AUTOMATIC PARKING STATION SYSTEM FOR CYCLES AND BICYCLES

• US 20100245128A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pedro Roberto Kanof
• Original Assignee: Pedro Roberto Kanof
• Inventors: Kanof, Pedro Roberto
• Granted Patent: US 8,508,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/932.200
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 2003/005 Supports or holders associated with means for bike rental
• CPC Class Codes: B62H 3/00 Separate supports or holders for parking or storing cycles cycle supports used during maintenance B25H; building aspects E04H
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/30 Parking meters registering or indicating waiting time of vehicles by means driven by the vehicle G07C5/02; coin-freed parking meters G07F17/24
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0057 for the hiring or rent of vehicles, e.g. cars, bicycles or wheelchairs car rental G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 70/50 Special application
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 70/5872 For cycles

Abstract

The invention refers to automatic parking station for cycles or bicycles, comprising at least one interactive workstation (2) and a plurality of parking posts (3). Each parking post includes a first lock portion (4) aimed at securing a cycle or bicycle thereto through a removable second lock portion (7) of the cycle or bicycle (6). The parking posts (3) are connected to the interactive workstation (2) through a local communication network (5) to allow exchange of commands between the interactive workstation (2) and the parking posts (3). Each parking post (3) comprises code reading means for reading a cycle/bicycle code univocally identifying a cycle or bicycle and stored in a memory medium, so that the cycle/bicycle can be identified by the interactive workstation (2).

Claims

1. An automatic parking station for cycles or bicycles, comprising at least one interactive workstation and a plurality of parking posts, each parking post including a first lock portion aimed at securing a cycle or or bicycle, said parking posts being connected to the at least one interactive workstation through a local communication network to allow exchange of commands between the at least one interactive workstation and the parking posts, each parking post comprising code reading means for reading a cycle/bicycle code univocally identifying a cycle of bicycle and stored in a memory medium, so that the cycle/bicycle can be identified by the interactive workstation.

2. The parking station of claim 1, wherein the code reading means are mounted in the first lock portion and the second lock portion comprises the memory medium.

3. The parking station of claim 1, wherein the code reading means is selected from the group comprising an electrical contact reading means, a magnetic reading means and an optical reading means, and the memory medium is selected from the group comprising an integrated circuit or chip, a magnetic strip or chip and a bar code, respectively.

4. The parking station of claim 1, wherein the code reading means are mounted in the first lock portion in a position which can be contacted or approached by the memory medium when the second lock portion is connected to the first lock portion.

5. The parking station of claim 1, wherein the first lock portion comprises a microprocessor circuit connected to the local communication network, said microprocessor circuit comprising a parking post code stored therein, for univocally identifying each parking post connected to the local communication network, said microprocessor circuit being connected to said reading means.

6. The parking station of claim 5, wherein said at least one interactive workstation is configured to send a booking message to one of the parking posts, said booking message containing a locking/unlocking command, said cycle/bicycle code and, optionally, a booking time span, said microprocessor circuit of the first lock portion being configured to compare the cycle/bicycle code read by the reading means with the cycle/bicycle code contained in the booking message.

7. The parking station of claim 6, wherein the microprocessor circuit is configured to maintain, preferably during said booking time span, the locked status or the unlocked status of the first lock portion according to the locking/unlocking command if the cycle/bicycle code read by the reading means is equal to the cycle/bicycle code contained in the booking message.

8. The parking station of claim 1, wherein the at least one interactive workstation comprises means for storing user identification information.

9. An automatic parking station system comprising a plurality of automatic parking stations, a central server connected to said plurality of automatic parking stations via a station communication network, the automatic parking stations being client nodes of the network, being located in different sites of a city or a geographical area and being associated with a respective parking station code used for addressing in the station communication network.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the interactive workstations of the automatic parking stations are configured to exchange messages with the central server via the station communication network, the messages from the automatic parking stations including at least one of:

status messages comprising information about the busy/free parking status of the respective automatic parking station from where the status message is sent,

charging or billing messages, for requesting or acknowledging payment by a user;

operation messages for communicating requests for servicing or maintenance;

requests and corresponding responses for available free parking posts at neighboring automatic parking stations located in the surroundings of the respective automatic parking station from where the requests are sent, based on locked/unlocked status information of each of the parking posts of the neighboring automatic parking stations.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the central server is configured to receive the request, status, operational and billing messages from the automatic parking stations and update a database according to the content of said messages, said database including a user database and a parking database, the user database comprising user identification data, billing information and said cycle/bicycle codes, the parking database comprising said parking station codes and, for each parking station code, a geographical location of the corresponding automatic parking station.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said parking database further comprises, for each parking station code, the number of parking posts of the corresponding automatic parking station which have a locked cycle/bicycle available for rent and/or the number of posts having no cycles/bicycles locked thereto, the central server being configured to update such number of parking posts based on the busy/free parking status information contained in said status messages received from the automatic parking stations.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the status message comprises the parking station code, a parking post code for univocally identifying the parking post of the parking station from which the status message was triggered, and the locked/unlocked state information of such parking post.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the billing messages include the date and time at which the locked/unlocked status of the parking post triggering the generation of the status message changed.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the central server is configured to allow renting companies to access said database and to conceal the private data of said users from said renting companies.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the central server is connected to the Internet or to a phone network, in order to be remotely accessible for renting or parking requests from any users of the system.

17. A method for allowing use of cycle/bicycle parking stations to both private users and renting companies owing cycles or bicycles, comprising the steps of:

issuing a unique cycle/bicycle code for each cycle and bicycle;

storing owner identification data associated with the cycle/bicycle code;

providing locking means comprising a first lock portion and a second lock portion;

fixing a memory medium in which the cycle/bicycle code is stored in to a second lock portion of a locking mechanism;

fixing the second lock portion to a cycle or bicycle of an owner, the owner being either a private user or a renting company;

providing a first lock portion on a parking post; and

providing an automatic parking station system.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of, at said automatic parking station;

validating a user;

checking whether the user selects to pick up or drop off a cycle/bicycle;

if the user selects to pick up a cycle/bicycle, checking whether the automatic parking station comprises parking posts having their first lock mechanism in the locked state and, if so, sending an unlock command message to one of such parking posts;

if the user selects to drop a cycle/bicycle off, receiving a locking status message from the parking post where the cycle/bicycle has been dropped off.

19. The method of claim 18, further including the steps of:

if there are no parking posts or cycles/bicycles available at the automatic parking station, at said automatic parking station sending a request to the central server for available parking posts or cycles/bicycles an receiving a corresponding response;

at said automatic parking station, displaying the location of the parking posts or the parked cycles/bicycles to the user and wait for a section by the user;

upon said selection, at said automatic parking station sending a booking request for the selected parking post or parked cycle/bicycle to the central server;

keeping the first lock portion of the selected parking post in the unlocked state or in the locked state for a predetermined time span.

20-22. -22. (canceled)

23. An automatic parking station for cycles or bicycles, comprising:

a) at least one interactive workstation;

b) a plurality of parking posts;

c) locking means comprising a first lock portion and a second lock portion;

d) each parking post including a first lock portion for securing a cycle or bicycle thereto through engagement with the second lock portion located on said cycle or bicycle;

e) a local communication network connecting said parking posts to said at least one interactive workstation for exchanging commands between said interactive workstation and said parking posts;

f) the cycle/bicycle code univocally identifying a cycle or bicycle being stored in a memory medium within said second lock portion;

g) each parking post comprising code reading means for reading the cycle/bicycle code univocally identifying a cycle or bicycle; and

h) the cycle/bicycle can be identified by the interactive work station.