Method for controlling entry and exit to parking garages and parking facilities

• US 9,965,902 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2014
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SKIDATA AG (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: SKIDATA AG (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Wenninger, Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Kevin H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zeroual, Omar
• Application Number:
  US14/452,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20150095123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• Field of Search: 705 13
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/04 comprising devices to free a barrier, turnstile, or the like turnstiles with registering means G07C9/10; coin-freed aspects G07F17/00

Abstract

As part of the process for controlling entry and exit in parking garages and parking facilities, the entrance or exit, in front of which a vehicle stands, is determined on the basis of a location determination of the vehicle, where the location information shall be transmitted by means of the mobile device via a wireless or mobile phone standard to a server, which is capable of controlling the parking barriers of entrances and exits after locating the vehicle, where in the case that the owner of the mobile device is already registered on the server, the user ID is also sent to the server and in the case that the owner of the mobile device is not registered on the server, the registration is done by means of the mobile device via the connection to the server and a user ID is assigned after registration, where the entrance or exit, in front of which the vehicle stands, is determined on basis of the data of location determination in the server, where a ticket in electronic form linked with the user ID is sent to the mobile device of the user in the case of an entrance or stored in the server and the parking barrier or access control device assigned to the determined entrance is actuated in order to allow the entrance, where it is determined for the case of an exit, whether the parking fee has been paid and in case of paid parking fee the parking barrier or access control device assigned to the determined exit is actuated in order to allow the exit.

Claims

1. A customer medium for use in a system for controlling entry and exit of motor vehicles in a parking facility, wherein operation of barriers at entrances and exits of the facility, in front of which a vehicle stands, is determined on the basis of a location determination of the vehicle, wherein vehicle location information is transmitted by means of a user'"'"'s mobile device via a wireless or mobile phone standard connection to a server, said server being operative to control the barriers at entrances and exits after locating the vehicle, said customer medium being connectable with the mobile device and used in the location determination for the purpose of data communication via a built-in RF transceiver with at least one reading device assigned to a parking barrier or access control device in a predetermined frequency range, the location information of the entrance or exit or the parking barrier being transmitted by the reading device to the customer medium, if the customer medium is detected by the reading device, and being transmitted from the customer medium to the mobile device, from which it is then forwarded to the server;

said customer medium comprising (1) a microprocessor having an active mode and a sleep mode;

(2) a first and a second RF antenna, said first antenna being operative to receive a wake-up signal when the microprocessor is in the sleep mode; and

(3) an operational amplifier coupled to the first antenna, for amplifying and demodulating the wake-up signal, and coupled to the microprocessor having the active mode and the sleep mode, the microprocessor having the active mode and the sleep mode, the microprocessor being connected to the RF transceiver which, in turn, is connected to the second antenna, said microprocessor being operative, in response to the receipt of the wake-up signal, to switch on the RF transceiver to transmit and receive via the second antenna;

wherein the operational amplifier is the only component of the customer medium that is fully active in the sleep mode, wherein only a part of the microprocessor is activated in the sleep mode and wherein the RF transceiver is activated only if the microprocessor is in an active mode, thereby to minimize power consumption of the customer medium; and

wherein the customer medium is configured to be charged with energy via an HF pulse that is emitted from at least one reading device, whereby energy for the customer medium is taken from the HF pulse of the reading device and is then operated autonomously for a predetermined time.

2. The customer medium according to claim 1, wherein a proactive location determination is carried out, where as soon as the mobile device of a user approaches an entry or exit of a parking garage or a parking facility below a predetermined distance, the user is asked over a corresponding software in the mobile device, whether the user wants to enter or exit, where a connection to the server is established to transmit the location information and a user ID in the case of an affirmative answer.

3. The customer medium according to claim 1, wherein payment of parking fees is made by means of the mobile device via said connection to the server or at parking ticket machine, wherein at least one of a ticket number of an electronic parking ticket and a user ID are transmitted from the parking ticket machine at an entrance to the facility via an NFC-interaction to the mobile device or by scanning the electronic ticket implemented as a QR-code or as a one-dimensional bar code on the mobile device;

and wherein, if the parking fees have been paid, a payment process is linked to at least one of the user ID and the number of the electronic ticket and stored in an appropriate database of the server, so that if the user'"'"'s vehicle is standing in front of an exit, the server operates the corresponding barrier in an opening direction after the transmission of the location information and at least one of the user ID and the number of the electronic ticket.