SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MINIMIZING THE TIME TO PARK A VEHICLE

• US 20150248835A1
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Basu, Anirban, Kanevsky, Dimitri, Sainath, Tara N., Aravkin, Aleksandr Y., Shah, Premal Y.
• Granted Patent: US 9,275,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• 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 1/146 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/149 coupled to means for restricting the access to the parking space, e.g. authorization, access barriers, indicative lights

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing a user with information on spaces in which to park a vehicle are provided. A method for providing a user with information on spaces in which to park a vehicle, comprises identifying one or more spaces in which to park the vehicle, selecting valid spaces from the identified one or more spaces based on a validation criteria, and ranking the valid spaces and providing a ranked list of the valid spaces to the user, wherein the identifying, selecting, ranking and providing steps are performed by a computer system comprising a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory.

Claims

1. A system for providing a user with information on spaces in which to park a vehicle, comprising:

an availability module capable of identifying one or more spaces in which to park the vehicle, and capable of selecting valid spaces from the identified one or more spaces based on a validation criteria; and

a ranking module capable of ranking the valid spaces and providing a ranked list of the valid spaces to the user.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the validation criteria includes at least one of a size of a space, a distance from a space to a target location, a time of availability of a space, a proximity of a space to an obstacle and a restriction preventing legal parking in a space.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the availability module is further capable of comparing the size of a space to a size of the vehicle, and eliminating any space which is of a size that is less than or within a predetermined number of units of the size of the vehicle.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the availability module is further capable of eliminating any space that is greater than a predetermined distance from the space to the target location.

5. The system according to claim 2, wherein the availability module is further capable of determining whether a time during which the vehicle is to be parked in a space overlaps with any restriction preventing legal parking in the space.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein the availability module is further capable of eliminating any space including an obstacle preventing parking in the space.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the ranking module is further capable of determining a score for each of the valid spaces based on at least one user-specified preference.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a determination module capable of determining whether a space has been offered to another user, and eliminating the space if the space has been offered to the other user.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a prediction module capable of predicting an availability of a space that is not presently vacant.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising one or more sensors capable of scanning a predetermined area to capture at least one of an image, video, motion data, infrared data and acoustic data corresponding to the one or more spaces in which to park the vehicle.

11. A method for providing a user with information on spaces in which to park a vehicle, comprising:

identifying one or more spaces in which to park the vehicle;

selecting valid spaces from the identified one or more spaces based on a validation criteria; and

ranking the valid spaces and providing a ranked list of the valid spaces to the user;

wherein the identifying, selecting, ranking and providing steps are performed by a computer system comprising a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the validation criteria includes at least one of a size of a space, a distance from a space to a target location, a time of availability of a space, a proximity of a space to an obstacle and a restriction preventing legal parking in a space.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the selecting comprises comparing the size of a space to a size of the vehicle, and eliminating any space which is of a size that is less than or within a predetermined number of units of the size of the vehicle.

14. The method of according to claim 12, wherein the selecting comprises eliminating any space that is greater than a predetermined distance from the space to the target location.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the selecting comprises determining whether a time during which the vehicle is to be parked in a space overlaps with any restriction preventing legal parking in the space.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the selecting comprises eliminating any space including an obstacle preventing parking in the space.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the ranking comprises determining a score for each of the valid spaces based on at least one user-specified preference.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the selecting comprises determining whether a space has been offered to another user, and eliminating the space if the space has been offered to the other user.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the identifying comprising predicting an availability of a space that is not presently vacant.

20. A computer program product for providing a user with information on spaces in which to park a vehicle, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying one or more spaces in which to park the vehicle;

selecting valid spaces from the identified one or more spaces based on a validation criteria; and

ranking the valid spaces and providing a ranked list of the valid spaces to the user.