Electronic parking meter

Details Electronic parking meter Electronic parking meter

1999-02-02

2001-02-27

Hofsass, Jeffery A. (Department: 2736)

Communications: electrical

Condition responsive indicating system

Specified housing

C340S693120, C340S932200, C340S933000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06195015

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of parking meters and more particularly to electronic parking meters.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Parking meters permit vehicles to be parked on streets for an allowable time determined by the number and denominations of coins which are placed in the parking meter. A clock mechanism in the parking meter runs down the allowable time until it reaches zero, and an overtime parking indication appears.
The coin receiving devices of the parking meters perform various tests to determine whether an acceptable coin has been inserted, and the denomination of the coin. Circuitry which tests for the presence of the ferrous material (i.e., slugs) includes Hall-effect sensors, and frequency shift metallic detectors. The denomination is determined by devices which measure the diameter of the coin such as infra-red emitting diodes and photodiodes, or which measure the weight of the coin using strain gauges, and the like.
Coin receiving mechanisms which use IR detectors, Hall-effect circuitry, magnetic fields and light sensing rays with microprocessors include U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,080 (Howard); U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,431 (Pratt); U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,648 (Meyer); U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,934 (Quinlan Jr.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,916 (Carmen et al.).
In recent years, electronic parking meters and systems have been developed which use microprocessors in conjunction with electronic displays, IR transceivers to communicate with auditors, and ultrasonic transceivers to determine the presence of vehicles at the parking meter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,895 (Speas) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,928 (Speas) disclose electronic parking meters which use microprocessors, electronic displays, IR transceivers, solar power and sonar range finders. In addition, British Publication No. 2077475 also discloses a low power electronic parking meter that operates using solar cells.
The sophisticated devices which use microprocessors, electronic displays and IR/ultrasonic transducers consume too much power to operate by non-rechargeable batteries alone. Thus, the Speas' patents disclose the use of solar power cells which charge capacitors or rechargeable batteries.
Various problems exist with the use of solar power sources including the use of parking meters in shady areas, or the use of parking meters during periods in which there is very little sunlight. This causes the rechargeable batteries to run down, and they require frequent replacement. Or, in the case of the use of capacitors, the lack of power causes the meter to become inoperative.
Low power coin sorters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,556 (Shah et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,777 (Van Horn et al.).
Coin processing and related auditing data systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,259,491 (Ward II); U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,241 (Craine); U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,404 (Jones);
Other token/coin processing devices such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,267 (Bayha) provides token validation using magnetics; U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,309 (Mandas et al.) discloses an apparatus to prevent coin stringing and U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,518 (Chitty et al.) discloses apparatus that detects coin denomination based on acoustic vibrations from the coins striking an internal surface.
Parking devices using wireless data transmission are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,903 (Lemelson et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,957 (Ng et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,586 (Fuller); U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,947 (Fujiwara et al.).
Furthermore, the electronic parking meters are not necessarily intelligent meters. That is, these meters use electronics but they do not respond to changing conditions. For example, none of the above devices resets the parking meter to an expired state should the vehicle leave before the allotted time has passed; instead, the parking meter provides “free” parking for the time remaining.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,049 (Jacobs), U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,461 (Jacobs), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,771 all of which are assigned to the same Assignee of the present invention and all of whose disclosures are incorporated by reference herein, there is disclosed a low-powered electronic parking meter that utilizes, among other things, a sonar transducer to detect the presence of vehicles, an infra-red transceiver for communicating with parking authority personnel, and domestic coin detection, coin jam detection and slug detection.
However, there remains a need for an intelligent electronic parking meter that can accept foreign, as well as domestic currency, which can detect the presence or absence of a vehicle and which can wirelessly transmit parking meter-related data to a mobile transceiver or to a central location.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is the general object of this invention to provide an apparatus which addresses the aforementioned needs.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an an electronic parking meter that can accept foreign coinage, as well as United States coinage.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that can accept payment from a pre-paid card or a smart card.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that can detect the presence or absence of a vehicle.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that can transmit parking meter related data to a mobile transceiver or to a central facility.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that operates at low power.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that can reset itself whenever a vehicle leaves the corresponding parking space before the allotted time passes.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that provides an adjustable grace period to a patron to allow the patron to add funds to the meter before an expired condition occurs making the patron liable for a parking ticket.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter having an easily-visible indicator, from both the street side as well as from the sidewalk side, to a parking authority agent that the meter is an expired condition.
It is another object of this invention to overcome the problem of someone blocking or diverting the meter signal that detects the presence or absence of the vehicle.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that continuously displays the allotted time remaining in hours, minutes and seconds.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electronic parking meter that displays the amount of time beyond the expiration period that the patron has been unlawfully parked.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic parking meter that can either enforce a maximum parking time limit or can permit an unlimited coin/payment feed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic parking meter that permits an adjustable minutes/coin setting.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic parking meter that permits an adjustable meter-active time and meter-inactive time.
It is another object of this invention to reduce the number of times that a parking authority agent must travel to each parking meter to determine the expired status of the meter and/or to collect parking meter-related data from the meter.
It is another object of this invention to reduce the time that a parking authority agent must remain at any one meter in order to collect the deposited money.
It is still yet another object of this invention to provide a sonar transducer spacer that permits the sonar transducer, which is used to detect a vehicle, to be separate from the parking meter housing.
It is still even another object of this invention to provide a rotator adaptor device that permits an electronic parking meter, as well as any conventional parking meter, to be adjustably rotated about a vertical axis by parking meter personnel only while and bein

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