Parking space detection method and system

A method of determining whether a vehicle is present in a no parking space, the method comprising:

• monitoring the no parking space with a first vehicle detection technique utilizing image processing;
• monitoring the no parking space with a second vehicle detection technique;
• and
• concluding that the vehicle is present in the no parking space only when both of the first and second vehicle detection techniques indicate that the vehicle is present in the no parking space.

A parking bollard, comprising:

• a video sensor disposed inside of an enclosure of the bollard, the sensor being configured to sense a change of state due to a vehicle entering or leaving a monitored area;
• a non-video sensor that is configured to sense a change of state due to the vehicle entering or leaving the monitored area;
• a processor disposed inside of the enclosure of the parking bollard, the processor coupled to the video sensor and the non-video sensor, the processor further coupled to a physical memory and software code stored in the physical memory,
• the software code being executable by the processor,
• wherein the processor is configured via the software code to perform a machine vision analysis of video from the video sensor to determine whether the vehicle has entered or left the monitored space,
• wherein the processor receives an output value from the non-video sensor that the processor is configured to determine whether the vehicle has entered or left the monitored space, and
• wherein the processor is configured to conclude that the vehicle is present in the monitored area only when both of the machine vision analysis and the determination from the non-video sensor indicate that the vehicle is present in the monitored area.