METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF MANAGING PARKING SPACE OCCUPANCY

• US 20170200320A1
• Filed: 03/26/2017
• Published: 07/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Natan Tomer
• Original Assignee: Natan Tomer
• Inventors: TOMER, Natan
• Granted Patent: US 10,373,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• 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 15/02 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 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/147 where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre

Abstract

A method of calculating a parking fee in a public parking space based on coordinating a transfer of a parking space between vehicles and automatically decreasing the fee accordingly, comprising: creating a command to continuously increase a calculated parking fee for a parked vehicle currently occupying a public parking space, based on duration of the occupying; receiving a message from a client terminal associated with the parked vehicle, the message includes a notification of future departure of the parked vehicle from the public parking space; selecting an arriving vehicle to occupy the public parking space when the parked vehicle is departing, based on an estimated time of the future departure and a current location of the arriving vehicle; and creating a command to halt the increasing of the calculated parking fee before identifying a transfer of the public parking space.

Claims

1. A method of calculating a parking fee in a public parking space based on coordinating a transfer of a parking space between vehicles and automatically decreasing the fee accordingly, comprising:

creating a command to continuously increase a calculated parking fee for a parked vehicle currently occupying a public parking space, based on duration of said occupying;

receiving a message from a client terminal associated with said parked vehicle, said message includes a notification of future departure of said parked vehicle from said public parking space;

selecting an arriving vehicle to occupy said public parking space when said parked vehicle is departing, based on an estimated time of said future departure and a current location of an arriving client terminal associated with said arriving vehicle; and

creating a command to halt said increasing of said calculated parking fee before identifying said transfer of a public parking space.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said halting also includes continuously decreasing said calculated parking fee.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said halting also includes creating a command to continuously increase a calculated parking fee for said arriving vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said halting is done according to a time of said message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said halting is done according to a time of said selecting.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a location of said public parking space to said arriving client terminal to be presented in a user interface on a screen of said arriving client terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving confirmation from said arriving client terminal to occupy said public parking space.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said halting is done according to a time of said confirmation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a transfer of the public parking space is not performed, said halting is canceled.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said commands are sent to a billing system.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when loaded into a computer, establish a machine performing the method of claim 1.

12. A system of calculating a parking fee in a public parking space based on coordinating a transfer of a parking space between vehicles according to location of client terminals and calculated estimation of arrival times, comprising:

a program store storing code; and

a processor coupled to said interface and said program store for implementing said stored code, said code comprising;

code to create a command to continuously increase a calculated parking fee for a parked vehicle currently occupying a public parking space, based on duration of said occupying;

code to receive a message from a client terminal associated with said parked vehicle, said message includes a notification of future departure of said parked vehicle from said public parking space;

code to select an arriving vehicle to occupy said public parking space when said parked vehicle is departing, based on an estimated time of said future departure and a current location of an arriving client terminal associated with said arriving vehicle; and

code to create a command to halt said increasing of said calculated parking fee before identifying a transfer of said public parking space.

13. A method of coordinating a transfer of a parking space between vehicles based on location of client terminals and calculated estimation of arrival times, comprising:

monitoring locations of a plurality of client terminals, each associated with a vehicle occupying a public parking space, via a location sensor of each of said plurality of client terminals;

estimating a departure time of each of said plurality of vehicles from each said corresponding public parking space;

receiving a request from an arriving client terminal to find a parking space for an arriving vehicle associated with said arriving client terminal;

estimating an arrival time of said arriving vehicle to each of said plurality of public parking spaces based on a current location of said arriving client terminal;

matching between said arriving client terminal and a departing client terminal of said plurality of client terminals, based on correlation between said estimated departure time of a departing vehicle associated with said departing client terminal from a selected public parking space currently occupied by said departing vehicle, and said estimated arrival time of said arriving vehicle to said selected public parking space; and

sending instructions to arriving client terminal for driving to a location of said public parking space, wherein said instructions are adjusted so that an actual arrival time of said arriving vehicle to said selected public parking space is closer to said estimated departure time than said estimated arrival time.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a transfer of said public parking space from said departing vehicle to said arriving vehicle.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said estimating a departure time is done according to a distance of a current location of each of said plurality of client terminals from each said corresponding public parking space.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said estimating an arrival time is done according to at least one of distance and traffic load of a current location of said arriving client terminal from each of said plurality of public parking spaces.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

creating a command to continuously increase a calculated parking fee for said departing vehicle, based on duration of occupying said public parking space;

receiving confirmation from said arriving client terminal to occupy said selected public parking space; and

creating a command to halt said increasing of said calculated parking fee before identifying said transfer of said public parking space.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a message from one of said plurality of client terminals, said message includes a notification of future departure of said associated parked vehicle from said corresponding public parking space and used for said matching.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

presenting commercial content on a screen of at least one of said departing client terminal and said arriving client terminal, based on said location of said selected public parking space.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when loaded into a computer, establish a machine performing the method of claim 13.

21. A method of coordinating a transfer of a parking space between vehicles based on location of client terminals and calculated estimation of arrival times, comprising:

monitoring locations of a plurality of client terminals, each associated with a vehicle occupying a public parking space, via a location sensor of each of said plurality of client terminals;

estimating a departure time of each of said plurality of vehicles from each said corresponding public parking space;

receiving a request from an arriving client terminal to find a parking space for an arriving vehicle associated with said arriving client terminal;

estimating an arrival time of said arriving vehicle to each of said plurality of public parking spaces based on a current location of said arriving client terminal;

matching between said arriving client terminal and a departing client terminal of said plurality of client terminals associated with a departing vehicle currently occupying a selected public parking space;

sending instructions to arriving client terminal for driving to a location of said departing client terminal; and

sending instructions to arriving client terminal for driving to a location of said public parking space.