Method and apparatus for parking lot metering
First Claim
1. A system for charging electric vehicles comprising:
- a charger for an electric vehicle;
a reader that reads an indicia when said indicia is presented and determines an interval for electric vehicle charging from said indicia, wherein the interval is encoded into the indicia; and
a timer that is set to hold the charger enabled for said interval for electric vehicle charging in response to a signal from said reader after said indicia is read.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Pay-by-Space and Pay-and-Display are two well-known systems for metered parking for multiple spaces. The present invention allows multi-space meters to separately manage and control electric vehicle charging located in conjunction with parking spaces. Control is implemented by the meters printing indicia on a parking pass or receipt for the parking patron to present to an electric vehicle charging system able to read the indicia. Each such ticket may initiate a predetermined interval of charging, or an interval of charging selected by the patron during a transaction with the meter. The indicia may be either human-readable (e.g., text) or machine-readable (e.g., a barcode), or both, and may be encrypted to resist fraud. Data representative of the indicia may also be made available from an online server and delivered to a parking patron'"'"'s smartphone or other portable device, whereby the display of the smartphone may present the indicia for reading by the electric vehicle charging system.
18 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A system for charging electric vehicles comprising:
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a charger for an electric vehicle; a reader that reads an indicia when said indicia is presented and determines an interval for electric vehicle charging from said indicia, wherein the interval is encoded into the indicia; and a timer that is set to hold the charger enabled for said interval for electric vehicle charging in response to a signal from said reader after said indicia is read. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for charging electric vehicles comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a charger for an electric vehicle; b) automatically reading an indicia and determining an interval for electric vehicle charging from said indicia with a reader when said indicia is presented, wherein the interval is encoded into the indicia; and c) setting a timer to hold said charger enabled for said interval for electric vehicle charging in response to step b). - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for charging electric vehicles comprising the steps of:
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a) automatically reading a parking pass with a reader of a charger for an electric vehicle when said parking pass is presented; b) automatically determining with a controller of the charger having communication with the reader whether said parking pass is valid; c) if said parking pass is not valid, rejecting said parking pass; and d) if said parking pass is valid, automatically enabling the charger with said controller for one of a pre-determined interval for electric vehicle charging and an interval for electric vehicle charging indicated by said parking pass. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification