Method and system for avoidance of parking violations

• US 9,558,665 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2015
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Operr Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kevin Sunlin Wang
• Inventors: Wang, Kevin Sunlin
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US14/832,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20160155332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: 340/932.2, 705/13, 701/117
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/015 with provision for distinguishing between two or more types of vehicles, e.g. between motor-cars and cycles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for alerting users on how to avoid receiving parking violation citations. A location determining apparatus identifies a location of a user. A database stores historical parking violation citations, real-time crowdsourced parking violation citations, and other parking violation related information with a verification algorithm and an inference algorithm. Parking intent is determined by a user'"'"'s location and speed and once the determination is made, the database is polled to identify whether potential parking violations exist, where an alert will be sent. A forum functionality allows information exchange and idea sharing about parking violation citations and avoidance thereof. Crowdsourced parking violation related data is gathered using an incentive method with rewards and a parking ticket payment module collects parking violation-related information for the database. Historical weather data is used to predict the impact on current parking situations.

Claims

1. A system with one or more computing devices comprising a wired or wireless source of communications, one or more memory units to memorize and store various data, and one or more processors coupled to said one or more memory units, wherein said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to map and store parking violation related data and notify a user on how to avoid receiving parking violation citations, said system comprising:

a clock mechanism to determine a present time and date;

a unified database comprising historical parking violation related data interactively correlated to real-time crowdsourced parking violation related data clustered into two data types consisting of commercial vehicle related data and non-commercial vehicle related data, said historical parking violation data comprising one or more of;

parking rules, violation codes, one of more parking violation statutory codes or more abbreviations used by parking enforcement personnel, one or more associated fines or other penalties, one or more parking signs with one or more locations, one or more associated parking meter cost with parking meter locations, one or more notices for temporary or permanent parking prohibitions, one or more tow away zone locations, and one or more parking violations citation records;

a forum module for crowdsourcing said parking violation related data to assist said user in avoiding said parking violation citations;

a location determining apparatus to identify a current location of said user, wherein said location determining apparatus is connected to said unified database such that one or more notifications of parking related information corresponded to said current location and correspond to said user'"'"'s type, wherein said user type comprises commercial vehicle user type and non-commercial vehicle user type;

a processing apparatus connected to said unified database to analyze said parking violation related data to predict said user potentially being in violation of one or more parking rules or regulations;

a display apparatus connected to said processing apparatus; and

a notification apparatus for generating a set of notifications of potential parking related violations, wherein said set of notifications of potential parking related violations are issued to said user based on said user type to which said user belongs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said unified database is populated by at least one of the steps of:

receiving said historical parking violation related data from one or more sources; and

receiving said real-time crowdsourced parking violation related data from said user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said one or more sources for said parking violation related data in said unified database comprise one or more government agencies, municipalities, non-government organizations, private entities, community organizations, interested individuals, websites and blog posts or social networks.

4. The system of claim 3, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to interactively correlate said real-time crowdsourced parking violation related data with said historical parking violation related data comprising correcting, updating, and supplementing at least a portion of said historical parking violation related data dynamically.

5. The system of claim 4, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to cluster said parking violation related data in said unified database into two data types:

commercial vehicle related data type and non-commercial vehicle related data type.

6. The system of claim 1, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to provide said forum module to collect said real-time crowdsourced parking violation related data by allowing said user to share and contribute parking violation related information.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein sharing and contributing parking violation related information comprises supplementing parking violation citation data not currently available in said unified database, redesigning one or more parking signs, or sharing one or more recommendations for avoiding parking violation citations.

8. The system of claim 6, said forum module comprising at least a general forum module and a specific forum module,

wherein said general forum module allows said user to exchange general information regarding the avoidance of parking violation citations with one or more other users, and

wherein said specific forum module is configured to:

gather questions, answers, and comments about parking violation citations at one or more specific locations; and

provide recommendations on how to avoid said parking violation citations at said one or more specific locations.

9. The system of claim 8, said specific forum module providing a street view function with one or more photos, videos and recommendations for avoiding parking violation citations for said one or more specific locations with a pattern of high parking violation citations.

10. The system of claim 6, said specific forum module further comprising a parking violation citation dispute module connected to said unified database and said location determining apparatus.

11. The system of claim 10, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to provide said parking violation citation dispute module allowing said user to access information to evaluate the probability of a successful parking violation citation dispute,

wherein said user seeks crowdsourced assistance from said one or more other users or seeks third party professional service for said parking violation citation.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said unified database assists said user in evaluating said parking violation citation for said probability of a successful parking violation citation dispute.

13. The system of claim 6, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to provide a parking signage database associated with said specific forum module for storing parking sign locations, images, or corresponding parking rules or regulations,

wherein plain explanations of parking signage for one or more corresponding locations are provided.

14. The system of claim 13, said user sharing said parking signage for said one or more corresponding locations and contributing one or more redesigns of said parking signage.

15. The system of claim 6, said user rating said one or more recommendations for avoiding said parking violation citations and said one or more redesigns of said signage positively or negatively,

wherein the highest rated said one or more recommendations for avoiding parking violation citations and one or more redesigns are displayed in order either at the top or at the bottom of said display apparatus.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to:

obtain consent from said user to access said user'"'"'s parking violation related data from one or more government sources comprising at least a portion of;

location, date and time of citation issuance, reason, issuing agency information, and other related data regarding one or more issued parking violation citations,

wherein said user is notified about having any active parking violation citations; and

provide a parking violation citation payment module for said user to pay fines incurred as a result of receiving said parking violation citation or otherwise dispute said parking violation citation.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said parking violation related data obtained from said government sources collected by consent from said user is used to correct, update and supplement said unified database.

18. The system of claim 1, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to process said parking violation related data from said unified database by performing the steps of:

retrieving location, date, time, and one or more violation codes of each of the issued parking violation citations for commercial vehicle related data or non-commercial vehicle related data from said unified database;

retrieving said one or more parking violation statutory codes or one or more abbreviations used by parking enforcement personnel in each said parking violation citation for commercial or non-commercial vehicles from said unified database;

deciphering one or more parking violation codes or parking violation statutory codes in each issued parking violation citation for commercial or non-commercial vehicles retrieved from said unified database and correlating one or more deciphered parking violation or parking violation statutory codes with one or more parking rules or regulations from said unified database; and

clustering said parking violation related data from said unified database according to one or more locations, dates and times of violation issuance, and one or more reasons for violation issuance.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said notices for temporary or permanent parking prohibitions in said unified database further include at least one or more fines or other penalties associated with one or more parking locations and one or more parking times or parking time intervals.

20. The system of claim 19, said notices for temporary or permanent parking prohibitions in said unified database further comprise one or more tow away zones, whether temporarily or permanently enforced, comprising:

one or more locations where a vehicle will be towed away;

specific time or time interval when at said one or more locations a vehicle will be towed away; and

information related to public and private tow away zones along with contact information regarding towing companies, fines and other penalties associated with said vehicle being towed away.

21. The system of claim 1, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to cluster users into two sets of user types:

commercial vehicle user type and non-commercial vehicle user type.

22. The system of claim 1, said display apparatus is equipped at least with:

a display to display one or more notifications; and

one or more sensors, one or more accelerometers and one or more GPS devices to identify said user'"'"'s parking intent.

23. The system of claim 22, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to identify said parking intent of said user based on said user'"'"'s vehicle'"'"'s current speed and the present date, time, and the proximity to said user'"'"'s preset destination provided by said display apparatus.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein once said parking intent is identified, said processing apparatus cross-correlates data in said unified database with present date, time, and type of user to determine said user potentially being in violation of one or more parking rules or regulations applicable to the intended parking location and generates one or more notifications applicable to said user.

25. The system of claim 24, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to issue said one or more notifications to said user with the data type corresponding to the user type said user belongs to,

wherein said data type is selected from the group consisting of:

said commercial vehicle related data type corresponding to said commercial vehicle user type, and

said non-commercial vehicle related data type corresponds to said non-commercial vehicle user type.

26. The system of claim 25, said one or more notifications comprising one or more reasons for potentially receiving said parking violation citation availed from said unified database for said user'"'"'s intended parking location.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said one or more reasons for potentially receiving said parking violation citation comprise at least a portion of one or more currently enforced rules or regulations applicable to said user'"'"'s intended parking location and the number of previously issued parking related violation citations at said user'"'"'s intended parking location.

28. The system of claim 25, said one or more memory units instruct said one or more processors to send said user one or more notifications of one or more notices for temporary or permanent parking prohibitions applicable to one or more locations,

wherein said one or more notifications connect to said parking signage database and include applicable parking signage stored in said parking signage database.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein one or more notifications applicable to said user'"'"'s current location automatically display said applicable parking signage on said user'"'"'s display apparatus.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said display apparatus operates through an interface of a mobile application on a mobile device or an interface of a navigation system of a vehicle.