Methods and systems for electronic payment for parking using autonomous position sensing

• US 9,123,034 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transparent Wireless Systems, LLC
• Original Assignee: Transparent Wireless Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Rydbeck, Nils, Dutta, Santanu
• Primary Examiner(s): Jung, Allen J
• Application Number:
  US13/862,619
• Publication Number:
  US 20130282448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 869 Days
• Field of Search: 705/13
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• 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: G07F 17/246 provided with vehicle proximity-detectors detecting hidden masses, e.g. metal detectors, G01V, e.g. G01V3/00; proximity switches per se H03K17/00; traffic control systems G08G1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D

Abstract

A method/system of wireless payment of parking fees for a vehicle, applicable to both open street and closed garage parking, wherein the user and checker experiences are enhanced relative to the prior art by a number of means, including: autonomous sensing of the user'"'"'s/vehicle'"'"'s location and allowing the user to correct the indicated location if required; enabling a handset to automatically sense the ID of the vehicle in which it is located; enabling rapid and facile enforcement by providing the Checker with information about the location, parking session status and other attributes of parked vehicles and displaying the information on a portable terminal in a manner facilitating rapid validation; and further facilitating the identification of vehicles with expired sessions by a method/system of RF interrogation involving RF tags located in/on the vehicles and the checking terminal querying the RF tags.

Claims

1. A method of payment for parking of a vehicle in an open street with a portable wireless communications device or a wireless communications device built into the vehicle'"'"'s electronic system over a communications network comprising:

determining the identity of the vehicle by automatically sensing an identification device by the portable wireless communications device with a sensor located in the portable wireless communications device, wherein the identification device is located in the vehicle and wherein the identification device and portable wireless device are distinct devices and wherein determining the identity comprises using near field or short range wireless communications;

determining the location of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system, the location determined by a processor;

initiating a parking session via a transceiver with a parking application server, the parking session initiated by the processor;

transmitting with the transceiver the location of the vehicle and the identity of the vehicle to the parking application server;

allowing a user to input an alternative location different from the location determined by positioning system, wherein the user inputting an alternative location includes the user touching a user selected location on a touch sensitive screen or moving a cursor to a user selected location and pushing a button, wherein the user input only provides an alternative location for the parking session, and wherein the user input sets the alternative location as user'"'"'s parking spot for the parking session and initiates the parking session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification device comprises any of:

a near field communications device, a short range wireless technology device, a camera-scannable quick response code, bar code, written name, written identification code, or a short range RF tag.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing enforcement agents with geographic knowledge of the location(s) of parked vehicles with expired parking sessions, wherein the geographic knowledge only comprises geographic coordinates.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving information from the parking application server and displaying the information on a portable checking terminal,

wherein the information is associated with one or more parked vehicles and wherein the information comprises one or more of;

parking session start and end or expected end times,

parking session status selected from the group consisting of expired and known to be still parked, unexpired, and expected-expired;

or

vehicle attributes selected from electronic identity, make/model/color and vehicle image.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the parked vehicles have in or on them at least one wireless identification tag and the portable checking terminal is configured to wirelessly interrogate the at least one identification tag by direct communication between the portable checking terminal and the at least one wireless identification tag to identify parked vehicles with expired parking sessions.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

using the portable checking terminal to compare actual identification responses from the parked vehicles with the information received from the parking application server regarding vehicles with expected-expired parking status; and

determining which of the vehicles with expected-expired parking status are still physically parked in the approximate location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing of the identification device by the portable wireless communications device comprises wireless communications between the identification device and the wireless communications device.

8. A system comprising:

a wireless communications device comprising a processor providing user input and output and position location capability; and

a parking application server connected to the wireless communications device,

wherein the wireless communications device and the parking application server are configured to perform a method of payment for parking of a vehicle comprising;

determining the identity of the vehicle by the wireless communications device by automatically sensing with a sensor located in the wireless communications device an identification device wherein the identification device is located in the vehicle and wherein determining the identity comprises using near field or short range wireless communications;

determining the location of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system, the location determined by the processor;

initiating a parking session via a transceiver with a parking application server, the parking session initiated by the processor;

transmitting with the transceiver the location of the vehicle and the identity of the vehicle to the parking application server, the location of the vehicle transmitted by the wireless communications device; and

wherein the system is configured to allow a user to input an alternative location different from the location determined by the vehicle positioning system, wherein the inputting an alternative location includes the user touching a user selected location on a touch sensitive screen or moving a cursor to a user selected location and pushing a button, wherein the user input only provides an alternative location for the parking session, and wherein the user input sets the alternative location as user'"'"'s parking spot for the parking session and initiates the parking session.

9. A system comprising:

a wireless communications device comprising a processor built into a vehicle'"'"'s electronic system, the wireless communications device configured to provide connectivity to a parking application server;

a user input and output system built into the vehicle'"'"'s electronic system;

a vehicle positioning system which provides position location capability based on inputs from the following built-in subsystems;

satellite radio navigation and inertial navigation; and

a parking application server connected to the wireless communications device, wherein the wireless communications device and the parking application server are configured to perform a method of payment for parking of a vehicle comprising;

determining the location of the vehicle using the vehicle positioning system, the location determined by the processor;

initiating a parking session via a transceiver with a parking application server, the parking session initiated by the processor;

transmitting with the transceiver the location of the vehicle and the identity of the vehicle to the parking application server, the location of the vehicle transmitted by the wireless communications device; and

wherein the system is configured to allow a user to input an alternative location different from the location determined by the vehicle positioning system, wherein the inputting an alternative location includes the user touching a user selected location on a touch sensitive screen or moving a cursor to a user selected location and pushing a button, wherein the user input only provides an alternative location for the parking session, and wherein the user input sets the alternative location as user'"'"'s parking spot for the parking session and initiates the parking session.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the system is configured to:

automatically determine an end of a parking session based on inputs provided by the vehicle'"'"'s positioning system using at least one of the vehicle'"'"'s location and speed; and

communicate the end of the parking session to the parking application server and/or a user.