The audio circuitry 1100 receives audio data from the peripherals interface 1180, converts the audio data to an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to the speaker 1110. The speaker 1110 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves. The audio circuitry 1100 also receives electrical signals converted by the microphone 1130 from sound waves. The audio circuitry 1100 converts the electrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data to the peripherals interface 1180 for processing. The audio circuitry 1100 also includes a headset jack serving as an interface between the audio circuitry 1100 and removable audio input/output peripherals, such as output-only headphones or a headset with both output (e.g., a headphone for one or both ears) and input (e.g., a microphone).
The I/O subsystem 1060 connects input/output peripherals on the user mobile phone 12, such as the touch screen 1120 and other input/control devices 1160, to the peripherals interface 1180. The I/O subsystem 1060 includes a display controller 1560 and one or more input controllers 1600 for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers 1600 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input or control devices 1160. The other input/control devices 1160 may include physical buttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, slider switches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth all serving as forming part of an interface. The input controllers 1600 may be connected to any of the following: a keyboard, infrared port, USB port, and a pointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons may include an up/down button for volume control of the speaker 1110 and/or the microphone 1130. The one or more buttons may include a push button. A quick press of the push button may disengage a lock of the touch screen 1120 or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device. A longer press of the push button may turn power to the user mobile phone 12 on or off. The touch screen 1120 is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.
The touch-sensitive touch screen 1120 provides an input interface and an output interface between the device and a user. The display controller 1560 receives and/or sends electrical signals from/to the touch screen 1120. The touch screen 1120 displays visual output to the user. The visual output may include graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectively termed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visual output may correspond to user-interface objects, further details of which are described below.
A touch screen 1120 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactile contact. The touch screen 1120 and the display controller 1560 (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 1020) detect contact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on the touch screen 1120 and converts the detected contact into interaction with user-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages or images) that are displayed on the touch screen. In an exemplary embodiment, a point of contact between a touch screen 1120 and the user corresponds to a finger of the user.
The touch screen 1120 may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, or LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, although other display technologies may be used in other embodiments. The touch screen 1120 and the display controller 1560 may detect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with a touch screen 1120.
The user may make contact with the touch screen 1120 using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, and so forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to work primarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which are much less precise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of a finger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translates the rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position or command for performing the actions desired by the user.
The user mobile phone 12 also includes a power system 1620 for powering the various components. The power system 1620 may include a power management system, one or more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode (LED)) and any other components associated with the generation, management and distribution of power in portable devices.
The software components stored in memory 1020 include an operating system 1260, a communication module (or set of instructions) 1280, a contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 1300, a graphics module (or set of instructions) 1320, a text input module (or set of instructions) 1340, and applications (or set of instructions) 1360.
The operating system 1260 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includes various software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between various hardware and software components.
The communication module 1280 facilitates communication with other devices over one or more external ports 1240 and also includes various software components for handling data received by the RF circuitry 1080 and/or the external port 1240. The external port 1240 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices or indirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.).
The contact/motion module 1300 may detect contact with the touch screen 1120 (in conjunction with the display controller 1560) and other touch sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel). The contact/motion module 1300 includes various software components for performing various operations related to detection of contact, such as determining if contact has occurred, determining if there is movement of the contact and tracking the movement across the touch screen 1120, and determining if the contact has been broken (i.e., if the contact has ceased). Determining movement of the point of contact may include determining speed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact. These operations may be applied to single contacts (e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g., “multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). The contact/motion module 1300 and the display controller 1560 also detects contact on a touchpad.
The graphics module 1320 includes various known software components for rendering and displaying graphics on the touch screen 1120, including components for changing the intensity of graphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics” includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objects including soft keys), digital images, videos, animations and the like.
The text input module 1340, which may be a component of graphics module 1320, provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g., contacts, e-mail, IM, blogging, browser, and any other application that needs text input). The applications 1360 may include the mobile application 208.
The exemplary computer system 900 includes a processor 930 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or both), a main memory 932 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), etc.), and a static memory 934 (e.g., flash memory, static random access memory (SRAM, etc.), which communicate with each other via a bus 936.
The computer system 900 may further include a video display 938 (e.g., a liquid crystal displays (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 900 also includes an alpha-numeric input device 940 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 942 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 944, a signal generation device 946 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 948.
The disk drive unit 944 includes a machine-readable medium 950 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions 952 (e.g., software) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The software may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 932 and/or within the processor 930 during execution thereof by the computer system 900, the memory 932 and the processor 930 also constituting machine readable media. The software may further be transmitted or received over a network 954 via the network interface device 948.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative and not restrictive of the current invention, and that this invention is not restricted to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described since modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art.
