JP2005332005A - Vehicle management system in parking lot - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle management system for smoothly guiding and parking an entry vehicle at a vacant location in a parking lot by effectively utilizing a vehicle number recognition technology. <P>SOLUTION: This vehicle management system is configured of a television camera 4 for an entry vehicle arranged at the entrance of a parking lot, a computer 5 for recognizing the vehicle number of a photographed entry vehicle as electronic information, and for performing vehicle guidance management in the parking lot, a parking location display board 9 for instructing the parking location and/or a guide display light 6 for guiding the entry vehicle to the predetermined parking location. The computer 5 is preliminarily set with parking lot data obtained by grouping the respective parking locations in the parking lot for each area, and the entry vehicle 12 whose vehicle number has been recognized at the entrance is assigned to any of vacant parking rows A to K, and guided to the vacant parking rows A to K under the lighting control of the parking location display board 9 and/or the guide display light 6 by the computer 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle management system in a parking lot in which an entrance vehicle is smoothly guided to an empty position in a parking lot and parked by effectively utilizing a vehicle number recognition technology using a television camera and a computer.

  Using the optical character reading function (OCR) to optically read handwritten characters and printed characters, identify characters by collating with previously stored patterns, and acquire digitized character data, the following patent As shown in Document 1, a vehicle number recognition device is known in which a license plate of an automobile is photographed by a television camera, the image is converted into computerized information, and recognized by a computer.

Further, as shown in Patent Document 2 below, a traffic monitoring system is known that can grasp the traffic situation by combining this vehicle number recognition device and a navigation system that measures the absolute position coordinates of the automobile.
JP-A-6-215293 JP-A-8-30892

  However, the above-described vehicle number recognition apparatus is used for specific purposes implemented by public organizations or when performing vehicle entry / exit management in some factories, such as the system disclosed in Patent Document 2. In general, it was in a situation where it was not used effectively.

  On the other hand, in large parking lots that are mainly installed at event venues, highway service areas, large stores, theme parks, etc., when the vehicle is almost full, the driver slowly walks through the parking lot to see what is free. However, it was very inconvenient. Therefore, measures such as placing a guide in the parking lot and guiding the admission car to a vacant position have been taken, but in that case labor costs for the guide are increased and costs are wasted However, although the guides can confirm where the vacant positions are in the vicinity of themselves, the vacant positions in the distant places cannot be quickly confirmed, which has caused the entrance vehicle to be congested.

  By the way, in recent years, department stores and large shopping facilities sometimes have indicator lights that indicate whether the entrance is full or empty, but these facilities only manage the number of vehicles that enter. The vehicle that entered the parking lot still needed time and effort to find where it was available.

  Therefore, a main problem of the present invention is to provide a vehicle management system capable of smoothly guiding and parking an entering vehicle to a vacant position in a parking lot by effectively utilizing a vehicle number recognition technique.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, as the present invention according to claim 1, a television camera for an entrance vehicle for photographing a car number of an entrance vehicle installed at an entrance of a parking lot, and an image taken by the television camera for the entrance vehicle In addition to recognizing the vehicle number of the entered vehicle as electronic information, the computer that performs vehicle guidance management in the parking lot, the parking place display board that indicates the parking place, and / or the entrance vehicle is guided to a predetermined parking place. It consists of a guide indicator for
In the computer, parking data in which each parking place in the parking lot is grouped for each area is set in advance.
The admission vehicle whose vehicle number is recognized by the computer by the computer is allocated to an empty parking area group and is managed in relation to the allocated parking area group, and the admission vehicle is parked. There is provided a vehicle management system in a parking lot that is guided to a vacant parking area group by lighting control of a place display board and / or a guidance indicator lamp.

  In the present invention described in claim 1, the computer determines which parking area group to park the entering vehicle, and parking with a parking place display board and / or a guide indicator that indicates the parking place. Since the vehicle is guided to the area group, it is possible to save the trouble of the driver of the entering vehicle himself / herself looking for an empty position in the parking lot, and to smoothly move the vehicle in the parking lot and prevent traffic congestion.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a leaving vehicle TV camera for photographing a car number of a leaving vehicle at the exit of the parking lot, and the leaving vehicle photographed by the leaving vehicle TV camera by the computer. The vehicle management system in a parking lot according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle number is recognized as electronic information and is acquired as parking vacancy information of a parking area group by comparison with the vehicle number information acquired at the time of admission. Provided.

  In the present invention described in claim 2, a TV camera for photographing the car number of the leaving car is provided at the exit of the parking lot, and the car number of the leaving car photographed by the TV camera is digitized by the computer. Convert it to be recognized. And it is made to acquire as parking empty information of a parking area group by contrast with the car number information acquired at the time of entrance. Therefore, it is possible to quickly grasp which parking area group in the parking lot has been vacated sequentially, and it is possible to promptly guide the subsequent entry vehicles to the parking area group in which the vacancy has occurred. It is possible to construct a good vehicle management system.

  As a third aspect of the present invention, the vehicle number recognition of the entering vehicle and / or the leaving vehicle is a combination including at least the serial number among a land transportation branch office code, a vehicle type code, a use code, and a serial number of a license plate. A vehicle management system in a parking lot according to claim 1 or 2 is provided.

  In the present invention described in claim 3, the vehicle number recognition of the entering vehicle and / or the leaving vehicle is a combination including at least the serial number. For vehicle number recognition, it is desirable to recognize all of the land transportation branch office code, vehicle type code, application code, and serial number written on the license plate. However, in the recognition device, the recognition rate of numbers can be almost 100%. However, depending on the recognition device, misrecognition occurs at a rate of several percent in the case of kanji and hiragana. However, if the number of vehicles recognized at the time of entry and the number of vehicles recognized at the time of leaving are accumulated differently, there will be a problem that the parking mass that is gradually not recognized as an empty parking place gradually increases. For this reason, since the probability that the serial numbers of the license plate coincide with each other is much smaller than the erroneous recognition rate, only numbers such as serial numbers and application codes may be recognized.

  As the present invention according to claim 4, in addition to the parking area group for ordinary vehicles, the parking area is provided with at least a parking area group for large vehicles, and the computer is configured to enter the vehicle based on the recognized vehicle type code. The vehicle management system in the parking lot in any one of Claims 1-3 which discriminate | determines which parking area group is guided to.

  In the present invention described in claim 4, in addition to the parking area group for ordinary vehicles, at least a parking area group for large vehicles is provided, and the computer determines which of the admission vehicles based on the recognized vehicle type code. It was decided whether to guide to the parking area group on the side. Large vehicles are often parked in a separate parking zone from ordinary vehicles, so it is desirable to discriminate these based on the vehicle type code and guide them separately.

  Vehicle management in a parking lot according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein, in the computer according to claim 5, in the computer, an entry date and time and / or an exit date and time from the parking lot are recorded for each vehicle. A system is provided.

  In the present invention described in claim 5, since the date and time of entry and / or exit from the parking lot of each vehicle is recorded by the computer, the entry vehicle and / or the day and time zone and / or You can clearly see the exiting car.

  As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to smoothly guide and park a vehicle that has entered the parking lot to an empty position in the parking lot. Therefore, it is possible to save time and effort for the driver of the admission vehicle to search for an empty position in the parking lot, smooth the movement of the vehicle in the parking lot, and prevent traffic congestion.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a parking lot 1 to which a vehicle management system according to the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the apparatus, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a photographing procedure for a license plate at an entrance or exit, FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a vehicle management system.

  The parking lot 1 is a relatively large parking lot mainly installed at an event venue, a highway service area, a large store, a theme park, etc., and in the illustrated example, the entrance gate 2A and the exit are at the entrance. The exit gate 2B is provided at the mouth, and each of the 11 rows of parking area groups consisting of A to K with a plurality of parking spaces in the hall is provided. Among these, the two rows J and K on the upper left in the figure are large. The parking lot for cars and others are parking lots for ordinary cars.

  On the other hand, the vehicle management system 3 according to the present invention is installed above the entrance gate 2A, is installed above the exit gate 2B, and is installed above the exit gate 2B to photograph the car number of the entrance car 12. The exit exit TV camera 10 that captures the car number of the car 13, the entrance car TV camera 4, and the entrance car 12 and the exit car 13 that are captured by the exit TV camera 10 are digitized information ( Text information) and a computer 5 for determining which parking row of the AK to guide the entrance car 12 in the parking lot, and each parking row entrance from the entrance of the parking lot 1 .. Are provided on the passages up to and at the entrance of each parking row, and the guidance indication lights 6, 6... For guiding the entrance car 12 to the predetermined parking rows A to K and the parking place are indicated by letters. Electric bulletin board (Parking location display board) and a guidance control device 7 that lights predetermined guidance indicator lights 6, 6... Based on an instruction from the computer 5 and displays the parking location on the electronic bulletin board 9. is there. An interface 8 is provided between the entrance TV camera 4 and the exit TV camera 10 and the computer 5. Each device of the vehicle management system 3 is connected by a transmission cable 14 and a signal is transmitted through the transmission cable 14. Signal transmission may be performed wirelessly. When this system is added to an existing parking lot, it is desirable to use a wireless system in terms of ease of construction and maintenance, and no need to install cables on the road surface.

  In the computer 5, parking lot data in which the parking places in the parking lot are grouped for each area is set in advance. In the example of illustration, each parking row AK is set as a parking area group divided into groups. The grouping may be set by further subdividing the parking rows A to K, for example, A1 to A3, B1 to B3,. The computer 5 is installed with OCR software for converting the photographed car number photographed video into computerized information.

  As the entrance TV camera 4 and the exit TV camera 10, it is desirable to use a high-resolution CCD camera in order to recognize and process the photographed car number of the entrance car 12 with high accuracy by the computer 5. Further, the television cameras 4 and 10 have a zoom function so that the car number portion of the entrance car 12 can be enlarged and photographed, and 1 / so that the photograph can be taken even when traveling at a low speed. Those having a shutter function of about 4000 seconds are preferably used.

  Hereinafter, the actual vehicle number recognition procedure by the vehicle management system 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, when an admission car reaches the admission gate 2, photographing of the front license plate of the admission car 12 is started by the entrance TV camera 4 installed on the upper front side of the entrance. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, it is desirable that the entrance TV camera 4 be installed within the range of 30 degrees of inclination angle θ in order to increase the recognition rate. When the admission car 12 passes through the angle area of the TV camera 4, the sensor 11 is activated so that a car number photographed image is automatically acquired. This car number photographed image is input (saved) into the computer 5.

  The computer 5 converts the input car number photographed image into computerized information using OCR software, and recognizes and obtains the car number serial number, the land transportation branch office code, the car model code, and the application code. Here, the serial number is a number consisting of four digits that are displayed in the lower part of a license plate such as 34-78, and the land transportation branch code is, for example, the vehicle displayed in the upper part of Shinagawa, Adachi, etc. This is a place name notation of the land transportation branch office to which the vehicle belongs, and the vehicle type code is a two- or three-digit number continuously displayed from the land transportation branch office code. For example, “11” means a large vehicle. The usage code is a single hiragana character attached to the left side of the serial number. For example, “wa” means a rental car.

  As the vehicle number recognition method, any conventionally known method may be used. For example, the serial number and the vehicle type code are composed of only numbers and are relatively easy to recognize. Can do. On the other hand, since the character structure of the land transportation branch office code is complicated, a template matching method for judging by comparing with a pre-stored teaching pattern or a character in a license plate by binarizing an input image For example, a method for recognizing with a gray image, and the like. Among these, the template matching method mentioned first will be described. The serial number is extracted from the image of the license plate portion of the entrance car 12 photographed by the entrance TV camera 4 and the above-described various code ranges are set. To do. Next, the extracted serial number is recognized by the feature amount, and the vehicle type code is recognized from the range. Subsequently, the land transportation branch office code is recognized by performing pattern matching with a land transportation branch office code teaching pattern (not shown) stored in advance. At this time, since the land transportation branch office code generally has many neighborhood names in the area where the parking lot 1 exists, the search time can be shortened if the teaching patterns are searched in order of appearance frequency. So desirable. Similarly, the application code is recognized by performing pattern matching with the application code teaching pattern. At this time, many license plates have different colors, such as white and green, depending on the use of the vehicle. If the input image is binarized and template matching is performed, the processing time can be shortened. It is desirable because it is possible. In addition, for example, methods described in JP-A-5-143716 and JP-A-6-215293 can be applied to further speed up the processing.

  If the vehicle number can be recognized, the computer 5 determines whether to guide the admission vehicle 12 to the parking row of the normal vehicle train or the large vehicle train based on the vehicle type code, If there is, the admission vehicle 12 is allocated to any group in the parking columns A to I having vacancy, and the admission vehicle 12 is allocated to any group in the parking column J, K having vacancy if it is a large vehicle. Moreover, each entrance car 12 is managed under the relationship with the group of the allocated parking rows AK. For example, as for the vehicle management in the computer 5, the entry date, entry time, land transportation branch code, vehicle type code, use code, serial number, type, parking queue, exit date, exit time, as shown in the table of FIG. It is managed by the item.

  Next, when the computer 5 determines whether to guide the entrance car 12 to any of the parking rows A to K, the computer 5 transmits a signal to that effect to the guidance control device 7. In the guidance control device 7, the guidance display lamps 6, 6 on the passage to the parking row entrance and the passage to the parking row entrance are turned on according to the instruction signals of the parking rows A to K for parking the entrance car 12. In addition, on the electronic bulletin board for guidance 9, for example, “Please park in row B” in the illustrated example, guidance to the parking row that guides the entrance car 12 is displayed in characters.

  The computer 5 stores in which parking row the admission vehicle 12 is parked, and constantly grasps the vacant state of each parking row. For example, if the parking row A is full, the subsequent admission vehicle 12 Is guided to park in the parking row B. When all the parking rows are full, the entrance gate 2 temporarily stops entry.

  On the other hand, in the vehicle management system 3 according to the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the vehicle number of the exit vehicle 13 can be recognized even at the exit of the parking lot 1. That is, the exit entrance of the parking lot 1 is also provided with an exit exit TV camera 10 having the same function as the entrance entrance TV camera 4, and the car number data and the exit date and time of the exit car 13 are stored in the case of the entrance car 12. It recognizes by the computer 5 similarly to. The entrance TV camera 4 and the exit TV camera 10 are each provided with an image switching sensor 11, and the image of the entrance TV camera 4 and the image of the exit TV camera 10 are stored in the computer 5. The screen can be switched arbitrarily and taken in.

  If the vehicle 5 can be recognized by the computer 5, the exit vehicle 13 is parked in which parking row A to K by comparison with the data stored when the vehicle number of the entrance car 12 is recognized. By searching whether the vehicle is a vehicle and grasping the parking row where the vacant position is generated, a vehicle entering later is guided to this parking row (C row in the example of FIG. 2). In the example shown in the figure, an empty position is also generated in the row B. However, since the vehicle parked at this position has not been recognized yet, no entry vehicle is guided to the row B at this time.

  On the other hand, the computer 5 records the exit date and exit time of the exit vehicle when the vehicle number of the exit vehicle 13 is recognized. By recording this exit date and time, it is possible to analyze how long the leaving vehicle has been parked by combining the serial number of the car number of the exiting car and the entrance time. If there is, it can be used to calculate the parking fee to be charged. Moreover, if it is a base of a transport company, etc., it is possible to manage the dispatch status of vehicles owned by the base.

[Other examples]
(1) In the above embodiment, the vehicle number recognition of the vehicle is performed at both the entrance and the exit of the parking lot 1, but the vehicle number recognition at the exit may be omitted.
(2) In the above embodiment, an example in which the vehicle management system according to the present invention is applied to a parking lot provided with a parking row for ordinary vehicles and a parking row for large vehicles has been described. It is good also as applying the vehicle management system which concerns on this invention in the parking lot where only was provided.
(3) In the above embodiment, the vehicle number recognition recognizes all of the serial number, the land transportation branch office code, the vehicle type code, and the application code, but may be a combination including the serial number. For example, only numbers consisting of serial numbers and application codes may be recognized.
(4) In the above embodiment, the guidance display lamp 6 and the electric bulletin board 9 are controlled by the guidance control device 7. However, the computer 5 may directly control the guidance display lamp 6 and the electric bulletin board 9.

1 is an overall schematic diagram of a parking lot 1 to which a vehicle management system according to the present invention is applied. It is the apparatus block diagram. It is a figure which shows the photography point of the number plate in the entrance or exit. It is a flowchart of a vehicle management system. It is a figure which shows the example of the vehicle management list in the computer.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Parking lot, 2A ... Entrance gate, 2B ... Exit gate, 3 ... Vehicle management system, 4 ... Television camera for entrance, 5 ... Computer, 6 ... Guidance indicator, 7 ... Guidance control device, 8 ... Interface, 9 ... Electric bulletin board, 10 ... TV camera for exit, 11 ... Image switching sensor

Claims (5)

Recognizing the vehicle number of the entrance vehicle for photographing the vehicle number of the entrance vehicle installed at the entrance of the parking lot, and the vehicle number of the entrance vehicle photographed by the television camera for entrance vehicle as electronic information A computer that performs vehicle guidance management in the parking lot, and a parking location display board for instructing the parking location and / or a guidance indicator lamp for guiding the entering vehicle to a predetermined parking location,
In the computer, parking data in which each parking place in the parking lot is grouped for each area is set in advance.
The admission vehicle whose vehicle number is recognized by the computer by the computer is allocated to an empty parking area group and is managed in relation to the allocated parking area group, and the admission vehicle is parked. A vehicle management system in a parking lot, wherein the vehicle is guided to a vacant parking area group by lighting control of a place display board and / or a guidance indicator lamp.   An exit vehicle TV camera for photographing the vehicle number of the exiting vehicle is provided at the exit of the parking lot, and the vehicle number of the exiting vehicle captured by the exit vehicle TV camera is recognized as electronic information by the computer. 2. The vehicle management system in a parking lot according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle vacancy information is acquired as parking vacancy information of the parking area group by comparison with the vehicle number information acquired at the time of admission.   The parking lot according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the vehicle number recognition of the entering vehicle and / or the leaving vehicle is a combination including at least the serial number among a land transportation branch office code, a vehicle type code, a use code, and a serial number of a license plate. Vehicle management system in Japan.   The parking lot is provided with at least a large vehicle parking area group in addition to the ordinary car parking area group, and the computer determines which side the parking area group is based on the recognized vehicle type code. The vehicle management system in a parking lot according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein whether to guide the vehicle is determined. The vehicle management system in a parking lot according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the computer records an entry date and time and / or an exit date and time from the parking lot for each vehicle.

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