Street parking community application and method

• US 20100302068A1
• Filed: 06/01/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Navteq B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navteq North America LLC (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Inventors: Bandukwala, Naveed
• Application Number:
  US12/455,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302068A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.2
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]

Abstract

Disclosed is a system that facilitates finding on-street parking. A community of users has an application on their mobile communications devices that allows them to inform each other when vacating on-street parking spaces. When a user operates his automobile to vacate an on-street parking space, a message is transmitted wirelessly that indicates the position of the parking space. Another user in the community who is driving around looking for a parking space can specify a desired area. The availability of the parking space vacated by the one user is matched with the desired area of the other user. A message indicating the available parking space in the desired area is transmitted to the other user for display on the wireless communications device of the other user.

Claims

1. A mobile wireless communications device comprising a feature that (1) transmits a message indicating that an on-street parking space that had been occupied by a vehicle operated by a user of the mobile wireless communication device has become available and (2) receives notifications that on-street parking spaces in a desired area have become available when other users of mobile wireless communications devices that have the same feature indicate that on-street parking spaces occupied by vehicles operated by the other users have become available.

2. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 1 further comprising:

a positioning system that determines a position of the mobile wireless communications device and provides the position in the message indicating that the on-street parking space has become available.

3. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further allows the user to specify the desired area.

4. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature determines the desired area to be an area around the user.

5. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 4 further comprising:

a positioning system that determines the area around the user.

6. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further indicates how long each available on-street parking space has been posted.

7. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further allows specification of how long each available on-street parking space has been posted.

8. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further allows identification of available on-street parking spaces of a specified size.

9. The mobile wireless communications device of claim 8 wherein the specified size includes large SUV, medium sedan, subcompact, and any size.

10. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further allows identification of an on-street parking space prior to the space being vacated by a vehicle.

11. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein the feature further provides route guidance to at least one of the on-street parking spaces in the specific area.

12. A software application stored on computer-readable media in mobile communications devices, wherein the software application enables each user of one of the mobile communications devices to transmit notice when vacating an on-street parking space and a position thereof, and further that allows each user of one of the mobile communications devices to receive notification of positions of parking spaces made available by others of the users of the mobile communications devices when said others provide notice when vacating on-street parking spaces.

13. The software application of claim 12 wherein the position of each mobile communications device when vacating an on-street parking space is obtained from a positioning system included in the mobile wireless communications device.

14. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that enables a user to specify a desired area about which to receive notification of positions of parking spaces made available by others of the users of the mobile communications devices when said others transmit notice when vacating on-street parking spaces.

15. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that indicates how long each available on-street parking space has been posted.

16. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that allows a user to specify how long each available on-street parking space has been posted.

17. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that allows identification of available on-street parking spaces of a specified size, wherein the specified size includes large SUV, medium sedan, subcompact, and any size.

18. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that allows identification of an on-street parking space prior to the space being vacated by a vehicle.

19. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that provides route guidance for a user to travel to at least one of the parking spaces made available by others of the users when said others provide notice when vacating on-street parking spaces.

20. The software application of claim 12 further comprising a feature that calculates a route for a user to travel to at least one of the parking spaces made available by others of the users when said others provide notice when vacating on-street parking spaces.

21. A system for informing users of mobile communications devices about available on-street parking spaces for vehicles, the system comprising:

a plurality of mobile communications devices, each of which includes

a positioning system that determines a position of the mobile communications device and

a parking application that allows a user of one of the plurality of mobile communications devices to send a notification message that the user is making a parking space available and the location thereof

and that allows the user to receive notifications about on-street parking spaces made available by users of others of the plurality of mobile communications devices and the respective locations thereof.

22. A method of finding on-street parking comprising:

using a mobile communications device to receive notification of positions of parking spaces made available by other users of mobile communications devices when said others indicate when vacating on-street parking spaces, and

using the mobile communications device to notify others when vacating an on-street parking space and a position thereof.

23. A method of facilitating finding on-street parking comprising:

with an application executed on a server connected to a data network, receiving notification messages from users of mobile communications devices, wherein each notification message indicates that a user of the mobile communications device has operated a vehicle to vacate an on-street parking space and identifies a location of the on-street parking space;

with the application executed on the server, receiving inquiry messages from users of mobile communications devices, wherein each inquiry message indicates that a user of the respective mobile communications device is seeking an on-street parking space in a desired area;

with the application executed on the server, matching desired areas from inquiry messages with locations of vacated on-street parking spaces identified in notification messages; and

with the application executed on the server, transmitting response messages to the inquiry messages, wherein each of said response messages identifies the location of one or more of the vacated on-street parking spaces in the desired area identified in the corresponding inquiry message.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

with the application executed on the server, keeping track of a time associated with each vacated on-street parking space.

25. The method of claim 23 further wherein each of said response messages indicates how long each vacated parking space has been available.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

with the application executed on the server, keeping track of a size associated with each vacated on-street parking space.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein each of said response messages indicates the size associated with each vacated parking space.

28. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

with the application executed on the server, facilitating a payment between users for swapping a parking space.