System for controlling metered parking
First Claim
1. A system for controlled metered parking of road vehicles, the system comprising:
- a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces, said meter comprising means accessible to drivers for entering vehicle identity data, means for computing a parking time limit associated with said vehicle identity data as a function of an amount of money prepaid by said drivers, means for storing a plurality of pairs of data items where a first data item of each of said pairs is a particular vehicle identity data item and a second data item of each said pairs is a parking time limit data item associated with said vehicle identity data item, and a first clock for delivering data corresponding to the present time; and
a portable terminal for use by a checker of said controlled metered parking, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering identification data corresponding to a vehicle parked at a particular one of said parking spaces, a second clock for providing data corresponding to the present time, means for comparing said identification data entered into said portable terminal with said vehicle identity data stored in said parking meter, means for comparing said stored parking time limit data with the present time as delivered by said second clock, and means for processing the results of said comparisons in order to cause a warning signal to appear at said terminal when said stored parking time limit data item corresponding to said parked vehicle has expired.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for controlled meter parking of road vehicles comprising a parking meter and a portable terminal for use by a checker of the controlled meter parking. A keyboard allows drivers to enter vehicle data. A parking time limit is calculated as the function of the amount of money paid. The parking meter then stores pairs of data items, where each pair contains a vehicle data item and an associated parking time limit. In one embodiment, the amount of money is read from a memory card to allow the driver to receive credit for any time not used upon return to pick up the car. The system includes a clock for comparison with the parking time limits. When the comparison with the clock indicates that a parking time limit has expired, the associated pair of data items are deleted from the parking meter memory. A portable terminal allows a checker to enter identification data corresponding to a vehicle actually parked in one of the parking spaces. If there is no identification data in the parking meter memory corresponding to the data entered by the checker, a warning signal goes off on the portable terminal to alert the checker that the vehicle is in violation. Further, if the checker determines that the parking time limit in the portable terminal memory has expired by comparing that limit with a clock in the portable terminal, the warning signal all goes off.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A system for controlled metered parking of road vehicles, the system comprising:
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a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces, said meter comprising means accessible to drivers for entering vehicle identity data, means for computing a parking time limit associated with said vehicle identity data as a function of an amount of money prepaid by said drivers, means for storing a plurality of pairs of data items where a first data item of each of said pairs is a particular vehicle identity data item and a second data item of each said pairs is a parking time limit data item associated with said vehicle identity data item, and a first clock for delivering data corresponding to the present time; and a portable terminal for use by a checker of said controlled metered parking, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering identification data corresponding to a vehicle parked at a particular one of said parking spaces, a second clock for providing data corresponding to the present time, means for comparing said identification data entered into said portable terminal with said vehicle identity data stored in said parking meter, means for comparing said stored parking time limit data with the present time as delivered by said second clock, and means for processing the results of said comparisons in order to cause a warning signal to appear at said terminal when said stored parking time limit data item corresponding to said parked vehicle has expired. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for controlling metered parking of road vehicles the system comprising:
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a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces including means accessible to drivers for entering vehicle identity data specific to his vehicle and a parking time limit as a function of an amount of money prepaid, memory means for storing pairs of data items corresponding to vehicle identity and to an associated parking time limit, clock means for delivering data concerning the present time, means for periodically comparing said present time data with said parking time limit and deleting stored pairs of data items from said memory means as a result of said comparison; a portable terminal for use by a checker, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering a vehicle identity data specific to a vehicle actually parked at one of said parking spaces. means for transmitting to said parking meter an identity signal corresponding to said vehicle identity data entered by said checker, and means for emitting warning information at the receipt of a warning signal; and said parking meter further comprising means for receiving said identity signal, means for comparing vehicle identity data corresponding to said received identity signal with vehicle identity data stored as said pairs of data items in said memory means, means for comparing said associated time limit data with said present time data, and means for processing the results of said comparison and emitting said warning signal if vehicle identity data corresponding to said received identity signal is not stored in said memory means or the vehicle corresponding to said received identity signal is in violation. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. A system for controlled meter parking of road vehicles, comprising:
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a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces, said meter comprising; means accessible to drivers for entering a parking duration data as a function of an amount of money prepaid, means for reading and writing data in a portable data memory medium, said medium having in memory an identification data and an amount of money data, means for storing in said memory of said portable medium a new amount of money data as a function of said parking duration data, processing means for performing a predetermined algorithm in order to provide a pseudo random number as a function of said identification data and a data which is characteristic of the parking meter, printing means for providing to the driver a printed data item on which said pseudo random number is printed in a visible manner; and means for storing pairs of data items, wherein a first data item corresponds to said identification data and a second data item corresponds to said parking duration data; a portable terminal for use by a checker, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering a number corresponding to a number displayed on said printed data item on a vehicle actually parked at one of said parking spaces; and said system further including a clock for delivering data corresponding to the present time, means for comparing said number entered into said portable terminal with a number corresponding to said first data item, means for comparing said second data item with the present time as delivered by said clock, and means for processing the results of said comparisons in order to cause a warning signal to appear at said terminal when a parked vehicle whose number displayed on said printed data item has been entered into said terminal is in violation. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A system for controlling metered parking of road vehicles, the system comprising:
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a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces, said meter comprising means accessible to drivers for entering vehicle identity data and a parking time limit as a function of an amount of money prepaid, means for storing pairs of data items corresponding to a vehicle identity and to an associated parking time limit; and a portable terminal for use by a checker, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering identification data corresponding to a vehicle actually parked at one of said parking spaces; said system further including clock means for delivering data concerning the present time, first means for comparing the identity data entered into said portable terminal with the identity data stored in said parking meter, second means for comparing said stored parking time limit data with the present time as delivered by said clock, and means for processing the results of said comparisons in order to cause a warning signal to appear at said terminal when a parked vehicle whose identity data has been entered into said terminal is in violation. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A system for controlling metered parking of road vehicles the system comprising:
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a parking meter for controlling a plurality of parking spaces including means accessible to drivers for entering vehicle identity data and a parking time limit as a function of an amount of money prepaid; memory means for storing pairs of data items corresponding to vehicle identity and to an associated parking time limit and clock means for delivering data concerning the present time; and a portable terminal for use by a checker, said terminal including means accessible to said checker for entering a vehicle identity data corresponding to a vehicle actually parked at one of said parking spaces; means for transmitting towards said parking meter an identity signal representative of said entered vehicle identity data; and means for emitting a warning information at the receipt of a warning signal; means for receiving said identity signal corresponding to a vehicle identity data; and means for comparing said received vehicle identity data with the vehicle identity data stored in said memory means, means for comparing the associated time limit data with the present time data, and means for processing the results of said comparisons for emitting said warning signal if the received vehicle identity data is not stored in said memory means or the vehicle corresponding to said received vehicle identity data is in violation. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification