METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING AVAILABLE PARKING SPOTS

• US 20140156183A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FCA US LLC (Stellantis NV)
• Original Assignee: FCA US LLC (Stellantis NV)
• Inventors: Windeler, Joshua G., Minjeur, Patrick, Rener, Jonathan M., Maunders, Ross S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,178 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/454
• 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 1/147 where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for reporting occupied and unoccupied parking spaces are disclosed. The techniques include determining that a mobile computing device has entered a parking area and determining whether the mobile computing device has entered a pedestrian mode. The pedestrian mode is indicative of a user of the mobile computing device parking a vehicle and exiting the vehicle. When the mobile computing device has entered the pedestrian mode, the technique includes determining a first location of the mobile computing device at a first time corresponding to the mobile computing device entering the pedestrian mode, and providing an occupied notification to a remote computing device, the occupied notification including the first location and indicating that a parking spot corresponding to the first location is occupied. Techniques are further disclosed for reporting unoccupied parking spaces to the mobile computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, at a processing device of a mobile computing device, that the mobile computing device has entered a parking area;

determining, at the processing device, whether the mobile computing device has entered a pedestrian mode, the pedestrian mode being indicative of a user of the mobile computing device parking a vehicle and exiting the vehicle; and

when the mobile computing device has entered the pedestrian mode;

determining, at the processing device, a first location of the mobile computing device at a first time corresponding to the mobile computing device entering the pedestrian mode, and

providing, at the processing device, an occupied notification to a remote computing device, the occupied notification including the first location and indicating that a parking spot corresponding to the first location is occupied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the mobile computing device has entered a pedestrian mode includes:

monitoring, at the processing device, a speed of the mobile computing device at predetermined intervals;

determining, at the processing device, whether the mobile computing device is in the pedestrian mode based on the speed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mobile computing device is in the pedestrian mode when the sampled speed is equal to zero for more than a predetermined amount of time.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the mobile computing device has entered the pedestrian mode further includes:

monitoring, at the processing device, an accelerometer signal generated by the mobile computing device, the accelerometer signal being indicative of an acceleration of the mobile computing device and a direction of acceleration;

determining, at the processing device, a magnitude of the acceleration of the mobile computing device based on the accelerometer signal;

wherein the mobile computing device is determined to be in the pedestrian mode when the sampled speed equal to zero for more than a predetermined amount of consecutive samples and the magnitude is greater than a magnitude threshold after the predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the acceleration and the direction of the acceleration are represented by an acceleration vector, <

x, y, z>

, where x is a first amount of acceleration in a first direction, y is a second amount of acceleration in a second direction, and z is a third amount of acceleration in a third direction, and wherein the first direction, the second direction, and the third direction are all orthogonal to one another.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the magnitude is calculated according to:

A=√

{square root over (x²+y²+z²)}

where A is the magnitude.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, at the processing device, whether the mobile computing device has exited the pedestrian mode;

when the mobile computing device has exited the pedestrian mode;

determining, at the processing device, a second location of the mobile computing device at a second time corresponding to the mobile computing device exiting the pedestrian mode;

comparing, at the processing device, the second location to the first location;

providing, at the processing device, an available notification to the remote computing device when the second location approximately matches the first location, the available notification including one of the first location and the second location and indicating that the parking spot is available.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the mobile computing device is determined to have exited the pedestrian mode when the speed of the mobile computing device exceeds a speed threshold after being determined to have been in the pedestrian mode.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein when the mobile computing device enters the pedestrian mode, the method further includes:

storing, at the processing device, the first location, wherein the storing is performed without input from a user; and

providing, at the processing device, the first location for display in a map at a request of the user.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a processing device of a parking server having a processing device, a request for available parking from a mobile computing device at a first time, the request including a current location of the mobile computing device;

obtaining, at the processing device, a set of available parking spots within a vicinity of the current location, each available parking spot in the set of available parking indicating a location of the available parking spot and having a timestamp associated therewith, the timestamp being indicative of a time when the available parking spot was reported as being available; and

for each available parking spot of the set of available parking spots;

determining, at the processing device, a score of the available parking spot based on the first time and the timestamp, the score being indicative of a degree of likelihood that the available parking spot remains available;

providing, at the processing device, the location of the available parking spot and a score indicator of the available parking spot to the mobile computing device, the score indicator being indicative of the score of the available parking spot.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising maintaining a parking spot datastore that stores locations of a plurality of parking spots a status of each of the plurality of the parking spots, the status of each particular parking spot being indicative of whether the particular parking spot is occupied or available.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the parking spot datastore further stores a timestamp for each parking spot of the plurality of parking spot having a status indicating that the parking spot is available, the timestamp corresponding to a time when the parking spot was reported as being available.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, at the processing device, an available notification from a mobile computing device, the available notification including a location of a new available parking spot;

obtaining, at the processing device, a timestamp corresponding to a time when the available notification was received;

adjusting, at the processing device, a status of the new available parking spot in the parking spot datastore to indicate that the status of the new available parking spot is available; and

relating, at the processing device, the timestamp with the new available parking spot in the parking spot datastore.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, at the processing device, an occupied notification from a mobile computing device, the occupied notification including a location of a new occupied parking spot; and

adjusting, at the processing device, a status of the new occupied parking spot in the parking spot datastore to indicate that the status of the new occupied parking spot is occupied.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the score of the available parking includes:

determining, at the processing device, an amount of time that has lapsed since the available parking spot was reported as being available based on the timestamp of the available parking spot and the first time; and

calculating, at the processing device, the score based on the amount of time that has lapsed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the score is calculated using a decay function.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the decay function is: