Smart parking meter system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use in controlling parking comprising:
- a plurality of parking meter elements each for mounting on a support adjacent a parking location, each parking meter element including;
a payment receptacle operable by a person parking a vehicle for receiving a payment from the person;
a display for displaying an allowable time of parking;
a sensor for detecting the presence of a vehicle in the associated parking location;
a control module responsive to the payment receptacle and the sensor and arranged to control the display;
at least one transportable communication unit for transportation by and manual operation by an attendant including a control module for communicating with the parking meter elements;
the control modules of each of the parking meter elements and the communication unit including communications protocols by which the parking meter element and the communications unit communicate to each other via a wireless medium.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A Smart Parking Meter System makes it possible to track whether or not a vehicle occupies parking meter stalls and whether or not the time has expired. The system uses a wireless communication protocol which may be of the type known under the trade mark “Bluetooth” and provides the portability of embedded systems and the convenience of personal digital assistants with the powers of the C and Java programming languages. There are two main components to the Smart Parking Meter System, the handheld device, or the PDA, and the actual parking meters. Each device has the Smart Parking Meter System application installed in it, as well as the wireless modules, such as Bluetooth to use as a communication medium. The parking meters also have a motion sensor to detect any movement within it view range. The handheld device is able to extract all the parking states for each parking meter within a block or street depending on user configuration of system.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use in controlling parking comprising:
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a plurality of parking meter elements each for mounting on a support adjacent a parking location, each parking meter element including;
a payment receptacle operable by a person parking a vehicle for receiving a payment from the person;
a display for displaying an allowable time of parking;
a sensor for detecting the presence of a vehicle in the associated parking location;
a control module responsive to the payment receptacle and the sensor and arranged to control the display;
at least one transportable communication unit for transportation by and manual operation by an attendant including a control module for communicating with the parking meter elements;
the control modules of each of the parking meter elements and the communication unit including communications protocols by which the parking meter element and the communications unit communicate to each other via a wireless medium. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification