GB2412998A

GB2412998A - Electronic system for managing payment for car parking

Info

Publication number: GB2412998A
Application number: GB0505002A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jean Luc Collett; Gerard Marmigere; Joaquin Picon; Pierre Secondo
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Current assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Priority date: 2004-04-08
Filing date: 2005-03-11
Publication date: 2005-10-12
Also published as: GB0505002D0

Abstract

Electronic system for managing the payment by the users of car parks comprising at least one kiosk (16, 18 or 20) used by a user to perform a payment corresponding to the period of time the user's car is authorized to be parked in a car park (10, 12 or 14) and a payment device located located inside the user's car having a screen visible from outside for displaying the time limit until which the car is authorized to be parked. The kiosk and the payment devices of the cars parked in the car park are connected by a wireless link so that the kiosk detects a car when it is parked within the car park and registers the car identification, the kiosk transmitting to the payment device the time limit to be displayed on its screen after the user has performed the payment corresponding to the amount of time for which the car will be authorized to be parked.

Description

FR920040011GB1 1

ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR MANAGING THE PAYMENT

BY THE USERS OF CAR PARKS

Technical field

The invention relates to the systems used in the management of car parks and in particular relates to an electronic system for managing the payment by the users of car parks.

Background

Nowadays, finding a place to park a car is not an easy task. But, once he has found a place, a user has to deal with the payment of the car park. Usually, the user must go to a kiosk and insert coins the amount of which corresponds to the estimated amount of time he wants to keep the place. In return, the user gets a ticket that he must put in a visible location behind the windshield of the car. If the user wants to stay more time than the time for which he paid, he has to return to the car to put a newly paid ticket behind the windshield. Later on, if the user leaves the car park before the reserved amount of time, he does not get money back for the unused time and this remaining time is no longer usable. Moreover, the user may have forgotten where he parked his car and he has to find it, which is not easy, especially when the car park is not a closed area but is constituted of any street of the town.

Summary of the invention

Accordingly, the main object of the invention is to provide a system for managing the payment by the users of car parks wherein the user of a car park has only to pay at a kiosk without having to put a ticket behind the windshield of the parked car.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system for managing the payment by the users of car parks wherein a user can pay for additional parking time without needing to come back to his car.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system for managing car parks wherein the cars arriving in a car park and leaving a car park are automatically and immediately detected by the system.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system for managing car parks wherein a centralized server knows at any time the identification of all cars which have been parked in the managed car parks FR920040011GB1 2 whereby any car owner can immediately find his car when he does not remember where it is parked.

The invention therefore relates to an electronic system for managing the payment by the users of car parks comprising at least one kiosk used by a user to perform a payment corresponding to the period of time the user's car is authorized to be parked in a car park and a payment device located inside the user's car having a screen visible from outside for displaying the time limit until which the car is authorized to be parked. The kiosk and the payment devices of the cars being parked in the car park are connected by a wireless link such as the Bluetooth system so that the kiosk detects the car when it is parked within the car park and registers the payment device identification, the kiosk transmitting to the payment device the time limit to be displayed on its screen after the user has performed the payment corresponding to the amount of time for which the car will be authorized to be parked.

Another important feature of the invention is the use of a server connected to all the kiosks and which stores a park table giving the status (parked or left) of all the cars parked in the car parks managed by the kiosks, the car park where each car is parked and the time limit for which each car is authorized to be parked.

Yet another important feature of the invention is that from any kiosk the user can issue a localization request forwarded to the server in order to localize his car, the server looking up a car park table in order to retrieve the location of the car park where the user's car is parked and sending a localization message to the kiosk from which the localization request has been received.

Brief description of the drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be better understood by reading the following more particular description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: Fig. 1 is a block-diagram representing a system according to the invention including a plurality of car parks controlled by a kiosk and a server managing all the car parks; Fig. 2 is a block-diagram representing the kiosk and its functionalities in connection with the server and with the car payment device; FR920040011GB1 3 Fig. 3A, 3B and 3C represent respectively the kiosk location table, the park table in the server and the car ID list in the kiosk; Fig. 4 is a flow chart of the payment and localization procedures implemented in the kiosk; Fig. 5 is a flow chart of the status monitoring procedure implemented in the kiosk; Fig. 6 is a flow chart representing the different events that can occur in the server; and Fig. 6A to BE represent respectively the procedures of payment, localization, new car detected, car left and timeout that are implemented in the server.

Detailed description of the invention

A system according to the invention is illustrated in FIG.1. Such a system comprises one or several car parks 10, 12, 14, each car park being an area such as a portion of a street, a place or a closed zone. Each car park includes a kiosk used for the payment and localization as well as a car monitoring apparatus which is generally hosted by the kiosk as described later, such as kiosk 16 for car park 10, kiosk 18 for car park 12 and kiosk 20 for car park 14. All the car parks are connected via the kiosk to a server 22 generally by a wireless link or by a cable. As described hereafter, the server 22 is adapted to store the status of all the cars being parked in the car parks managed by the kiosks, their exact location (in which car park they are), the time limit for which they are authorized to be parked.

According to the principles of the invention each car such as car 24 in car park 10 includes a payment device (not shown) which can exchange messages with the kiosk. In this local wireless system, the kiosk is the master station and the payment devices of the cars which are parked in the car park constitute the slave stations. For this, the kiosk is adapted to send continually polling messages which are received by all the cars which are in the range of the kiosk, that is the cars parked in the car park.

When the payment device which has been put behind the windshield of the car receives the polling message, it sends back its identification or car ID.

A (ca1 wireless system which can be used here is the well-known Bluetoothleystem. Designed to operate in noisy frequency environments, the Bluetooth system uses a fast acknowledgment and frequency hopping scheme.

It operates in the unlicensed band at 2.4 GHz and avoids interference from other signals by hopping to a new frequency after receiving or transmitting a packet. Assuming that the sluetoothltechnology is used, the kiosk 16 FR920040011GB1 4 enters in the inquiry or polling phase by transmitting its identification on one channel. The payment device of car 24 is itself in inquiry scan mode listening on all channels. Rapidly (less than 1 second in the latest ARID) Bluetooth specification) a hit occurs between the kiosk and the payment device. Once the payment device has received the kiosk identification, it transmits its own identification called hereafter the car ID. The detection of a car leaving the car park is done at the application level. By periodically scanning the payment device, the application, after several unsuccessful attempts to talk to the payment device, decides to take it off the cars parked in the car park as explained hereafter.

As schematically illustrated in FIG.2, each kiosk such as kiosk 16 is adapted to run three procedures which involve the server 22: payment 26, localization 28 and status monitoring 30. The payment and localization procedures require a user interface 32 because they are launched by a user.

The procedure of status monitoring is run independently of the request entered by a user and enables the cars arriving in the car park or leaving the car park to be automatically detected as described hereafter. Note that the status monitoring procedure could be run from an independent device different from the kiosk.

In a preferred embodiment, the payment device which is put behind the windshield of the car by the user is identified by a Payment Device Universal Identifier (PDUID) and has a screen that can display large text and a color visible from away such that is can be easily seen and replaces the standard ticket usually put in the car to prove the parking payment. It must be noted that, in the preferred embodiment, the PDUID is the car registration number.

In the payment procedure, the user inserts coins as a normal way of payment in the slot of the kiosk represented by the user interface in FIG. 2 and then enters the PDUID of the payment device of his car. The kiosk automatically transfers the information to the payment device in the car 24 without the need for the user to return to the car. The payment device is updated and displays the information on the screen. The displayed information can be the clock time up to which the car is authorized to be parked or can be the amount of time for which the car is authorized to be parked, such amount of time being decremented by an internal clock of the payment device which is periodically synchronized with the server clock.

In the localization procedure which is used when the user has forgotten where he has parked his car (it can be the case in large parking areas with several kiosks), the user enters the PDUID of his payment device FR920040011GB1 5 in any kiosk by means of the user interface 32 and in return, he gets the location of the car as described hereafter.

Before going further in the description of the system it is useful to have a look on the tables used by the system illustrated in FIGs 3A, 3B and 3C. As described hereafter, the server 22 needs to know the location of all car parks it has to manage which is provided by a kiosk location table stored in the server memory and illustrated in FIG.3A showing a list of three car parks and their location. Also, the server has to know the cars that are parked in a car park it manages. Such information is given by a park table also stored in the server memory an illustrated in FIG.3B showing two cars parked in the car park 101 and one car parked in car park 102. For each car park, a column indicates whether the car is parked or has just left the car park, and several columns giving useful information such as parking time, leaving time or the mobile telephone number (MSISDN) of the user. FIG.3C illustrates the car ID list stored in the memory of each kiosk and indicating the car identification numbers (here the car registration numbers) of all the cars parked in the area managed by the kiosk at a given time.

Payment procedure The payment procedure is described hereafter in reference to FIG.4, FIG.6 and FIG.6A.

After initialization (step 32), the kiosk program runs the wait event procedure (step 34) wherein it is waiting either for an action by a user or a message received from the server. In the payment procedure, there is a user who inserts coins in the payment slot (step 36). The kiosk program determines whether a virtual ticket is requested (step 38). In fact, the kiosk must be able to accept users having a payment device and other users having no payment device. This choice is made by selecting one of two keys on the kiosk which has to be pressed by the user. In case the user has no payment device, a ticket is printed (step 40) and must be put by the user behind the car windshield.

Otherwise, the user has to enter the car ID in the user interface (step 42). A payment message is then sent to the server (step 44) containing as attributes the Car ID and the KioskID, moreover a receipt is printed for the user (step 46). After either the step of printing a ticket or the step of printing a receipt, the procedure loops back to wait event (step 34).

FR920040011GB1 6 In the server the operation of which is illustrated in FIG.6, a timeout is set at the step of initialization (step 48). Then, the server enters the wait event procedure (step 50) waiting for a message received from outside. Assuming that this message is a payment message (step 52), the procedure run by the server is illustrated in FIG. 6A.

First of all, it is necessary to determine whether the payment message is a SMS (step 54). Indeed, according to a particular embodiment, a user who realizes that he cannot come back to his car before the time authorized by his payment is completed, can pay by sending a SMS to the server. Note that the user could also perform the first payment by sending a SMS with his mobile telephone.

The server has to determine whether the Car ID indicated in the SMS message exists or not (step 56). If so, or when the payment message is received from a kiosk (not by SMS), the server updates the park table illustrated in FIG.3B by recording a new park time that is obtained by adding the time corresponding to the payment and the remaining time corresponding to this car (step 58).If the payment has been done by SMS, the caller MSISDN is also saved in the park table. Then, the attributes of the parked car including the Car ID and the new park time are sent to the kiosk managing the car park where the car is parked. After that and when there is no car already registered (in case of payment by SMS), the program is looped back to the wait event procedure (step 50).

The message containing the attributes is then received by the kiosk (step 62). The latter sends the updated information to the payment device of the car identified by the car ID received in the attributes (step 64). This information which is either the new time until which the car is authorized to be parked or the total authorized time as already mentioned, is displayed by the payment device.

Localization procedure Referring to FIG.4, FIG.6 and FIG.6B, the localization procedure is started in the kiosk after the initialization (step 32) when in the wait event procedure (step 34), a user who does not remember where he parked his car presses a key of the user interface for sending a request of localization (step 66). At the same time, he enters the identification of the car (Car ID). A message containing this Car ID is sent to the server (step 68).

After receiving the localization request (step 69), the server looks up its park table (see FIG.6B) to detect the Car ID it has received from the kiosk (step 70). After determining whether the Car ID is found in the FR920040011GB1 7 park table (step 72), the server sends to the kiosk a message indicating either that the car has been localized (step 74) or that the car has not been localized (step 76). Note that, in case the car has been localized, the message contains information about the street or the park where the car is parked and the location and number of the kiosk which controls the location.

The localization message is then received as an event by the kiosk at which the localization request has been made (step 78). A message is displayed by the kiosk to inform the user who has initiate the request. If the car has not been localized, the message includes no other indication than a negative answer. If the car has been localized, the message includes the location of the car as mentioned above.

Status monitoring procedure In reference to FIG.5, FIG.6 and FIG.6C, 6D, status monitoring procedure is launched by the kiosk after initialization and setting a timeout (step 82). The kiosk then enters the wait event proce)dure (step 84). Assuming a new car is detected by using the BluetoothLsystem or the like as mentioned above (step 86), a message is transmitted to the server (step 88) carrying Car ID and KioskID as attributes. This message includes the information that a new car has been detected, the identification of the kiosk (kiosk ID) and the identification of the car is added to the car ID list in the kiosk (step 90) before looping back to the wait event procedure (step 84).

Referring to FIG.6 and FIG.6C, the server receiving the information that a new car has been detected (step 92) checks whether this car is registered in its park table (step 94). If the car ID is in the park table of the server, this means that a remaining time due to a previous parking time exists for this car. The park table is updated by indicating the kiosk ID and the new status "parked,, (step 96). The remaining time is retrieved from the park table and sent to the kiosk (step 98) which performs the steps already mentioned (see FIG.4) of setting the attributes (step 62) and sending the new information to the payment device in the car (step 64). If the Car ID is not already registered in the park table, it is a new Car ID that is registered in the park table (step 100). In both cases, the program loops back to the wait event procedure.

When the timeout set during the initialization step is completed, this timeout constitutes an event for the kiosk (step 102). The Car ID list of the kiosk is looked up (step 104). It is checked whether it is the end of list (step 106). If so, the timeout is set again (step 108) and the FR920040011GB1 8 program loops back to the wait event procedure. If it is not the case, a polling message is sent to the payment device corresponding to the Car ID of the list (step 110).

At this stage, there are two possibilities depending on whether a car is responding by means of its payment device (step 112). If the payment device of the car responds to the polling message, this means that the car is still parked and the program is looped back to the step of determining whether it was the end of the list (step 106). If the payment device of the car does not respond, this means that the car has left the car park. In such a case, a message including the kiosk ID and the Car ID is sent to the server (step 114), the Car ID is removed from the car ID list (step 116) and the program gets the next entry of the car ID list (step 118) before looping back to the step of determining whether it has reached the end of the list.

When a car has left the car park, the server receives a message (step 119) from the kiosk as illustrated in FIG.6D. It is determined whether there is remaining time for this car. If so, the park table is updated by changing the status from parked'' to left,, and the leave time is set (step 122). If there is no remaining time for this car, the car ID is removed from the park table (step 124). In both cases, the program loops back to the wait event procedure.

Timeout procedure As illustrated in FIG. 6, the timeout procedure is run by the server each time the timeout set at the initialization step is completed (step 126). In reference to FIG. 6E, this procedure starts by looking up the park table (step 128). It is checked whether it is the end of the table (step 130). If so, the timeout is set (step 131) and the procedure is looped back to the wait event procedure.

If it is not the end of the park table, it is checked whether the status of the Car ID is parked or not (step 132). If not, it is determined whether the remaining time indicated for this car ID is still reusable according to the leave time specified for said Car ID (134). If the remaining time is no more usable then the entry corresponding to the Car ID is removed from the park table (step 136). After this step or when the park time is not yet overcome, the program gets the next entry of the park table (step 138).

If the status of the car ID in the park table is "parked" meaning that the car is still parked, it is determined whether the park time FR920040011GB1 9 indicated in the park time has expired (step 140). If so, it is determined whether there is a MSISDN corresponding to this car ID in the park table (step 142). If it is the case (Note that the MSISDN must be known only if the car owner has paid using SMS), the server sends a SMS to the user of the car identified by the car ID in order to inform him that he has to pay an additional amount of money because his parked time has expired (step 144). In case the park time has not expired or there is no MSISDN in the park table or after a SMS has been sent to the user, the program gets the next entry of the park table (step 138) and then loops backs to the step of determining whether it is the end of the table (step 130).

Claims

FR920040011GB1 10 CLAIMS

1. Electronic system for managing the payment by the users of car parks comprising at least one kiosk (16, 18 or 20) used by a user to perform a payment corresponding to the period of time the user's car is authorized to be parked in a car park (10, 12 or 14) and a payment means located inside the user's car and visible from outside for indicating the time limit until which said car is authorized to be parked said system being characterized in that said payment means is a payment device having a screen for displaying said time limit and in that said kiosk and said payment device are connected by a wireless link so that said kiosk detects said car when it is parked within said car park and registers the car identification, said kiosk transmitting to said payment device said time limit to be displayed on its screen after said user has performed the payment corresponding to the amount of time for which the car will be authorized to be parked.

2. Electronic system according to claim 1, wherein said kiosk and the payment devices of all cars parked in said car park is a Bluetooth (Ret of) system where said kiosk is the master station and said payment devices are the slave stations.

3. Electronic system according to claim 2, wherein said time limit displayed by said payment device is the clock time up to which said car is authorized to be parked in said car park.

4. Electronic system according to claim 2, wherein said time limit displayed by said payment device is an amount of time for which the car is authorized to be parked, said amount of time being decremented by the internal clock of said payment device.

5. Electronic system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said kiosk stores a list of Payment Device Universal Identifiers (PDUID) for identifying all the cars being parked in said car park (car ID list), said PDUID being for example the car registration number.

6. Electronic system according to claim 5, further comprising a server (22) connected to all the kiosks (16, 18, 20) and which stores a park table giving the status (parked or left) of all the cars parked in the car parks (10, 12, 14) managed by said kiosks, the car park where each car is parked and the time limit for which each car is authorized to be parked.

FR920040011GB1 11

7. Electronic system according to claim 6, wherein said kiosk (16, 18, 20) includes means (32) for receiving the money such as coins entered by said user who has parked his car in said car park (10, 12, 14) and for getting the car ID of said car, a payment message being sent from said kiosk to said server (22) which updates its park table because there is a remaining time for said car to be parked.

Electronic system according to claim 7, wherein a payment corresponding to an additional time for the car being parked can be made by said user sending a SMS from his mobile telephone to said server (22).

9. Electronic system according to claim 8, wherein a message is sent from said server (22) to said kiosk (16, 18, 20) in case said park table is updated for said car ID, said message which includes the new updated time being then transmitted by said kiosk to the payment device corresponding to said car ID.

10. Electronic system according to claim 9, wherein said kiosk (16, 18, 20) includes means (32) for sending a localization request received from said user to said server (22) in order to localize his car, said server looking up said car park table in order to retrieve the location of the car park where the user's car is parked and sending a localization message to said kiosk.

11. Electronic system according to claim 10, wherein said kiosk (16, 18 or 20) includes means for displaying the location of the car park where the user's car is parked or the information that the car has not been found by said server (22).

12. Electronic system according to claim 11, wherein said kiosk (16, 18, 20) includes means for monitoring the status of the cars being parked in said car park for sending a message to said server (22) when a new car is detected and for adding the new car ID to said car ID list of said kiosk.

13. Electronic system according to claim 11, further comprising means outside said kiosk for monitoring the status of the cars being parked in said car park for sending a message to said server (22) when a new car is detected and for adding the new car ID to said car ID list of said kiosk.

14. Electronic system according to claim 12 or 13, wherein said server (22) adds said car ID received from said kiosk (16, 18, 20) or said further means if said car ID is not already present in said park table.

FR920040011GB1 12

15. Electronic system according to claim 14, wherein said server (22) updates said park table if said car ID iS already present is said park table and sends a message to said kiosk (16, 18, 20), said message which includes the new updated park time being then transmitted by said kiosk to the payment device corresponding to said car ID.

16. Electronic system according to claim 14 or 15, wherein said means in said kiosk (16, 18, 20) or said further means for monitoring the status of the car being parked in said car park send a message to said server (22) when they detect that a car has left said car park and remove the car ID corresponding to said car from said car ID list.

17. Electronic system according to claim 16, wherein said server (22) receiving said message from said kiosk (16, 18, 20) removes said car ID from its park table if there is no remaining time for the car to be parked or updates said park table if there is remaining time.

18. Electronic system according to claim 17, wherein said server (22) includes means fo looking up said park table and determining whether any car ID having a status "parked" corresponds to a park time which has not expired.

19. Electronic system according to claim 18, wherein said server (22) includes means for sending a SMS message to the user corresponding to a park time which has expired and if said park table indicates a MSISDN number for said car ID.