PARKING OBJECTS DETECTION SYSTEM

• US 20200134332A1
• Filed: 06/04/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citifyd, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Citifyd, Inc.
• Inventors: Vossoughi, Sohrab, Cole, Dave, Mollaghaffari, Massoud
• Granted Patent: US 11,164,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/586 of parking space
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/015 with provision for distinguishing between two or more types of vehicles, e.g. between motor-cars and cycles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/065 by counting the vehicles in a section of the road or in a parking area, i.e. comparing incoming count with outgoing count
• 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 1/149 coupled to means for restricting the access to the parking space, e.g. authorization, access barriers, indicative lights
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A parking objects or vehicles detection system (60) uses BLE proximity sensing to identify a vehicle (520) with a beacon ID to within about one vehicle length from an access gate (516) of a vehicle parking surface lot or garage. The system performs vision-based parking inventory management (514) by monitoring live vehicle ingress and egress traffic and communicating to a backend server (70) changes in instances of vehicle parking events.

Claims

1. A parking vehicle detection system, comprising:

a source beacon configured to broadcast its identity by emitting a short-range wireless radio signal from a location of apparatus associated with an access region of a vehicle parking location, and the source beacon configured to establish on a wireless communication link connectivity with a smart device implemented with radio frequency wireless technology to scan for a source beacon in a vicinity of the smart device and to provide location-based information content, and, when in proximity to the source beacon and upon receiving the short-range wireless radio signal emitted by and identifying the source beacon, the smart device forming a connection with the source beacon on the wireless communication link;

a mobile application provided to and operating on the smart device to initiate and conclude a vehicle parking session; and

a backend server in communication with the smart device through a wireless communication link, the backend server storing for delivery to the mobile application identities of vehicle parking locations in the vicinity of the smart device, and the mobile application determining whether a vehicle carrying a user accompanied by the smart device and located near the access region that is in operative association with a detected source beacon associated with the vehicle parking locations is in an ingress or egress scenario, performing a ranging procedure to determine whether a distance between the smart device and the detected source beacon or the access region with which the detected source beacon is operatively associated is within a specified amount, and, upon determination that the distance is within the specified amount, forming a state of wireless connectivity between the smart device and the smart beacon to enable activation of a vehicle parking transaction session.

2. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, in which a live inventory management agent operating in the backend server provides to the mobile application live parking spot inventory information for at least one of the vehicle parking locations in the vicinity of the vehicle carrying the user accompanied by the smart device.

3. The vehicle parking system of claim 2, in which a lot navigator program operating in the backend server cooperates with the live inventory management agent to guide a user operating the vehicle to an open parking spot in a vehicle parking location.

4. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, further comprising a magnetometer cooperating with the smart device and the source beacon while in the state of wireless connectivity with each other to detect the vehicle to prevent accidental activation of a vehicle parking transaction session.

5. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, in which the smart device includes motion sensor technology to detect movement of the user carrying the smart device and to distinguish movement of the vehicle from the movement of the user to prevent accidental activation of a vehicle parking transaction session.

6. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, further comprising vision system sensors operating in coordination with the source beacon to form a detection area in the parking location, the vision system sensors and the source beacon identifying a vehicle and a direction of travel of the vehicle engaged in the vehicle parking transaction session.

7. The vehicle parking system of claim 6, in which the vision system sensors include an IR sensor, a camera, a thermal sensor, a magnetometer, a pressure sensitive bar, a sound sensor, a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, a laser-based depth sensor, a motion sensor, and a beam break technology-based sensor or a combination of them.

8. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, further comprising multiple vision system sensors operating in coordination with the source beacon to define a detection area of a parking location, and an object detection agent that assigns identification attributes to vehicles present in the detection area to provide live inventory management of parking spots in the parking location.

9. The vehicle parking system of claim 8, further comprising an AI engine operating in the backend server to compensate for environmental variations in the detection area to enhance the identification attributes of the vehicles present in the detection area.

10. The enhanced parking system of claim 8, in which, to define a parking space state of the parking location, the multiple vision system sensors report changes in inventory of the parking spots in the parking location by providing vehicle image information that represents a change with reference to vehicles present in a background image stored in a live inventory management agent, the live inventory management agent operating in the backend server and including a lot navigator application to which changes in the parking space state are communicated, the lot navigator application providing, to the smart device accompanying the user, information for use by an application operating on the smart device to guide the user to an empty parking spot.

11. The vehicle parking system of claim 1, further comprising an access gate positioned in the access region of a vehicle parking location, and in which the activation of a vehicle parking transaction session includes enabling operation of the access gate.

12. The vehicle parking system of claim 11, in which the source beacon constitutes a gate source beacon emitting a gate source short-range signal, and in which the vehicle is positioned to move along a vehicle travel lane toward the access gate, and further comprising a lane source beacon set a known distance from the gate source beacon along the vehicle travel lane and emitting a lane source short-range signal, the gate source short-range signal and the lane source short-range signal being transmitted for measurement by the mobile application to determine a signal ratio that indicates a proximity of the vehicle to the access gate.

13. The enhanced parking system of claim 12, in which the vehicle is one of multiple vehicles in a queue along the vehicle travel lane, each of the multiple vehicles carrying a user accompanied by a smart device on which the mobile application is operating, and the gate source short-range signal and the lane source short-range signal being transmitted for measurement by the mobile applications to determine respective signal ratios that indicate the positions of the multiple vehicles in the queue.

14. The enhanced parking system of claim 12, in which the vehicle is one of multiple vehicles in a queue along the vehicle travel lane, one of the multiple vehicles carrying a user accompanied by a smart device on which the mobile application is operating, and the gate source short-range signal and the lane source short-range signal being transmitted for measurement by the mobile application to determine the signal ratio that indicates the position of the one of the multiple vehicles in the queue.