ES2332562A1 - Method for the management of use of car parks through mobile telephone sms. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for the management of payments of regulated parking by means of sms of mobile telephony. It consists of a method of management of use and control of parking by electronic means, the payment or initial and successive reservation by means of sms of mobile telephony and the necessary control by the controllers by mobile devices type pda, rfid readers and transfer of the necessary information by gprs or umts networks. The user of the service sends an sms identifying the zone code, the identification of the vehicle and the time he wishes to use the car park and receives as confirmation an sms that returns the system confirming the reservation made as well as any other data of interest. The controller receives on his mobile device, both periodically and on demand, the information of the vehicles in his area and the reserves they have made for their control. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

Method for parking use management regulated by mobile phone SMS.

Technical sector

Parking management systems.

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Background of the invention

To date, the procedures for Reservation and payment of a regulated parking space are, the Traditional based on ticket vending machines, which It has the disadvantage that it requires the user to move to the vending machine and have money in coins for most machines except those few that enable the use of credit cards, prepaid cards that have the disadvantage that the user must perform a advance payment and, within those who use procedures technicians, those who use mobile phones and connection systems with payment gateways that have the disadvantage that the user must register and register a phone number or a tuition determined in a computer system before being able to using them.

The use of a prior registration system, does not allow universal use in the sense that, having made a previous registration or registration, an association of at least two of the following entities: a telephone number mobile, a license plate, a bank account, a password username / password for making reservations, no allowing any phone use-any enrollment.

As a summary, so far no one has achieved procedure, either manual or technical, that allows to reserve and / or pay a parking space without moving to a machine Vending machine or without having made a prepaid (prepaid cards) or without being registered in any system before.

The invention presented saves this difficulty, allowing to complete the process completely universal in the sense that any phone can be used mobile for any registration without taking any previous action. Later it is explained how it is carried out.

The procedure presented, offers the following advantages:

The user does not need to have money in cash or credit card (advantage over machines vending machines)

The user does not need to scroll from the place where you have parked the vehicle to a vending machine of tickets or any service (advantage over machines vending and advantage over mobile payment in machines vending machines)

The user does not need to make a purchase for advance of devices for payment / parking reservation (advantage over prepaid cards).

The user does not need to register or give high in any computer system prior to the use of the parking to use electronic payment methods for mobile phone (advantage over mobile payment via gateways) of payment or third party entities such as Mobipay). In this point we also save the limitation of being registered by a mobile phone and / or a certain license plate. The procedure that is presented allows you to reserve a place with any phone and for any registration provided that the technical integration of the operator's SMS network that is giving phone service in question with the computer system that Register and manage the use of parking.

The user can receive any type of notice from the control system such as the completion system next to the reservation of the square which allows you to increase the time of use without committing an infraction.

Another technical advantage or technical difficulty that saves is to be able to control the maximum parking time in a given area by a particular vehicle so automatic The system allows you to control how long you have been parked a vehicle in a certain area, so uninterrupted or added for any period of time that require and in this way is able to control that it does not exceed the maximum preset time.

The parking usage controller has of the list of vehicles of a certain area ordered by the criteria that are most useful to you, and you also have the notice of which vehicles have completed your reservation or any other notice to facilitate your task, all this automatically.

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Description of the invention

The parking management procedure that It is presented includes:

A parking area identified by a code.

Vertical and / or horizontal signaling in which the parking code and instructions for the use, with all available functionalities.

Registering a set of destination numbers for sending special rate SMS in each operator with the that you want to achieve technical interoperability by following the following scheme:

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Operator one

Destination numbers with coding:

OOOXX, where OOO It is within a range of possible numbers available in the operator and XX we select it, to associate XX with the number of minutes we want to reserve a place of parking.

By registering the set of numbers, we will do it by associating an amount for the SMS sent to each number equal to the price you want to offer to user for the reservation of those minutes, for example:

We register the number 55560 (we assume that 555XX is the range that the operator has offered us and we choose 55560 for the 60-minute reservation) to reserve a parking space for 60 minutes and we associate a cost of 1.5

 \euro 

to each SMS sent to that number. In this way, every time a user sends an SMS for the reservation of a parking space to 55560 because he wants to reserve 60 minutes, the operator's mechanisms for billing 1.5 will be implemented

 \euro 

that costs that SMS and those of reversion of part of that billing to the company that manages the parking in question.

In this way, reserving the numbers relative to the minutes we want to be can reserve the place, multiples of 5, 2, minute by minute or as preferred, we have created a system by which the user You can book from any phone, for any registration without any restrictions inherent to a system with early registration

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Operator 2 and successive

Numbers of destination with the same coding. If we manage to reserve the same destination numbers in all operators, that is, following the example of operator 1, within the same range 555XX, we will be implementing a system independent of the operator that of service to the user, that is, the users of all operators send the SMS to the same numbers, facilitating the use of the system for simplicity and habit.

If I do not We get this way, depending on the operator the SMS should be sent to a different number, for example, with the operator] to 55560 and with the operator 2 to 73760, making the same reservation of 60 minutes of a parking space.

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A set of composite computer systems by:

-

Applications and computer systems for the implementation of an integrated messaging platform technically with each and every one of the telephone operators mobile with which you want to achieve interoperability of system according to the technical specifications of each of they.

quad

This will build a communication bidirectional between the operators and the control system of the parking, based on TCP / IP, which allows the circulation of Information necessary for the process.

quad

Communications lines to establish the connection technique from headquarters where computer systems reside for parking control to the operators' networks in issue, whether private (Frame Relay for example) or public like internet

In addition, communications will be implemented required by public lines (Internet) for shipping bidirectional information to and from the PDA's of the controllers

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Server-based computer systems, databases and applications to carry out all the necessary tasks to implement all the functionalities and necessary controls that can be presented during the operation of the process, among others:

quad

Request for reservation of parking space . The computer system will verify that the information that arrives in the message from the operator's network is consistent by means of the necessary checks such as, for example, that the parking area code is included among the existing ones.

quad

Response to reservation of parking space . The computer system, depending on the result of the checks described in the previous paragraph, answers the user with an SMS, reservation confirmation or error, performing the following operations:

quad

If the request is correct, an application computing calculates the end time based on the start time and the number to which the SMS was sent (on: 55560, sum 60 minutes at the start time to calculate the end time) and perform an insertion in a database of reserved places pointing the originating telephone number, the zone, the registration, the time of start, end time, if any added service has been requested as a notice before completion and any information additional, as a counter of the minutes accumulated by the vehicle in that area so that it cannot exceed the maximum limit settled down.

quad

The SMS that is sent to the user includes the code of zone, tuition and start and end time as Reserve confirmation.

quad

If after a preset time it has not been possible to deliver the SMS, another SMS is sent to the customer canceling the reservation, no reservation is made for that vehicle and it remains recorded the failed event to start the mechanisms necessary with the telephone operator and that does not result in a improper billing to the user.

quad

In the event that the information is not correct, it send an SMS to the user specifying the error to resend the SMS corrected.

quad

The computer system has a program whose task is to continuously check the status of all reservations to execute at least the following actions:

one.

When it is detected that a user has requested notice prior to the end of the reservation and the time has come to make the warning because there is a preset time remaining, for example 5 minutes, the daemon launches a program that generates an SMS similar to the response to the parking reservation remembering the information that should be included in the SMS if you want to book more time returning to the initial state of the process of reservation.

2.

When the program detects that there are reservations expired, run a program to notify the controller of that area that the reservation in question has expired.

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In this way, we convert a procedure purely reactive as is the manual check by the reservation status controller, in a fully proactive one when the system is notified to the driver of the vehicles whose reservation It has expired.

An application that runs on the PDA's of the controllers that allows bi-directional communication with the parking control center. The application counts, in first, with an authentication mechanism to ensure who access the information and also has the necessary menus to, at least, be able to select the parking area in which is going to work, and how you want to receive and present on screen information regarding reservations, receipt of variations in the states (expiration of reservations and new reservations), receipt of modifications from time to time, receipt of modifications only or complete list of reservations, visualization ordered by tuition fees, for remaining time etc.

If the parked vehicle has a RFID device that responds with the registration code and the PDA has capabilities to perform device reading RFID, an additional module to the application that compares is implemented the RFID device reading with the vehicle list and inform the driver of the reservation status for that vehicle without the controller performing any action.

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Exhibition of an embodiment

A regulated parking is selected in which 3 distinct zones are delimited by their dimension so that each zone is under the control of a different controller, that is, 3 parking areas and 3 controllers.

Codes 0A, 0B, 0C are assigned at 3 zones.

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It develops, following the instructions Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange techniques, which are the operators with which we will collaborate, a messaging platform for be able to interoperate SMSs in a bidirectional way and the Next short SMS destination numbers for charging Special in the 3 operators:

\euro

55510 with cost 0.10

 \euro 

\euro

55520 with cost 0.20

 \euro 

\euro

55530 with cost 0.30

 \euro 

\euro

55540 with cost 0.40

 \euro 

\euro

55550 with cost 0.50

 \euro 

\euro

55560 with cost 0.60

 \euro 

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In this way, we have already achieved the time-cost association for the squares of parking without the need for an additional entity to manage economic transactions and no need to create a association type registration or telephone with a user that would subtract system flexibility

Vertical signals are implanted throughout the parking to offer the necessary information for use. In Each signal, the following information appears:

Zone code: (yours appears in each zone, 0A, 0B, 0C).

Parking cost:

\euro

para reservar 10 minutos.Send an SMS to 55510 with cost 0.10

 \euro 

to book 10 minutes.

\euro

para reservar 20 minutos.Send an SMS to 55520 with cost 0.20

 \euro 

to reserve 20 minutes.

\euro

para reservar 30 minutos.Send an SMS to 55530 with cost 0.30

 \euro 

to reserve 30 minutes.

\euro

para reservar 40 minutos.Send an SMS to 55540 with cost 0.40

 \euro 

to reserve 40 minutes.

\euro

para reservar 50 minutos.Send an SMS to 55550 with cost 0.50

 \euro 

to reserve 50 minutes.

\euro

para reservar 60 minutos.Send an SMS to 55560 with cost 0.60

 \euro 

to reserve 60 minutes.

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SMS format:

Zone code - Vehicle registration.

If you want notice of completion 5 minutes before that occurs, include FIN.

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Example

SMS to 55530 containing:

0A - 3302BFG - END

The system will return a message from Confirmation with the end time. If you don't receive it in 5 minutes, the reservation could not be made.

A computer system is developed that collects all the information that reaches the messaging platform for Booking management, including technology servers preferred, manufacturer databases preferred but relational to perform calculations and create stored procedures and computer programs are developed that will be the core of the operation of the system since actions will be launched based on the states of the reserves and they will be in charge of performing the operations in the databases. He Operation, at a high level, is as follows:

Our computer system will treat the information that arrives to you, checking if it is correct or not as soon as to the content, responding with an error message to the user if if applicable or calculating based on timestamp and number of destination, what is the end time of the reservation and registering the reservation in the database pointing the termination notice functionality if requested. It will also check that the maximum allowed limit is not exceeded for the stay of a vehicle in a certain area since It could happen through repeated reservations.

A continuous execution program is consulting in the database to locate the reservations that require notice of completion or those that have ended.

When a reservation arrives at the time of notice of completion, the system generates an SMS that sends the user indicating how you can increase the reservation time in case you are Interested in doing so.

In addition, this or another program is responsible for send to each controller the relevant information on the status of reservations in the area in which they are working so configurable It can be configured to send the list full of reservations on demand or, when authenticating the controller and from that moment only the endings and reservations new or any other desired configuration.

The controller has a type device PDA that has internet access via UMTS or GPRS network to that the information arrives from the computer systems and It has an application on the PDA that allows you to authenticate to the system, select the zone code where you are working and configure how you want the information to arrive and how you want to be presented on screen, sorted alphabetically by tuition, per hour of completion of reservations, only those that have finished etc ..

In addition, the controller can launch queries about any registration to obtain information at respect.

In another possible embodiment, in which only want to control the maximum residence time in an area of parking for only looking for a rotation system, a range of tariff SMS destination numbers is registered special as already indicated and they are associated with all the same cost, regardless of reservation time.

The system is responsible for controlling that exceed the maximum time allowed and inform the user and the controller of possible irregularities that are being committing

Claims (8)

1. A procedure for the use and control of regulated car parks by exchanging SMS for special mobile phone charging and computer systems for reservation management and control by parking controllers, in which a payment in advance or the realization of a registration prior to the use of the service so it is valid for any vehicle from any mobile phone characterized by comprising the following stages:

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Shipping, by the user, of at least one SMS containing the code of the area where the vehicle is parked and the license plate that identifies the said vehicle to a destination number that identifies the time that you want to reserve the parking space at a cost associated with such reservation time.

-

Exchange of information between the network of messages and the SMSC of the operator and the computer system developed and connected to said network for communication Bidirectional messages.

-

Receipt and management of this information by the control system connected to the operator's SMS network for the registration of the reservation, the confirmation to the user, the control of reserved time and registration of all this information in logs for future checks.

-

Shipping of at least one SMS, either error or reservation confirmation to  Username.

And that is characterized in that the destination number to which the user sends the SMS has associated, in the operator or operators that manage it, a cost equal to the one that you want to bill for the reservation time of the parking space. 2. Procedure according to claim 1 characterized by the sending of the status information of the reservations to the controller to its PDA where it is interpreted and presented on screen by means of a computer application. 3. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the controller requests through a computer application the status of the reserves in its area. 4. Procedure according to claim 1 characterized in that the user includes a code in the SMS requesting the notice of upcoming reservation completion so that he can make additional reservations regardless of geographical location provided that he has coverage of a mobile phone operator that facilitates service and do not exceed the maximum preset time limit per zone. 5. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the control system sends an SMS to the users who have requested the reservation termination notice, informing them of how the reservation can be extended provided that the maximum time allowed in their area is not exceeded . 6. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the control system sends the information of the reservations that have ended in its zone to the controller. 7. System for the management and use of regulated parking (to carry out the procedure of previous claims) comprising:

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Number Registration System destination for SMS, special pricing, in each operator with the one that wants to interoperate associating to each number a cost determined.

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Integrated messaging platform technically with the SMS networks of all the operators of mobile telephony with which interoperability is achieved technique, associating in the system, each number registered in the operators, a reservation time.

-

Central computer system that Two-way communication with operators' SMSCs interpreting and generating SMS for the realization of all functionalities and the states through which the reserves of the places and control of such reservations, through servers, bases of data, communications lines and applications IT

-

Computer system for use in mobile devices of the controllers that allows access to the information regarding vehicles parked in your area of work from your mobile device either periodically or under  demand.

And that is characterized in that the destination number to which the SMS is sent, represents in the numbering the time to reserve the parking space and characterized in that the central computer system calculates the start and end time of the reservation depending on of the information that arrives from the SMSC, time of reception of the messages and destination numbers to which they have been sent and characterized in that the controllers have the information related to the reservations of their area by electronic means in their mobile device and characterized in that the system controls by calculations that are executed automatically so that the pre-established maximum time limit that a vehicle can park in an area is not exceeded. 8. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the controller can automatically check by means of an RFID reader connected to its mobile device if a vehicle has the reserved space provided that said vehicle has an RFID transmitter with the data of its registration.