EP2924191A1

EP2924191A1 - Anti-theft booth particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like

Info

Publication number: EP2924191A1
Application number: EP15160814.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ugo Nais
Original assignee: ALLUSER IND Srl; Alluser Industrie Srl
Current assignee: ALLUSER IND Srl; Alluser Industrie Srl
Priority date: 2014-03-28
Filing date: 2015-03-25
Publication date: 2015-09-30
Anticipated expiration: 2035-03-25
Also published as: EP2924191B1; DK2924191T3

Abstract

An anti-theft booth (10), particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like, which comprises two opposite accesses (11, 12), each of which is closed by one or two leaves (13, 14, 15, 16) that are moved by corresponding movement means, in the anti-theft booth means (17) being provided for detecting the presence of a person and means (18) for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle such as a bicycle and the like.

Description

The present invention relates to an anti-theft booth, particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like.
Nowadays, thanks to the ever-increasing spread of the bicycle as a means for getting around in cities that are reached with public transport such as train or coach, the need is increasingly felt that, in proximity to the stations of such public transportation, there be parking spaces for bicycles which are secure and easily accessible.
The best-known protected parking spaces for bicycles today are constituted by:

supervised cycle-stations, which are designed to contain up to a hundred or more bicycles inside them,
a series of "bike-boxes", or individual booths of such size as to be able to accommodate a single bicycle, and which are closed by a door leaf with a key intended to remain with the user for the period for which his/her bicycle is left in it.

Bike-boxes are used in situations in which protection is required against theft and vandalism, but the local need is not sufficiently felt to justify the building of a supervised cycle-station, for example proximate to the railway stations of small towns or villages with few inhabitants.
Bike-boxes are very secure and give a very high degree of protection of the bicycle, even against atmospheric agents; the devices for closing bike-boxes can be by key alone, by padlock, or by lock operated by smartcard or by alphanumeric keypad.
Such types of parking space for bicycles, although widespread, each suffer specific drawbacks.
For supervised cycle-stations, the surveillance offered by dedicated staff is generally appreciated by users, who have someone to turn to in the event of problems and perceive a higher level of security; however, the surveillance entails a cost in terms of staff and of staff organization and usually the supervision is provided only at certain times, for example between 8:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening; the absence of staff at night means a lack of security, which the service provider can try to overcome only by closing the entrances to the cycle-station at times when the staff are absent, and such event would limit the use of the facility outside of peak periods.
For bike-boxes, a first drawback is constituted by the fact that their space occupation is not efficiently exploited, since the bike-boxes remain empty for part of the time, when the bike of the user who has rented the bike-box is not inside that bike-box, and such space remains empty and unusable by other users.
A second drawback is constituted by the fact that the individual bike-boxes are inherently cumbersome and occupy much more space than a corresponding bicycle slot in an outdoor cycle-station; this also implies that a series of bike-boxes is more difficult to insert, physically and aesthetically, in a public space.
The aim of the present invention is to provide an anti-theft booth, particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like, which is capable of overcoming the above mentioned drawbacks of the known art.
Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide an anti-theft booth that makes it possible to set up a parking facility for bicycles which is secure and accessible by the owners of the bicycles left there, at all times of the day and night.
Another object of the invention is to provide an anti-theft booth that allows excellent surveillance without staff.
Another object of the invention is to provide an anti-theft booth that makes it possible to individualize access to the parking facility in the manner of a bike-box.
Another object of the invention is to provide an anti-theft booth that can be installed in existing parking spaces for bicycles.
This aim and these and other objects which will become better evident hereinafter are achieved by an anti-theft booth, particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like, which comprises two opposite accesses, each of which is closed by one or two leaves that are moved by corresponding movement means, characterized in that in said anti-theft booth there are means for detecting the presence of a person and means for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle such as a bicycle and the like.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of a preferred, but not exclusive, embodiment of the anti-theft booth according to the invention, which is illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a schematic plan view of a parking facility provided with an anti-theft booth according to the invention;
Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of an anti-theft booth according to the invention;
Figure 3 is a schematic front elevation view of an anti-theft booth according to the invention,
Figure 4 is a schematic plan view of a variation of embodiment of a parking facility provided with an anti-theft booth according to the invention.

With reference to the figures, an anti-theft booth 10, particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like, is shown in Figure 1 as applied to a generic parking facility for bicycles 20.
The anti-theft booth 10 comprises two opposite accesses 11 and 12, each of which is closed by one or two leaves, in the example described herein there being two leaves for each access, designated with the reference numerals 13, 14, 15 and 16.
The leaves 13, 14, 15 and 16 are moved by corresponding movement means, which should be understood as being of known type, for example of the type with an electric drive unit.
In the anti-theft booth 10 means 17 are provided for detecting the presence of a person, for example an ultrasound sensor located on the ceiling.
The anti-theft booth 10 also comprises means 18 for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle such as a bicycle and the like.
A bicycle 19 accompanied by a person 21 is shown in the figures for the purposes of example.
In the present embodiment, which is to be understood as non-limiting of the invention, the means 18 for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle comprise a sensitive mat 22, with differentiated regions, and at least two presence sensors 23 and 24 adapted to detect the presence inside the booth of a one and only one bicycle.
In the example described herein, there are three presence sensors 23, 24 and 25, which are arranged as follows:

two in a lower region, 23 and 24, at about 30 centimeters from the floor, and spaced apart by approximately 80 centimeters in a horizontal direction, and adapted to detect the presence of a bicycle 19 that rests on the floor,
one in an upper region, 25, at about 2 meters from the floor, centrally between the two lower region presence sensors 23 and 24, which is preset to detect the presence of a person 21 and at the same time is therefore preset to check for the absence of additional bicycles positioned inappropriately above the bicycle 19 that is correctly resting on the floor.

Each one of the presence sensors 23, 24 and 25 comprise, for example, an infrared sensor and a webcam with a microphone, which enable the detection of contours of faces, of gestures and of movements in general as well as of sounds and voices.
The sensitive mat 22 comprises two common weighing areas 26 and 27 with load sensors adapted to detect the load produced by a bicycle.
The sensitive mat 22 comprises a free region 28, with no load sensors, which is adapted for the stay of a user 21 who is accompanying the bicycle 19 through the anti-theft booth 10.
Alternatively, the free region 28 can also have a sensitive mat with pressure sensors for the detection of the presence of a persona.
The means 17 for detecting the presence of a person, or for example an ultrasound sensor, are located on the ceiling at the underlying free region 28.
In a variation of embodiment thereof, the anti-theft booth 10 comprises an electronic device for automatic communication with a first transponder associated with a user 21 and a second transponder installed on the bicycle 19 that is associated with the corresponding user 21.
The electronic device for automatic communication is interfaced with the means of controlling the means of moving the leaves, so that the anti-theft booth 10 opens only in the simultaneous presence of a user and of the bicycle associated with him/her.
The transponder associated with the bicycle is installed on that bicycle with a system that prevents its removal without causing damage to it, thus preventing an improper use thereof.
In this manner no user can enter or exit the parking facility 20 with a bicycle that does not correspond to him/her, and which presumably is not his/hers.
The adoption of the electronic device for automatic communication and of the transponders, for example RFID tags, which are associated with the bicycle and with the user, make it possible to set up an unsupervised anti-theft booth 10 according to the invention, and thus a parking facility for bicycles which is relatively cheaper for the provider.
Use of the anti-theft booth 10 according to the invention is the following.
A user approaches the anti-theft booth 10 from the outside of the parking facility 20, causing the opening of an access, for example the outer access 11, either by way of enabling the opening with a smartcard alone, or with a smartcard and alphanumeric keypad on the booth for a personalized code, or with a key alone, or with other systems that are similar and equivalent, or by way of using transponders on the user and bicycle which are adapted to dialog with an electronic device associated with the anti-theft booth 10.
The user 21 with his/her bicycle 19 enters the anti-theft booth 10, the user standing on the free region 28, while the bicycle must be positioned on the sensitive mat 22.
The means 17 for detecting the presence of a person detect the presence of a user 21, while the presence sensors 23, 24 and 25, in conjunction with the readings originating from the sensitive mat, detect the presence of only one bicycle 19.
Following the automatically-made detections, the electronic control unit, once it has received the corresponding signals from the sensors, commands the opening of the inner access 12, through which the user 21 with the bicycle 19 enters the parking facility 20.
The anti-theft booth 10 can be programmed to allow the passage only of a user accompanied by a bicycle that is associated with him/her, or for the passage of only one user at a time.
The entry and exit of the user 21 alone can occur through the anti-theft booth 10 with the presence sensors 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 preset to check for the presence of one person alone, authorizing his/her passage; alternatively the passage of a user alone without a bicycle can occur by way of an anti-theft booth 30 of conventional type, if the parking facility is provided with it, as in the example in Figure 4.
In practice it has been found that the invention fully achieves the intended aim and objects. In particular, with the invention an anti-theft booth has been devised which makes it possible to set up a parking facility for bicycles which is secure and accessible by the owners of the bicycles left there, at all times of the day and night.
Furthermore, with the invention an anti-theft booth has been devised which allows excellent surveillance without staff.
Moreover, with the invention an anti-theft booth has been devised which makes it possible to individualize access to the parking facility in the manner of a bike- box.
Moreover, with the invention an anti-theft booth has been devised which can be installed in existing parking spaces for bicycles.
The invention, thus conceived, is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, all the details may be substituted by other, technically equivalent elements.
In practice the components employed, provided they are compatible with the specific use, and the contingent dimensions and shapes, may be any according to requirements and to the state of the art.
The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. PD2014A000078 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.
Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims

An anti-theft booth (10), particularly for parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and the like, which comprises two opposite accesses (11, 12), each of which is closed by one or two leaves (13, 14, 15, 16) that are moved by corresponding movement means, characterized in that in said anti-theft booth means (17) are provided for detecting the presence of a person and means (18) for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle such as a bicycle and the like.
The anti-theft booth according to claim 1, characterized in that said means (18) for detecting the presence of a two-wheeled vehicle comprise a sensitive mat (22), for example with differentiated regions, and at least two presence sensors (23, 24) adapted to detect the presence of a bicycle inside the booth.
The anti-theft booth according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises three presence sensors (23, 24, 25) arranged as follows:
- two in a lower region (23, 24), which are spaced apart in a horizontal direction, and adapted to detect the presence of a bicycle that rests on the floor,

- one in an upper region (25), centrally between the two lower region presence sensors (23, 24), which is preset to detect the presence of a person and preset to check for the absence of additional bicycles positioned inappropriately.
The anti-theft booth according to claim 3, characterized in that each one of said presence sensors (23, 24, 25) comprises an infrared sensor and a webcam with a microphone, which enable the detection of contours of faces, of gestures and of movements in general as well as of sounds and voices.
The anti-theft booth according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said sensitive mat (22) comprises two common weighing areas (26, 27) with load sensors adapted to detect the load produced by a bicycle.
The anti-theft booth according to claim 5, characterized in that said sensitive mat (22) comprises a free region (28), without load sensors, which is intended for the stay of a user.
The anti-theft booth according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means (17) for detecting the presence of a person are located on the ceiling at the underlying free region (28).
The anti-theft booth according to claim 7, characterized in that said free region (28) is provided with a sensitive mat with pressure sensors.
The anti-theft booth according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises an electronic device for automatic communication with a first transponder associated with a user (21) and a second transponder installed on a bicycle (19) that is associated with the corresponding user (21).
The anti-theft booth according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said transponder is installed on the bicycle with a system that prevents its removal without damaging it.