Communications: electrical – Vehicle parking indicators
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-20
2001-06-05
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Vehicle parking indicators
C340S933000, C340S937000, C340S005400, C340S005420, C340S005630, C368S090000, C235S378000, C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243029
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of monitoring and assessing a fee for parking a vehicle in a toll parking location and, additionally, to a method of determining if a vehicle is in violation of the requirements for use of the parking location.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional parking meters are widely used to control vehicular parking and to encourage maximum turnover of limited parking areas. These parking meters also provide a substantial source of income to the municipality or other organization using such meters. Drawbacks to these meters include high initial investment costs, high maintenance costs, and high collection costs, all complicated by vandalism and pilferage. The user also encounters various drawbacks when using conventional parking meters. Does the user have coins for the meter?. Is the time ordered by inserting coins sufficient to cover the time the user is away from the vehicle?. Upon return to the vehicle, the remaining time on the meter cannot be reclaimed. No receipt or record of the parking expense is available.
Alternatively, a number of municipalities have adopted the use of parking coupons. The coupons have tear out sections which indiciate the date and the expiration time of a particular parking period, the coupons being displayed from the inside of the vehicle by wedging the coupon into the upper end of a closed window. However, these coupons have not been found entirely satisfactory in many locations because of illegally tampering with them for more than one use. Additionally, dividing the city into many parking zones, with each zone requiring a specific coupon, is impractical. Further, there is no incentive to minimize the duration a vehicle occupies the parking location, that is, such a system does not provide “real time parking” capability.
Applicant, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,815, has described a time metering device that is useful as a prepaid parking card. The device is a unitary electronic card purchased in advance by the user to provide a pre-purchased time period that may be used as and when desired by the user for parking his vehicle. The card has buttons to select the type of parking zone required, a timer clock showing the amount of purchased time remaining on the card, and switches to start and stop the timer clock. Thus, the user pays for only the actual time that a vehicle occupies a parking space. The card device is displayed within the vehicle during the time the vehicle occupies the parking location. Various other features of the parking card are also disclosed. However, it is desirable to provide a parking monitoring and fee assessment system that requires no special devices by the user. To this end, applicant has devised a unique method of monitoring and assessing a fee for parking a vehicle in a toll parking location. The method further provides means for detecting that a parked vehicle is in violation of the requirements for the toll parking location.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a method of monitoring and assessing a fee for parking a vehicle in a toll parking location. The invention includes providing indicia for a toll parking location and unique indicia for a vehicle to be positioned in that parking location. The user notifies a remote central control unit the location indicia, the vehicle unique indicia, and the start time of parking the vehicle in the location. Later, the user notifies the remote central control unit the vehicle unique indicia, and the finish time of parking the vehicle in the location. The remote central control unit then assesses a fee to the user for the duration of time the vehicle occupied the parking location.
To monitor the vehicles occupying a toll parking location, a controller individual images the unique indicia of a vehicle parked in the toll parking location with a camera device having optical character recognition capability. The camera device transmits to the remote central control unit the data for the unique indicia of the vehicle parked in the toll parking location. The data may be digital or in full picture format. The camera device receives from the remote central control unit confirmatory data on the vehicle parked in the toll parking location. For those vehicles illegally parked, the camera device may produce a pictorial record of the vehicle in violation of the toll parking location requirements. In a further embodiment, the camera device then prints a ticket document assessing a fine on the vehicle in violation of the toll parking location requirements.
The invention also includes the imaging device for imaging a vehicle with unique indicia located in a toll parking location. The device has a means for imaging a vehicle unique indicia, and optical character recognition means for digitizing the unique indicia image. A storage means for retaining the digitized image of the vehicle unique indicia is contained in the device. A transmitting means for communicating the digitized image of the vehicle unique indicia to the remote central control unit, and a receiving means for obtaining data from the remote central control unit, is also contained in the device. Also present in the device is a means for producing a visual image of a vehicle unique indicia, and in a further embodiment, means for printing a ticket document used for levying a fine for toll parking violation.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment or every implementation of the present invention. The detailed descriptions that follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.
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Pham Toan
Randall Tipton L.
Wu Daniel J.
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