ROUTE COMPUTATION FOR NAVIGATION SYSTEM USING DATA EXCHANGED WITH TICKET VENDING MACHINES

• US 20140350853A1
• Filed: 05/21/2013
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC (Conduent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Proux, Denys
• Granted Patent: US 9,262,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/533
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas
• 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 1/147 where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas

Abstract

A method for assisting a driver to locate a parking space includes identifying a user-selected destination with a navigation system of a first vehicle. While the driver of the first vehicle is being guided by the navigation system towards the selected destination, parking availability information is acquired from a first space allocation device (e.g., ticket vending machine), associated with a first parking zone. The parking availability information includes parking availability information for at least one second parking zone associated with a respective second, space allocation device, remote from the first space allocation device. The second parking availability information for the second parking zone(s) is communicated to the first space allocation device by at a respective second navigation system of at least one second vehicle. A parking zone is selected, based on the user-selected destination and acquired parking availability information transmitted from the first space allocation device.

Claims

1. A method for assisting a driver to locate a parking space, comprising:

with a first navigation system of a first vehicle, identifying a user-selected destination;

while a driver of the first vehicle is being guided by the navigation system towards the user-selected destination, acquiring parking availability information from a first space allocation device associated with a first parking zone, the parking availability information including second parking availability information for at least one second parking zone associated with a respective second space allocation device that is spaced from the first space allocation device, wherein the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone is communicated to the first space allocation device by at least one second navigation system of a respective second vehicle; and

with a processor, selecting one of the at least one second parking zones based on the user-selected destination and acquired parking availability information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, with the navigation system, proposing a route to the identified one of the at least one second parking zones.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified one of the at least one second parking zones is closer to the user-selected destination than the first space allocation device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified one of the at least one second parking zones is predicted, based on the acquired parking availability information, to have an available parking space.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing parking availability information to the first space allocation device that is acquired by the first navigation system from a third space allocation device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone includes an estimate of a number of available parking spaces in each of the at least one second parking zone.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the estimate of the number of available parking spaces is based on a flexibility parameter which accounts for a probability that a parked vehicle leaves a respective parking space before an issued parking ticket expires.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone includes a number of unexpired parking tickets issued at a time when the second parking availability information in each of the at least one second parking zone was acquired, or information based thereon.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone includes an estimate of whether there are available parking spaces in each of the at least one second parking zone.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing parking availability information acquired by the first navigation system from a third space allocation device to the first space allocation device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one second parking zone includes a plurality of parking spaces.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a user interface in which a user selects a mode of the navigation system for finding a parking space.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second parking availability information includes a timestamp at which the information was acquired by the second space allocation device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the parking availability information includes a likelihood for the second parking zone to have available places which is based on a plurality of estimates of availability at different timestamps.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second space allocation devices comprise parking ticket vending machines.

16. A navigation system comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of claim 1 and a processor in communication with the memory for executing the instructions.

17. The navigation system if claim 12, further comprising a graphical user interface configured for user actuation of a mode in which the navigation system is requested to find a place to park.

18. A navigation system comprising:

a navigation component which identifies a route to a user-selected destination;

a parking availability information component which acquires parking availability information from a first space allocation device associated with a first parking zone, the parking availability information including second parking availability information for at least one second parking zone associated with a respective second space allocation device that is spaced from the first space allocation device, wherein the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone is communicated to the first space allocation device by at least one second navigation system;

a parking space location component which identifies a parking zone to park, based on the acquired parking availability information and the user-selected destination; and

wherein the navigation component is configured for identifying a route to the identified parking zone.

19. The navigation system of claim 18, further comprising a user interface in communication with the navigation component which assists a user in selecting the user-selected destination.

20. A ticket vending machine comprising:

a mechanism for authorizing use of parking spaces in an associated first parking zone to vehicles for a predetermined time period;

memory which stores for a plurality of the parking spaces, information on the time at which one of the parking spaces in the first zone is allocated and the length of time allocated;

a parking space computation component which generates first parking availability information for the first parking zone based on the stored information on the time when one of the parking spaces in the first zone is allocated, the length of time allocated, and the current time;

a first communication device which transmits and receives parking availability information;

an acquisition component which acquires second parking availability information from the first communication device for at least one second parking zone and stores it in memory, the second parking availability information for the at least one second parking zone being communicated to the ticket vending machine by a second communication device of a first passing vehicle; and

the first communication device configured for transmitting the first and second parking availability information to a second communication device of a second passing vehicle for identifying a route to a parking zone based at least in part on the second parking availability information; and

a processor which implements the acquisition component and parking space computation component.