Systems and methods for determining parking difficulty of segments of a geographic area

• US 8,847,791 B1
• Filed: 12/08/2011
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Urbach, Shlomo Reuben
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sherwin, Ryan
• Application Number:
  US13/314,908
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• Field of Search: 340/932.2, 340/933, 340/934, 340/935, 340988-996, 701400-541
• US Class Current: 340/932.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• 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

Abstract

Provided are systems and methods for determining the parking difficulty of segments of a geographic area. A system may include portable computers and vehicle navigation systems traversing segments of a geographic area. Location tracks may be received corresponding to the paths of the vehicles. The location tracks may be evaluated to determine if they are from a vehicle searching for parking. Some segments of the searching-for-parking location tracks may be included in a circle event, and the number circle events that include a segment may indicate the difficulty of parking in that segment. The parking difficulty may be expressed as a parking difficulty index and may be transmitted to a computer for view on an interactive map or for use in determining directions to a destination.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining parking difficulty, the method comprising:

receiving, at a processor, a plurality of location tracks for a respective plurality of vehicles, each of the plurality of location tracks comprising a plurality of segments of a geographic area traversed by a respective one of the plurality of vehicles;

determining, via the processor, a first index for each of the plurality of location tracks, the first index comprising a comparison of a first group of the plurality of segments and a second group of the plurality of segments of each of the plurality of location tracks;

selecting, via the processor, a group of the plurality of location tracks based on the first index;

determining, via the processor, a circle event for each of the group of the plurality of location tracks, the circle event corresponding to the traverse of at least one of the plurality of segments by a respective one of the plurality of vehicles;

counting, via the processor, a number of circle events that includes a first selected segment of the plurality of segments; and

assigning, via the processor of the computer, a parking difficulty index for the first selected segment based on the number of circle events for the selected segment, the parking difficulty index representative of parking difficulty in the first selected segment.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein selecting, via the processor, a group of the plurality of location tracks based on the first index comprises comparing the first index to a threshold.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first group of segments comprises a total number of the plurality of segments and the second group of segments comprises a number of the plurality of segments traversed at least twice by the respective one of the plurality of vehicles.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining, via the processor of the computer, the first index for each of the plurality of location tracks comprises computing the fraction of the second group divided by the first group.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising counting, via the processor of the computer, a second number of circle events that includes a second selected segment of the plurality of segments.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the first selected segment and the second selected segment exclude a last segment of the plurality of segments.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of segments comprises a portion of a street of the geographic area.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the portion comprises a portion corresponding to one city block.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising transmitting, over a network coupled to the processor, the parking difficulty index to a computer for display on a display of the computer.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein assigning, via the processor of the computer, a parking difficulty index comprises normalizing the number of circle events to a total number of the plurality of location tracks that include the first segment.

11. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium having executable computer code stored thereon, the code comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the computer to:

receive, at a processor, a plurality of location tracks for a respective plurality of vehicles, each of the plurality of location tracks comprising a plurality of segments of a geographic area traversed by a respective one of the plurality of vehicles;

determine, via the processor, a first index for each of the plurality of location tracks, the first index comprising a comparison of a first group of the plurality of segments and a second group of the plurality of segments of each of the plurality of location tracks;

select, via the processor, a group of the plurality of location tracks based on the first index;

determine, via the processor, a circle event for each of the group of the plurality of location tracks, the circle event corresponding to the traverse of at least one of the plurality of segments by a respective one of the plurality of vehicles;

count, via the processor, a number of circle events that includes a first selected segment of the plurality of segments; and

assign, via the processor of the computer, a parking difficulty index for the first selected segment based on the number of circle events for the selected segment, the parking difficulty index representative of parking difficulty in the first selected segment.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the computer code comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

select, via the processor, a group of the plurality of location tracks based on the first index by comparing the first index to a threshold.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the first group of segments comprises a total number of the plurality of segments and the second group of segments comprises a number of the plurality of segments traversed at least twice by the respective one of the plurality of vehicles.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the computer code comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to count, via the processor of the computer, a second number of circle events that includes a second selected segment of the plurality of segments.

15. A computer-implemented method for determining parking difficulty, comprising:

determining, via a processor, a first plurality of location tracks of a first plurality of vehicles, the first plurality of location tracks comprising a first plurality of segments of a geographic area traversed by the first plurality of vehicles over a first duration;

storing the first plurality of location tracks on a memory accessible by the processor;

determining, via the processor, a second plurality of location tracks of a second plurality of vehicles, the second plurality of location tracks comprising a second plurality of segments of the geographic area traversed by the second plurality of vehicles over a second duration, the second plurality of segments including one or more of the first plurality of segments;

storing the second plurality of location tracks on the memory accessible by the processor; and

determining, via the processor, a parking difficulty index for a segment included in the first plurality of segments and second plurality of segments based on the first plurality of location tracks and the second plurality of location tracks.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first duration comprises a plurality of hours, a plurality of days, or a plurality of weeks, and wherein the second duration comprises a plurality of hours, a plurality of days, or a plurality of weeks.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, comprising transmitting, via a network coupled to the processor, the parking difficulty index to a computer for display on the computer.