ELECTRONIC PARKING IDENTIFICATION AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20070046484A1
• Filed: 08/21/2006
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andrew Bucholz, Patrick Minix
• Original Assignee: Andrew Bucholz, Patrick Minix
• Inventors: Bucholz, Andrew, Minix, Patrick
• Application Number:
  US11/466,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20070046484A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/686.100
• 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: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence

Abstract

The on-street parking and surveillance system uses a combination of machine readable tags mounted on the parking spots to identify specific parking regulations to a survey vehicle for enforcement using license plate reading devices. The combination of machine readable tags with encoded parking rules on the controlled parking property eliminates the errors associated with GPS based systems and allows a wide of parking regulations to be enforced. The incorporation of a device to read markers, tags, and devices other then license plates allows the system to monitor modem parking payment systems; such as kiosks and internet based payment schemes, and manage increasingly complex local parking regulations and exemptions.

Claims

1. A method of parking surveillance comprising the steps of:

electronically reading a marker associated with a parking space;

electronically reading a license plate of a vehicle in said parking space;

associating said license plate and said parking space in a database together with time and date information.

2. A method of parking surveillance according to claim 1 wherein said step of electronically reading a marker associated with a parking space comprises optical reading of an optical marker located in or adjacent to said parking space.

3. A method of parking surveillance according to claim 1 wherein said step of electronically reading a marker associated with a parking space comprises receiving a radio signal from a radio frequency identifier located in or adjacent to said parking space.

4. A method of parking enforcement comprising the steps of:

electronically reading a marker associated with a geographic location;

determining a parking regulation based upon said marker;

electronically reading a license plate of a vehicle in a parking space in said geographic region;

electronically determining a current position of a stem of a tire of said vehicle;

identifying a matching license plate in a database of license plates, said database of license plates comprising license plate numbers, locations, times, and tire stem positions;

comparing said current position of said tire stem with a stored tire stem position associated with said matching license plate in said database;

determining whether a violation of said parking regulation has occurred.