US 9,177,221 B2 · Parking lot

Abstract

A parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have OCR-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio signals. The parking lot including a central computer for storing parking space reservations, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID, a radio beacon for the parking spaces for reading out the radio ID of an entering vehicle via radio and signaling the radio ID to the central computer, and at least one camera unit for each parking space for reading the license number of a vehicle and correspondingly signaling the license number to the central computer. The central computer checks whether for a radio ID signaled to the central computer the vehicle license number is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of this parking space, and to log instances in which this is not the case.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have license plates with optical character recognition (OCR)-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio, comprising:

a central computer configured to store parking space reservations each comprising an indication of a parking space, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID;
and
a common radio beacon for the parking spaces that is positioned at an entrance of the parking lot and configured to read out the radio ID of an entering vehicle and signal the radio ID to the central computer;
wherein each parking space is individually equipped with at least one camera unit, the at least one camera unit being configured to read the license number of a vehicle parked on the parking space by OCR and signal the license number to the central computer,
wherein the central computer is configured to check whether for a given radio ID signaled to the central computer, the vehicle license number assigned thereto in a stored parking space reservation is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of said parking space, and to log instances in which said vehicle license number is not subsequently signaled by said camera unit.

2 more elements

A method for checking reservations of a parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have license plates with OCR-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio, comprising:

storing a parking space reservation comprising an indication of a parking space, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID in a central computer,
reading out the radio ID of an entering vehicle via radio by a common radio beacon for the plurality of parking spaces that is positioned at an entrance of the parking lot and signaling the radio ID to the central computer, and
for a parking space of the plurality of parking spaces, OCR reading the vehicle license number of a vehicle parked on the parking space of the plurality of parking spaces by at least one stationarily mounted camera unit and signaling the license number to the central computer, and
checking in the central computer whether for a radio ID signaled to the central computer the vehicle license number assigned to the radio ID in the stored parking space reservation is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of the parking space, and logging instances in which said vehicle license number is not subsequently signaled by said camera unit.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Parking lot

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Parking lot

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Abstract

Claims20