Vehicle parking monitoring systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11625924-B2
Application number	US-202017008533-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2020
Priority date	Aug 31, 2020
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

Vehicle parking monitoring systems and methods are disclosed herein. An example method can include receiving images from a camera of a parking spot, each of the images being time stamped, determining presence of a vehicle in the images, placing a bounding area around a region of interest of the vehicle, the region of interest including no personally identifiable information, retaining the bounding area and discarding a remainder of the images, and determining when the vehicle is no longer present based on a change in the bounding area of the images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving a plurality of images of a parking spot from a camera, wherein each of the images is time stamped;
determining a presence of a vehicle in one or more of the images;
placing a bounding area around a region of interest of the vehicle, wherein the region of interest includes no personally identifiable information;
retaining the bounding area and discarding a remainder of the images;
determining, based on a change in the bounding area of the images, that the vehicle is no longer present;
detecting, based on an output of an accelerometer associated with the camera, that a tampering event comprising an impact or a reorienting of the camera has occurred;
applying a first error correction to compensate for a movement of the camera; and
applying a second error correction to compensate for one or more ambient weather conditions.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising detecting a motion in the bounding area between temporally adjacent images.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the vehicle has not moved within an allotted time period; and
transmitting, based on the vehicle not moving within the allotted time period, an alert to a service provider.

4. A system, comprising:
an imaging device configured to obtain a plurality of images of a parking spot, wherein each of the images is time stamped; and
an image processing unit comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to:
determine a presence of a vehicle in one or more of the images;
activate a counter to track a parking time for the vehicle;
place a bounding area around a region of interest of the vehicle, wherein the region of interest includes no personally identifiable information;
retain the bounding area and discard a remainder of the images that do not include the bounding area, wherein one or more relative coordinates of the bounding area are used to obtain the bounding area from each of the images;
determine when the vehicle is over parked based on a lack of changes in the bounding area and the parking time for the vehicle exceeding an allotted time period;
detect, based on an output of an accelerometer associated with the imaging device, that a tampering event comprising an impact or a reorientation of the imaging device has occurred;
apply a first error correction to compensate for a movement of the imaging device; and
apply a second error correction to compensate for one or more ambient weather conditions.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to detect a motion in the bounding area between temporally adjacent images to determine when the vehicle is moving.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to determine a confidence level of a state change between a plurality of the images that is indicative of the vehicle moving.

7. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
determine when the vehicle has not moved within the allotted time period; and
transmit an alert to a service provider based on the vehicle not moving within the allotted time period along with one or more relative coordinates of the parking spot.

8. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to receive an indication of the parking spot from a user.

9. A device, comprising:
a processor and a memory for storing instructions, the processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a plurality of images from a camera of a parking spot, wherein each of the images is time stamped;
determine a presence of a vehicle in one or more of the images;
place a bounding area around a region of interest of the vehicle, wherein the region of interest includes no personally identifiable information;
retain the bounding area and discard a remainder of the images;
determine that the vehicle is no longer present based on a change in the bounding area of the images;
detect, based on an output of an accelerometer associated with the camera, that a tampering event comprising an impact or a reorienting of the camera has occurred;
apply a first error correction to compensate for a movement of the camera; and
apply a second error correction to compensate for one or more ambient weather conditions.

10. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to detect a motion in the bounding area between temporally adjacent images.

11. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
determine when the vehicle has not moved within an allotted time period; and
transmit an alert to a service provider based on the vehicle not moving within the allotted time period.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Gliesman Andrew
• Worrel Megan
• Kramer David

Classifications

• G06V20/54 Primary

  of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats · CPC title

• G08G1/146

  where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space · CPC title

• H04N7/183 Primary

  for receiving images from a single remote source · CPC title

• G08G1/14

  indicating individual free spaces in parking areas · CPC title

• H04N7/18

  Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast · CPC title