Parking lot

• US 9,177,221 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2012
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Nagy, Oliver
• Primary Examiner(s): Czekaj, Dave
• Assistant Examiner(s): Joisil, Berteau
• Application Number:
  US13/412,394
• Publication Number:
  US 20120236149A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,338 Days
• Field of Search: 348/148
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/35 Means for automatic or assisted adjustment of the relative position of charging devices and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 6/426 Parking guides
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/142 external to the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/146 where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have OCR-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio signals. The parking lot including a central computer for storing parking space reservations, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID, a radio beacon for the parking spaces for reading out the radio ID of an entering vehicle via radio and signaling the radio ID to the central computer, and at least one camera unit for each parking space for reading the license number of a vehicle and correspondingly signaling the license number to the central computer. The central computer checks whether for a radio ID signaled to the central computer the vehicle license number is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of this parking space, and to log instances in which this is not the case.

Claims

1. A parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have license plates with optical character recognition (OCR)-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio, comprising:

a central computer configured to store parking space reservations each comprising an indication of a parking space, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID; and

a common radio beacon for the parking spaces that is positioned at an entrance of the parking lot and configured to read out the radio ID of an entering vehicle and signal the radio ID to the central computer;

wherein each parking space is individually equipped with at least one camera unit, the at least one camera unit being configured to read the license number of a vehicle parked on the parking space by OCR and signal the license number to the central computer,

wherein the central computer is configured to check whether for a given radio ID signaled to the central computer, the vehicle license number assigned thereto in a stored parking space reservation is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of said parking space, and to log instances in which said vehicle license number is not subsequently signaled by said camera unit.

2. The parking lot according to claim 1, further comprising an additional camera unit mounted at the entrance and being configured to read the license number of the entering vehicle by OCR and signal the license number to the central computer, wherein the central computer is further configured to check whether a signaled radio ID and a vehicle license number signaled by the additional camera unit are assigned to one another in a parking space reservation, and to log instances in which said assigned radio ID and said vehicle license number are not signaled to one another in said parking space reservation.

3. The parking lot according to claim 1, further comprising a display panel mounted at the entrance and controlled by the central computer, wherein the central computer is configured to display, the parking space that is assigned in a parking space reservation to a radio ID signaled to the central computer, on the display panel.

4. The parking lot according to claim 1, wherein the common radio beacon is a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) radio beacon for reading out onboard units of a DSRC road toll system via radio.

5. The parking lot according to claim 1, wherein at least one parking space is equipped with an electric vehicle charging station controlled by the central computer, and wherein the central computer is further configured to unlock the charging station for charging the vehicle after successfully checking the vehicle license number signaled by the camera unit of said at least one parking space.

6. The parking lot according to claim 5, wherein the parking space reservation for said parking space contains charging parameters that are specific to the vehicle and transmitted to the charging station by the central computer.

7. The parking lot according to claim 6, wherein the charging parameters specific to the vehicle are read from the onboard unit by the common radio beacon and added to the parking space reservation.

8. The parking lot according to claim 5, wherein the camera unit of said parking space is configured to record a thermal image of the vehicle during the charging process to trigger an alarm, if a temperature of the vehicle exceeds a predetermined value.

9. The parking lot according to claim 1, wherein at least one parking space is provided with a surface marking that separates the at least one parking space from other parking spaces from one another and can be monitored by its camera unit, and wherein the camera unit, in cooperation with the central computer, detects and logs instances in which the surface marking is covered by a vehicle parking thereon.

10. The parking lot according to claim 9, wherein at least two camera units are provided per parking space to jointly monitor the surface marking of the parking space.

11. The parking lot according to claim 9, wherein the surface marking is projected onto the ground by at least one lighting unit.

12. The parking lot according to claim 11, wherein the lighting unit projects a light fan onto the ground and at least one of the camera units lies outside the light fan.

13. A method for checking reservations of a parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have license plates with OCR-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio, comprising:

storing a parking space reservation comprising an indication of a parking space, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID in a central computer,

reading out the radio ID of an entering vehicle via radio by a common radio beacon for the plurality of parking spaces that is positioned at an entrance of the parking lot and signaling the radio ID to the central computer, and

for a parking space of the plurality of parking spaces, OCR reading the vehicle license number of a vehicle parked on the parking space of the plurality of parking spaces by at least one stationarily mounted camera unit and signaling the license number to the central computer, and

checking in the central computer whether for a radio ID signaled to the central computer the vehicle license number assigned to the radio ID in the stored parking space reservation is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of the parking space, and logging instances in which said vehicle license number is not subsequently signaled by said camera unit.

14. The method according to claim 13 for a parking lot of which at least one parking space is equipped with an electric vehicle charging station that is controlled by the central computer, wherein the central computer unlocks the charging station for charging the vehicle after successfully checking the vehicle license number signaled by the camera unit of this parking space.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the parking space reservation for said parking space contains charging parameters that are specific to the vehicle and transmitted to the charging station by the central computer.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the charging parameters specific to the vehicle are read from the onboard unit by the common radio beacon and added to the parking space reservation.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the camera unit of said parking space also records a thermal image of the vehicle during the charging process in order to trigger an alarm if a maximum temperature is exceeded.

18. The method according to claim 13 for a parking lot at the entrance of which an additional camera unit for OCR reading the license number of an entering vehicle and signaling the license number to the central computer is mounted, wherein the central computer checks whether a signaled radio ID and a vehicle license number signaled by the additional camera unit are assigned to one another in the parking space reservation, and logs instances in which this is not the case.

19. The method according to claim 13, wherein the central computer displays, on a display panel mounted at the entrance, the parking space that is assigned in the parking space reservation to a radio ID signaled to the central computer.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the central computer displays, on a display panel mounted at the entrance, the parking space that is assigned in the parking space reservation to a radio ID signaled to the central computer.