MANAGING PARKING SPACE AVAILABILITY

• US 20130176147A1
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Erik D., Griffith, William A., Naick, Indran
• Granted Patent: US 8,994,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• 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 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A method, system or computer usable program product for a data processing system to anticipate parking space availability including receiving from the first user a request for a parking space for a first vehicle, obtaining location tracking data of a set of users, each of the set of users associated with one of a set of vehicles, each vehicle located at one of a set of parking spaces, predicting a set of departure times based on the location tracking data for a subset of the set of users away from and associated with vehicles located in parking spaces, determining a subset of departure times that are within an acceptable period of time, and sending to the first user a subset of parking spaces with vehicles associated with users having the subset of departure times.

Claims

1. A method for a data processing system to anticipate parking space availability comprising:

receiving from the first user a request for a parking space for a first vehicle;

obtaining location tracking data of a set of users, each of the set of users associated with one of a set of vehicles, each vehicle located at one of a set of parking spaces;

predicting a set of departure times based on the location tracking data for a subset of the set of users away from and associated with vehicles located in parking spaces;

determining a subset of departure times that are within an acceptable period of time; and

sending to the first user a subset of parking spaces with vehicles associated with users having the subset of departure times.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving location tracking data from the first user to determine an estimated time of arrival for the first user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the location tracking data of the first user and the set of users includes global positional system information including location and velocity.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first user and the set of users are preregistered with the data processing system, the data processing system maintaining a collection of historical data on each user, the collection of historical data utilized in predicting the set of departure times.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the data processing system sends to the first user directions to the subset of parking spaces.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the request includes a first user selected criteria, wherein each parking space has a set of attributes, and wherein the subset of parking spaces have attributes meeting the first user selected criteria.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the selected criteria comprises one or more of the group consisting of type of parking space, combinations of shortest time, the shortest distance within an allowable time, number of parking spaces expected to be available, time that the slot will be vacant before the first vehicle is expected to arrive, and probabilistic data utilizing historical location tracking data tied to individual users and vehicles.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

maintaining information about the set of parking spaces;

maintaining information about the set of vehicles in the parking spaces;

calculating the velocity of a second user towards a second vehicle parked in one of the parking spaces;

predicting a second departure time of the second user in the second vehicle;

calculating the velocity of a third user towards a third vehicle parked in one of the parking spaces;

predicting a third departure time of the third user in the third vehicle;

determining a first expected arrival time of the first vehicle at the location of the second vehicle;

determining a second expected arrival time of the first vehicle at the location of the third vehicle;

applying the user selected criteria; and

identifying whether the second parking space or the third parking space best meets the user selected criteria.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

tracking a fourth user in a fourth vehicle;

calculating an expected arrival time of the fourth vehicle at the parking space of the second vehicle;

comparing the expected arrival time of the fourth vehicle to the second departure time of the second vehicle;

comparing the expected arrival time of the first vehicle to the second vehicle; and

responsive to determining that the expected arrival time of the fourth vehicle is after the expected departure time of the second vehicle and before an expected arrival time of the first vehicle, eliminating the parking space of the second vehicle as an available parking space for the first vehicle.

10. A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable storage medium including computer usable code for use in anticipating parking space availability, the computer usable program product comprising code for performing the steps of:

receiving from the first user a request for a parking space for a first vehicle;

obtaining location tracking data of a set of users, each of the set of users associated with one of a set of vehicles, each vehicle located at one of a set of parking spaces;

predicting a set of departure times based on the location tracking data for a subset of the set of users away from and associated with vehicles located in parking spaces;

determining a subset of departure times that are within an acceptable period of time; and

sending to the first user a subset of parking spaces with vehicles associated with users having the subset of departure times.

11. The computer usable program product of claim 10 further comprising receiving location tracking data from the first user to determine an estimated time of arrival for the first user.

12. The computer usable program product of claim 10 wherein the first user and the set of users are preregistered with the data processing system, the data processing system maintaining a collection of historical data on each user, the collection of historical data utilized in predicting the set of departure times.

13. The computer usable program product of claim 10 wherein the data processing system sends to the first user directions to the subset of parking spaces.

14. The computer usable program product of claim 10 wherein the request includes a first user selected criteria, wherein each parking space has a set of attributes, and wherein the subset of parking spaces have attributes meeting the first user selected criteria.

15. A data processing system for anticipating parking space availability, the data processing system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing program instructions which when executed by the processor execute the steps of;

receiving from the first user a request for a parking space for a first vehicle;

obtaining location tracking data of a set of users, each of the set of users associated with one of a set of vehicles, each vehicle located at one of a set of parking spaces;

predicting a set of departure times based on the location tracking data for a subset of the set of users away from and associated with vehicles located in parking spaces;

determining a subset of departure times that are within an acceptable period of time; and

sending to the first user a subset of parking spaces with vehicles associated with users having the subset of departure times.

16. The data processing system of claim 15 further comprising receiving location tracking data from the first user to determine an estimated time of arrival for the first user.

17. The data processing system of claim 15 wherein the first user and the set of users are preregistered with the data processing system, the data processing system maintaining a collection of historical data on each user, the collection of historical data utilized in predicting the set of departure times.

18. The data processing system of claim 15 wherein the data processing system sends to the first user directions to the subset of parking spaces.

19. The data processing system of claim 15 wherein the request includes a first user selected criteria, wherein each parking space has a set of attributes, and wherein the subset of parking spaces have attributes meeting the first user selected criteria.

20. A method for a obtaining availability of a predicted parking space comprising:

sending through a user interface a request for a set of parking spaces for a first vehicle;

receiving through the user interface locations of the set of parking spaces, each of the set of parking spaces having a vehicle associated with a user not located with the associated vehicle, each user having a predicted departure time.