Parking system

• US 10,043,388 B1
• Filed: 05/19/2014
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe Richard, Kinsolving, Arthur, Vogel, David, Christensen, Mark Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Lieu, Julie
• Application Number:
  US14/281,849
• Time in Patent Office: 1,541 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/146 where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas

Abstract

A method of managing a parking system comprising receiving a request for a parking location from a user of a mobile device, selecting an available spot, and guiding the user to the available spot. The method in on embodiment further comprises marking the parking location. In one embodiment, the user may also be given guidance back to the marked parking location.

Claims

1. A method of managing a parking system comprising:

receiving a request for a parking location for a vehicle from a mobile device;

calculating availability probabilities for a plurality of potentially available spots;

selecting one potentially available spot from the plurality of potentially available spots for the vehicle based on a combination of a subscription status of the user, the availability probability, a location of the vehicle, and a destination;

guiding the vehicle to the potentially available spot;

detecting when a user stops driving, and gets out of the vehicle at an actual parking spot; and

marking the actual parking spot as occupied;

wherein calculating the availability probability is based on a time since the potentially available parking spot was marked available.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the marking comprises:

marking the actual parking spot as occupied; and

marking a location of the actual parking spot in a guidance system to provide directions to the user back to the actual parking spot.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a request comprises determining that the user has arrived at a designated destination, and determining that the user needs to park.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing ambulatory guidance to the user, from the parking spot to the designated destination.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining comprises receiving an indication from the user requesting a parking location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the available spot comprises:

receiving data about a user'"'"'s destination;

identifying one or more potential spots within a reasonable distance of the user'"'"'s destination; and

selecting the available spot from the one or more potential spots based on a factor.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the factor comprises proximity to the user'"'"'s destination.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing guidance to the actual parking spot for the user; and

making the parking spot as available when the user leaves the parking spot.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the user leaves the parking spot, marking the parking spot as available.

10. A parking system comprising:

a communication system in a mobile device to send a request for a parking location for a vehicle and to receive information regarding a selected available spot, the probable available spot selected based from a plurality of potentially available spots based on a calculation of availability probability for the plurality of potential spots and a location of the vehicle, wherein the availability probability is calculated based on a subscription status of the user, a time since the spot was marked available;

a driving guidance system configured to guide a user to the selected available spot;

user transition identifier to use data from one or more sensors to detect when the user stops driving, and gets out of the vehicle at a parking spot; and

ambulatory guidance system to mark the parking spot as occupied, and calculate a return path to the parking spot for the user.

11. The parking system of claim 10, further comprising:

the communication system to send the parking spot to a parking server, the parking server to mark the parking spot as occupied.

12. The parking system of claim 10, wherein the request is sent in response to determining that the user has arrived at a designated destination, and determining that the user needs to park.

13. The parking system of claim 12, further comprising:

the ambulatory guidance system further to provide ambulatory guidance to the user from the parking spot to the designated destination.

14. The parking system of claim 12, wherein the determining comprises receiving an indication from the user requesting a parking location.

15. The parking system of claim 10, wherein a server provides the available spot by identifying one or more potential spots within a reasonable distance of the user'"'"'s destination, and selecting the available spot from the one or more potential spots based on a factor.

16. The parking system of claim 10, wherein the factor comprises proximity to the user'"'"'s destination.

17. The parking system of claim 10, further comprising:

the ambulatory guidance system to provide guidance to the marked parking spot for the user; and

the communication system to send data marking the parking spot as available to the server when the user leaves the parking spot.

18. The parking system of claim 10, further comprising:

the communication system further to automatically receive a bill for the parking from an integrated billing service which calculates a time between when the user parked in the parking spot and when the user left the parking spot.

21. The parking system of claim 10, further comprising:

upon marking the parking location as occupied in the ambulatory guidance system, the communication logic to communicate to a server that the parking location is occupied.

19. A parking server comprising:

a communication logic to receive a request for a parking spot from a user device;

a spot vacancy calculator to calculate an availability probability for a plurality of potentially available parking spots, the availability probability based on time since the parking spot was marked available;

an available spot identifier to identify the plurality of potentially available parking spots for the user, and select one potentially available parking spot based on;

a subscription status of the user, a destination of the user, a location of the user, and the availability probability of the potentially available parking spot;

the communication logic to provide a location of the potentially available parking spot to a guidance system in the user device;

a driving guidance system configured to guide a user to the potentially available spot;

the communication system receiving information about an actual parking spot from the user device, the actual parking spot identified based on a location where the user stopped driving and got out of the vehicle at; and

a parking spot availability tracker to mark the actual parking spot as occupied.

20. The parking server of claim 19, further comprising:

an integrated billing service to calculate a time between when the user parked in the parking spot and when the user left the parking spot, and automatically complete billing.