Emissions Reduction in Vehicle Parking

• US 20160253847A1
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Published: 09/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Florida International University Board of Trustees (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: The Florida International University Board of Trustees (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: ULLRICH, Oliver, RISHE, Naphtali David
• Granted Patent: US 9,892,639 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/065 by counting the vehicles in a section of the road or in a parking area, i.e. comparing incoming count with outgoing count
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles

Abstract

Given a parking structure where vehicle identification devices are placed so that they can identify the entry and exit of individual vehicles, techniques and systems recommend a parking zone with available spaces to a driver based on likely desirability, which may reduce vehicle emissions associated with cruising for a parking space. Techniques include determining a zone recommendation by selecting the zone having the highest attractiveness value and an occupancy ratio lower than a threshold, and modifying parking metrics in accordance with the probability that the driver will follow the recommendation. Vehicle metadata may be used as a factor in the zone recommendation. Information about actual driver parking behavior and/or an analysis of historical parking records may be used to adjust system parameters, including the probability the driver will follow the recommendation and the attractiveness values.

Claims

1. A system for reducing vehicle emissions in a parking structure, the system comprising:

one or more computer readable storage media;

a processing system;

one or more vehicle identification devices operative to identify a vehicle entering and leaving the parking structure;

a data store contained on the one or more computer readable storage media comprising;

one or more attractiveness values assigned to one or more zones in the parking structure;

a first probability value (pf) denoting a probability of a driver following a recommendation;

a second probability value (pc) denoting a probability of the driver not trusting the recommendation; and

program instructions for an emissions reduction service stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that direct the processing system to;

in response to receiving, from the one or more vehicle identification devices, an indication of a particular vehicle entering the parking structure;

determine a zone recommendation by selecting a particular zone having the highest attractiveness value with an occupancy ratio lower than an occupancy threshold;

when a notification interface is available to a driver of the particular vehicle, render the zone recommendation on the notification interface, select a first random value and, when the first random value is lesser than or equal to pf, modify the data store to indicate that an assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone recommendation;

when the notification interface is not available to the driver of the particular vehicle, or when the first random value is higher than pf, select a second random value and,

when the second random value is less than or equal to pc, modify the data store to indicate that the assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone having the highest attractiveness value, having at least one available space, and

when the second random value is greater than pc, modify the data store to indicate that the assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone randomly selected from one or more zones having at least one available space; and

in response to receiving, from one of the one or more vehicle identification devices, an indication of the particular vehicle leaving the parking structure, modify the data store to indicate that the particular vehicle vacated the assigned zone.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more parking survey devices, wherein the one or more parking survey devices identify an actual parking zone of the particular vehicle.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more parking survey devices comprise one or more roving vehicle identification devices, one or more vehicle identification devices associated with a zone, one or more CCTV systems, one or more mobile device applications, or a combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising program instructions, that, in response to receiving from the one or more parking survey devices an indication of the actual parking zone of the particular vehicle, modify the data store to store the actual parking zone of the particular vehicle.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising program instructions to:

analyze a set of parking events from a history of parking events stored on the data store; and

in response to a divergence between the actual parking zone and the zone recommendation for the set of parking events, adjust one or more parameter values.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the set of parking events is restricted to the parking events of a single vehicle identifier.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the set of parking events is restricted to the parking events of a subset of vehicle identifiers.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein one of the one or more parameter values is the first probability value (pf) for the system or a subset of vehicle identifiers.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more parameter values include:

the second probability value (pc) and the attractiveness value, for one or more parking zone, for the system or a subset of vehicle identifiers.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle metadata store.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the program instructions to determine the zone recommendation comprise instructions that direct the processing system to:

obtain a vehicle classification for the particular vehicle from the vehicle metadata store; and

select the particular zone from a set of parking zones determined by the vehicle classification.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the program instructions to determine the zone recommendation comprise instructions that direct the processing system to:

obtain a vehicle metadata for the particular vehicle from the vehicle metadata store; and

select, from the data store, a subset of the one or more attractiveness values assigned to one or more zones in the parking structure, wherein the subset is determined by the vehicle metadata.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more vehicle identification devices comprise one or more license plate readers, one or more parking permit readers, one or more closed-circuit television systems, or a combination thereof.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the notification device is one or more of a dynamic sign and a mobile device application.

15. A method for improving parking recommendations in a parking structure, the method comprising:

in response to receiving, from a vehicle identification device, an indication of a particular vehicle entering the parking structure;

determining a zone recommendation, from one or more zones in the parking structure, each zone having an attractiveness value, by selecting a particular zone having the highest attractiveness value and an occupancy ratio lower than an occupancy threshold;

when a notification interface is available to a driver of the particular vehicle, rendering the zone recommendation on the notification interface, selecting a first random value and, when the first random value is lesser than or equal to a probability (pf) of the driver following the recommendation, modifying a data store to indicate that an assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone recommendation;

when the notification interface is not available to the driver of the particular vehicle, or when the first random value is higher than pf, selecting a second random value and,

when the second random value is less than or equal to a probability (pc) that the driver does not trust the zone recommendation, modifying the data store to indicate that the assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone having the highest attractiveness value, having at least one available space, and

when the second random value is greater than pc, modifying the data store to indicate that the assigned zone of the particular vehicle is the zone randomly selected from one or more zones having at least one available space; and

in response to receiving, from the vehicle identification device, an indication of the particular vehicle leaving the parking structure, modify the data store to indicate that the particular vehicle vacated the assigned zone.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining the zone recommendation comprises:

obtaining a vehicle classification for the particular vehicle from a vehicle metadata store; and

selecting the particular zone from a set of parking zones determined by the vehicle classification.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving an indication of an actual parking zone of the particular vehicle from one or more parking survey devices; and

modifying the data store to store the actual parking zone of the particular vehicle.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

analyzing a set of parking events from a history of parking events stored on the data store; and

in response to a divergence between the actual parking zone and the zone recommendation for the set of parking events, adjusting one or more parameter values.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more parameter values include the probability (pf) and the probability (pc), for the system or a subset of vehicle identifiers.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more parameter values include:

the attractiveness value, for one or more parking zone, for the system or a subset of vehicle identifiers.