JP5846565B1 - Parking management device and parking lot system - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for identifying a user of a parking lot by recognizing a license plate of a vehicle improves the identification accuracy of the user. An image pickup means for acquiring a first image by picking up an image of a license plate of a vehicle stored in a passenger compartment using a camera, and a discriminator, the number of the vehicle based on the first image. The identifying means for identifying the plate information, and when the identifying means identifies the license plate information, warehousing information including information for identifying the vehicle compartment and the identified license plate information is present in the vicinity of the vehicle compartment. Based on the content of the response to the warehousing information, the user informing means for broadcast transmission to the user terminal by short-range wireless communication, the user confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal, And charging means for determining the license plate information and performing a charging process based on the license plate information. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a system and apparatus for managing a parked vehicle.

  In a paid parking space such as a coin parking, a charging device for imposing a parking fee is generally provided. Specifically, it has a settlement machine and a blocking means (for example, a lock plate or a breaker). When the vehicle enters the passenger compartment, the blocking means works. The structure of becoming is mainly used.

  In addition, a parking lot system that reads a license plate has been devised to identify a vehicle that has entered the parking lot. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a parking lot system that reads a license plate of a stored vehicle and automatically calculates a charge according to the time when the vehicle is parked. In such a system, it is possible to use a cashless parking lot by using account withdrawal and credit card settlement.

  Further, by providing a camera in the passenger compartment, it is possible to simultaneously read the license plate and specify the passenger compartment in which the vehicle is stored. For example, Patent Document 2 describes that a camera is provided in a passenger compartment to recognize a license plate of a vehicle that has been stored.

JP 2003-132380 A JP 2009-104441 A

  In the parking lot system that identifies the user to be charged by recognizing the license plate, there is a problem that if the license plate recognition fails, the user cannot be charged unless the user is identified by some method. is there.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve user identification accuracy in an apparatus for identifying a parking lot user by recognizing a license plate of a vehicle.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the parking management device according to the present invention includes:
A parking management device for managing a vehicle that has entered a parking lot having a plurality of passenger compartments, the imaging means for obtaining a first image by imaging a license plate of a vehicle that has entered the passenger compartment using a camera; An identification unit that identifies the license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image, and information that identifies a vehicle compartment when the identification unit identifies the license plate information; User notification means for broadcasting the warehousing information including the license plate information to the user terminals existing in the vicinity of the passenger compartment by short-range wireless communication, and a user confirmation for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminals Based on the means and the content of the response to the warehousing information, the license plate information of the warehousing vehicle is determined, and the license plate information It characterized by having a a billing means for executing billing based.

The parking management device according to the present invention identifies license plate information by a discriminator using a first image obtained by imaging a license plate.
In this specification, “number plate information” is used as a word indicating information written on the license plate of the vehicle, and “identification of license plate information” is based on the acquired image. Used to refer to the process of converting information into a form that can be processed by a computer.
In addition, the user notification means broadcasts information identifying the vehicle compartment (for example, vehicle compartment number) and identified license plate information (for example, a character string representing the contents of the license plate) to the vicinity of the vehicle compartment by short-range wireless communication. Send. The transmitted information is received by the user terminal.

The user terminal is a terminal possessed by a user who uses the parking lot, and is estimated to be present in the vicinity of the passenger compartment when the vehicle enters. Therefore, by broadcasting the warehousing information in the vicinity of the passenger compartment using short-range wireless communication, the user can be confirmed whether or not the corresponding vehicle has surely entered. Based on the response result acquired by the user confirmation unit, the charging unit determines the license plate information and performs the charging process.
According to such a configuration, the user who parked the vehicle can confirm the identification result of the license plate, so that the identification accuracy of the user can be improved.

  In addition, when the content of the response to the warehousing information indicates that the identified license plate information is not correct, the imaging means uses the camera to display the license plate information presented by the user. A second image is obtained by capturing a coded image, and the charging means decodes the license plate information from the second image, thereby confirming the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered the warehouse. It may be a feature.

If the identified license plate information is not correct, it is necessary to acquire correct license plate information using other means. Therefore, the parking management device captures an image obtained by encoding the license plate information presented by the user, and obtains license plate information that is correct by decoding the image. This makes it possible to charge based on correct license plate information. Note that the image obtained by encoding the license plate information is, for example, an image obtained by encoding the license plate information using a QR code (registered trademark) or the like, but is not limited thereto.
According to such a configuration, the code can be imaged using the camera that images the license plate of the vehicle, so that license plate information that is a correct answer can be obtained without cost.

  In addition, when the content of the response to the warehousing information indicates that the identified license plate information is incorrect, the user confirmation means sends license plate information associated with the user terminal from the user terminal. And the billing unit may determine the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered by using the license plate information.

  Thus, you may make it transmit the license plate information used as a correct answer directly from a user terminal to a parking management apparatus.

  Further, the identification unit may learn the classifier based on the first image and the determined license plate information.

  The first image and the confirmed license plate information can be used as data for learning the discriminator. According to such a configuration, it is possible to learn the discriminator while operating and improve the identification accuracy of the license plate.

  In addition, the parking management device according to the present invention may further include an information transmission unit that transmits parking information including information related to a parking fee per unit time to the user terminal.

  By notifying the user terminal of the parking fee per unit time, the user terminal can calculate the fee and present it to the user.

  The billing unit may transmit at least one of current parking time, current parking fee, and vehicle position information to the user terminal in response to a request from the user terminal. Good.

  By checking the warehousing information with the user terminal, it is possible to link the vehicle being warehousing with the user terminal possessed by the user. Therefore, it may be configured to transmit information related to parking (parking time, parking fee, vehicle compartment position, etc.) in response to a request from the user terminal. By doing in this way, a user can grasp | ascertain the present condition through a user terminal.

  The identification unit may divide the first image into a plurality of regions each including different character types, and perform learning and identification for each character type.

The license plate is composed of four types: characters representing the headquarters (land transportation branch office), classification numbers, business identification characters, and designated numbers (vehicle numbers), and three types of characters, kanji, hiragana and numbers, are used. Therefore, the first image may be divided into a plurality of regions, and learning and identification may be performed on each of the regions.
For example, a first discriminator for identifying the headquarters (kanji or hiragana), a second discriminator for identifying business discrimination characters (hiragana), and a third identifier for identifying the classification number and designated number (numeric) A vessel may be used. By dividing in this way, the accuracy of learning and identification can be further improved. In addition, for example, a first discriminator for identifying only kanji, a second discriminator for identifying only hiragana, and a third discriminator for identifying only numbers may be used.

  The identification unit may estimate the angle of the license plate with respect to the camera, and further learn the classifier using the estimated angle.

  Learning of the discriminator is performed using the first image and the license plate information that is correct, but the angle of the license plate with respect to the camera is not uniform. That is, when learning is performed without distinguishing the angles, there may be a disadvantage that the identification accuracy is lowered. Therefore, the angle of the license plate with respect to the camera may be estimated, and the obtained angle information may be part of the learning data. Thereby, the learning result in consideration of the angle can be obtained, and the identification accuracy can be maintained even when the angle between the camera and the license plate is different.

  The imaging unit may further include a mechanism for changing the angle of the camera in the horizontal direction according to the position of the license plate in the first image.

  When the camera and the vehicle are close to each other, the position of the license plate on the image is greatly moved by a slight movement of the vehicle, and in some cases, the frame may be out of frame. Therefore, a mechanism for changing the angle of the camera may be provided to follow the license plate.

Moreover, the parking lot system according to the present invention includes:
A parking system comprising a parking management device for managing a vehicle stored in a parking lot having a plurality of vehicle compartments and a user terminal possessed by a user of the parking lot, wherein the parking management device uses a camera An image pickup means for picking up an image of a license plate of a vehicle that has entered the passenger compartment and acquiring a first image, and an identifier for identifying the license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image When the vehicle that has entered the compartment is detected, the garage information including the information for identifying the compartment and the identified license plate information is wirelessly transmitted to the user terminal existing in the vicinity of the compartment. Based on the content of the response to the warehousing information, the user notification means for broadcast transmission by communication, the user confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal, Charging means for confirming the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered the warehouse and performing a billing process based on the license plate information, and the user terminal ascertaining the correctness of the receipt information as a response to the received warehouse information. It has a response means which transmits the information to represent to the said parking management apparatus, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  Thus, this invention can also be specified as a system which added the user terminal to the parking management apparatus mentioned above.

In addition, the parking management device according to the second aspect of the present invention,
A parking management device for managing a vehicle that has entered a parking lot having a plurality of passenger compartments, the imaging means for obtaining a first image by imaging a license plate of a vehicle that has entered the passenger compartment using a camera; And an identification unit that stores identification information for identifying the license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image, the license plate information, and the user terminal possessed by the user. Storage means, and when the identification means identifies the license plate information, to the corresponding user terminal, user notification means for transmitting warehousing information including information identifying the vehicle compartment and the identified license plate information; User confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal, and the license plate of the warehousing vehicle based on the content of the response to the warehousing information An accounting means for confirming information and performing accounting processing based on the license plate information, and an error notification means for notifying the user visually or audibly when the identification means fails to identify the license plate information When the identification unit fails to identify the license plate information, the imaging unit captures an image encoded by the license plate information presented by the user using the camera. The second image is acquired, and the billing means decrypts the license plate information from the second image, thereby determining the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered.

Instead of broadcasting the warehousing information, the correspondence between the license plate information and the user terminal may be stored in advance, and communication may be performed after specifying the destination. However, in this configuration, when the license plate information cannot be correctly identified, the communication destination is unknown. Therefore, a means for notifying the user visually or auditorily is provided, and the license plate information that is the correct answer is transmitted using the second image.
Any notification may be used as long as it is performed based on vision or hearing. For example, voice notification means such as a speaker may be provided and notification may be given by voice, or visual display means such as a screen may be provided to display guidance. In addition, the user who has received the notification holds the image (second image) obtained by encoding the license plate of the vehicle over the image pickup means and causes the reading to be performed. According to such a configuration, it is possible to determine the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered without using short-range wireless communication.

  In addition, this invention can be specified as a parking management apparatus or a parking lot system containing at least one part of the said means. The above processes and means can be freely combined and implemented as long as no technical contradiction occurs.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, in the apparatus which identifies the user of a parking lot by recognizing the number plate of a vehicle, a user's identification precision can be improved.

It is a system configuration figure of the parking lot system concerning a first embodiment. It is an overhead view of the vehicle interior in the first embodiment. It is an example of a user information table. It is a process flowchart figure of the parking lot system which concerns on 1st embodiment. It is a figure explaining the division | segmentation method of a license plate image. It is a process flowchart figure of the parking lot system which concerns on 1st embodiment. It is a figure explaining the broadcast range of near field communication. It is an example of the warehousing information provided to a user through a portable terminal. It is a process flowchart figure of the parking lot system which concerns on 1st embodiment. It is an example of a QR code representing license plate information. It is an example of the information provision screen provided to a user through a portable terminal. It is a figure explaining the angle of the number plate with respect to a camera. It is a figure explaining the relationship between the angle of a camera, and the position of a license plate.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A parking lot system 100 according to the first embodiment is a system that manages a time-rental parking lot having a plurality of parking sections (hereinafter, vehicle compartments), and a vehicle compartment device 10 provided in each vehicle compartment, This is a system comprising a parking lot server 20 for managing a plurality of vehicle compartments and a mobile terminal 30 possessed by a user.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a parking lot system 100 according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, the vehicle compartment device 10 and the mobile terminal 30 are illustrated one by one, but a plurality of vehicle compartment devices 10 and mobile terminals 30 may be provided. For example, the vehicle compartment device 10 may be installed by the number of vehicle compartments that the parking lot has. Moreover, the portable terminal 30 is a portable terminal such as a smartphone possessed by a user of the parking lot.

  First, the configuration of the passenger compartment device 10 will be described. The vehicle compartment device 10 is a device that detects a vehicle entering the vehicle compartment and images a license plate, and includes a vehicle detection unit 11, an image acquisition unit 12, a communication unit 13, and a short-range communication unit 14. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle compartment device 10 is a device built in a pole installed in the rear of the vehicle compartment (hereinafter, vehicle compartment pole 200), but is not limited to this configuration.

  The vehicle detection unit 11 is means for detecting whether or not a vehicle is present in the vehicle interior. For example, in the case of the form shown in FIG. 2, a sensor (for example, a distance sensor) is arranged on the passenger compartment pole 200 and the presence or absence of the vehicle is detected based on the sensing result. Since the technique for detecting the vehicle is well known, detailed description is omitted. The vehicle detection unit 11 may use other means such as a loop coil embedded in the road surface as long as the vehicle can be detected.

  The image acquisition unit 12 is means for imaging a license plate of a vehicle that has entered the passenger compartment. For example, in the case of the form shown in FIG. 2, a camera is placed on the passenger compartment pole and the license plate of the vehicle that has been stored is imaged. The camera used by the image acquisition unit 12 may be a camera that acquires an RGB image, or may be a camera that acquires a grayscale image or the like.

The communication unit 13 is a communication unit for connecting the passenger compartment device 10 to a network. The communication unit 13 may be a wired network interface or a wireless network interface as long as it can be connected to a network.
The short-range communication unit 14 is means for performing wireless communication with the mobile terminal 30 possessed by the user. In the present embodiment, the short-range communication unit 14 performs data communication according to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy standard (hereinafter, BLE). BLE is a low-power communication standard based on Bluetooth, and does not require pairing between devices, and has a feature that communication can be started immediately by detecting a partner. In addition, a push notification can be transmitted to the communication destination portable terminal.

Next, the configuration of the parking lot server 20 will be described. The parking lot server 20 is a device that identifies license plate information based on an image acquired from the passenger compartment device 10 and performs vehicle entry / exit management, billing processing, and the like.
The parking lot server 20 includes a communication unit 21, a control unit 22, a number identification unit 23, and a storage unit 24. One parking lot server 20 is installed per parking lot.

  Similar to the communication unit 13, the communication unit 21 is means for communicating with a network. The protocol and communication method used are the same as those of the communication unit 13. The communication unit 21 is also means for communicating with a mobile terminal 30 described later. Different networks may be used for communication with the cabin device 10 and communication with the portable terminal 30. For example, the vehicle interior device 10 may be communicated via a local network, and the mobile terminal 30 may be communicated via the Internet or a public communication network. Similarly, the communication protocol may not be the same.

  The number identifying unit 22 is a unit that obtains the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered based on the image obtained from the passenger compartment device 10. The number identifying unit 22 includes a plurality of classifiers, and can acquire license plate information corresponding to the input image. Detailed processing will be described later.

  The control unit 23 is means for controlling the parking lot server 20. Specifically, a process for managing the warehousing vehicle based on the number plate information identified by the number identifying unit 22, a process for charging a parking fee, a process for learning the classifier included in the number identifying unit 22, and the like are performed. Detailed processing will be described later.

  The memory | storage part 24 is a means to memorize | store temporarily the produced | generated information (For example, the warehousing state of a vehicle, charging information, etc.). Further, it is means for previously storing information that associates the license plate information with the user. The storage unit 24 is preferably a storage medium that can read and write at high speed and has a large capacity. For example, a flash memory can be suitably used.

In the parking system according to the present embodiment, the storage unit 24 stores in advance information for linking license plate information and a user, and when the license plate information is acquired, the corresponding user is specified. Can do.
FIG. 3 is an example of a table (user information table) for storing information for linking license plate information and users. In this example, the contents of the license plate and the user ID unique to the user are associated and held. The user ID is used, for example, when a parking fee is charged (when a settlement process is performed).

Next, the configuration of the mobile terminal 30 will be described. The portable terminal 30 is a terminal owned by a parking lot user, and includes a communication unit 31, a control unit 32, and an input / output unit 33. The mobile terminal 30 is a small computer such as a smartphone, a mobile phone, a tablet terminal, a personal information terminal, or a wearable computer (smart watch or the like).

The communication unit 31 is means for communicating with the parking lot server 20 by accessing the network via a communication line (for example, a mobile phone network).
The control unit 32 is a means for generating a user interface screen based on the data received from the parking lot server 20 and interacting with the user via the input / output unit 33 described later. Specific contents will be described later.
The input / output unit 33 is means for accepting an input operation performed by the user and presenting information to the user. In this embodiment, it consists of one touch panel display. That is, it comprises a liquid crystal display and its control means, a touch panel and its control means.

Control of each means demonstrated above is implement | achieved when processing apparatuses, such as CPU, run a control program. In addition, the control is performed by an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).
), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or the like, or a combination thereof. Further, it may be realized by dedicated hardware.

Next, processing when the vehicle enters the parking lot will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing performed by the parking lot server 20 (control unit 23). The flowchart shown in FIG. 4 is periodically executed.
First, in step S11, information is received from the vehicle detection unit 11 included in the passenger compartment device 10, and the presence / absence of an incoming vehicle is determined. Here, when it determines with a vehicle existing (step S12-Yes), a process transfers to step S13 and starts identification of license plate information.
Moreover, when it determines with a vehicle not existing (step S12-No), it changes to step S41 and determines whether the vehicle which had been received until now has left. If the determination result is true (Yes), the process transitions to step S42 to perform a process of charging a parking fee. Specific processing will be described later. If the determination result in step S41 is false (No), the process returns to step S11.

In step S13, it is determined whether identification of the license plate has been completed.
If the determination result is false (No), that is, if the vehicle has been received but the license plate has not yet been identified, the process proceeds to step S14, and the vehicle is obtained via the image acquisition unit 12. An image obtained by imaging (hereinafter, a vehicle image) is acquired. In step S15, the number identifying unit 22 identifies the license plate based on the acquired vehicle image. If the determination result is true (Yes), the process returns to step S11.

  In step S15, the license plate information is identified by executing the processing described below on the acquired vehicle image.

In the present embodiment, a region corresponding to the license plate is cut out from the vehicle image, further divided into four partial images, and input to the corresponding classifier for each character type.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the divided partial images and the classifiers. The classifier 1 is a classifier corresponding to kanji and hiragana, and the classifier 2 is a classifier corresponding to hiragana. The classifier 3 is a classifier corresponding to a number.
In addition, the method of cutting out an image is a conventional method described in, for example, a document “Development of a vehicle number recognition system using image processing (Mishima et al .: Denki Theory D, Vol. 109, No. 5, 1989)”. Technology can be used.
According to the illustrated example, the license plate information “Nerima 530 to 2468” can be acquired. The acquired information is transmitted to the control unit 23.

The description will be continued with reference to FIG.
In step S21, the control part 23 produces | generates the warehousing information transmitted to the portable terminal 30 which a user possesses. The warehousing information is data including the following two pieces of information.
(1) Vehicle compartment number associated with the vehicle compartment device (2) License plate information identified in step S15 The vehicle compartment number can be any format that allows the user to understand the location of the vehicle compartment. It may be. Moreover, it does not necessarily have to be expressed in numbers. The license plate information represents the contents of the identified license plate as a character string.

In step S <b> 22, the warehousing information generated by the control unit 23 is transmitted to the passenger compartment device 10, and broadcasted via the short-range communication unit 14. In the present embodiment, the antenna included in the short-range communication unit 14 has directivity, and transmits the warehousing information only to the vicinity of the target passenger compartment as shown in FIG. As a result, a push notification is transmitted to the mobile terminal 30 existing within the frame indicated by reference numeral 700, and the vehicle compartment number and the license plate information are transmitted.
The transmitted information is acquired by a dedicated application operating on the mobile terminal 30 and presented to the user. FIG. 8 is a screen example of the mobile terminal 30 that has received the push notification.
Note that the orientation of the passenger compartment pole 200 and the characteristics of the antenna to be used are not limited to those shown in FIG.

The portable terminal 30 is configured so that a response to the warehousing information can be acquired from the user and transmitted to the parking lot server 20. The contents of the response are the following three types.
(Response 1) Response that vehicle number and license plate information are correct (Response 2) Response that vehicle number is correct but license plate information is incorrect (Response 3) Response that warehousing information itself is not recognized In the example of FIG. 8, for example, when a “confirm” button (reference numeral 801) is pressed, a response corresponding to the response 1 is transmitted via the communication line. When a button (reference numeral 802) indicating that the numbers are different is pressed, a response corresponding to the response 2 is transmitted. Further, when a button (reference numeral 803) indicating “no contact” is pressed, a response corresponding to the response 3 is transmitted. The response transmitted from the portable terminal 30 is received in step S23.

By the way, in step S15, the identification result of the license plate information may not be obtained correctly. For example, the case where the identification itself fails or the reliability obtained as a result of the identification is extremely low. In such a case, information indicating that is stored in the warehousing information. In this case, the confirmation button (reference numeral 801) cannot be pressed.
For example, when three classifiers output the accuracy of the identification result, if any one of the output accuracy falls below the threshold, it may be determined that the identification has failed. The total accuracy may be compared with a threshold value. Further, other information may be used. Any method can be used to determine the success or failure of identification.

  If the response received in step S23 is “response 1” (step S24—response 1), the process proceeds to step S25 to determine the license plate information. On the other hand, when the received response is “response 2” (step S24—response 2), the process transitions to step S31 (described later).

  If the received response is “response 3” (step S24—response 3), the process proceeds to step S25 to determine the license plate information. In this case, the process proceeds based only on the identified license plate information without taking the user's confirmation.

If the license plate information itself is unknown, the license plate image is stored as it is, and the license plate image is included in the billing information generated in step S42. In this case, since the billing destination cannot be specified, the system operator visually checks the license plate image and manually determines the billing billing destination.

  In step S23, if there is no response from the portable terminal 30 within a certain time (for example, 3 minutes), the process proceeds as if “response 3” was received.

  When the process of FIG. 6 is completed, the license plate information is determined. The license plate information is temporarily stored in the storage unit 24 together with the warehousing date and time, and is used for the fee calculation when the vehicle leaves. Specifically, if it is determined in step S41 that the item has been issued, a charge is calculated from the entry date and time and the issue date and time, and billing information is generated with the billing address linked to the license plate information as the destination. And transmitted to a settlement server (not shown).

On the other hand, when “response 2” is received in step S23, the process proceeds to step S31 illustrated in FIG.
The fact that “response 2” has been received from the mobile terminal means that the license plate information identified by the parking lot server 20 is incorrect (or the identification itself has failed). Therefore, in this embodiment, in such a case, the license plate information that is the correct answer is transmitted from the portable terminal 30 to the parking lot server 20, and the parking lot server 20 determines the license plate information with the information.
In the present embodiment, when the portable terminal 30 presses a button indicated by reference numeral 802, an image obtained by encoding license plate information associated with the terminal itself is displayed. FIG. 10 shows an example in which the license plate information is displayed using a QR code.

When the user who has confirmed the screen displays the code on the portable terminal 30 and holds it over the camera provided in the passenger compartment pole 200, the image acquisition unit 12 reads the QR code and decodes it (step S31).
If the reading and decoding of the image succeeds (step S32—Yes), the license plate information read in step S31 is determined as the correct license plate information. If reading fails, the process may be terminated, or the same process as that performed when “response 3” is received may be performed by the operator.

  According to the first embodiment, the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered the passenger compartment is optically recognized, and at the same time, it is read using a short-range wireless communication with respect to a portable terminal that exists in the vicinity of the passenger compartment. Send information requesting confirmation of license plate information. Moreover, when there is doubt about the content, correct information can be transmitted to the parking lot server. According to this configuration, the license plate identification accuracy can be improved and the convenience can be enhanced.

  In step S23, since the response is transmitted from the portable terminal 30 via the communication line, it is possible to interact with the portable terminal from the parking lot server by simultaneously transmitting information for identifying the portable terminal 30 here. Become. For this reason, for example, the license plate information and information for identifying the mobile terminal 30 may be associated with each other and temporarily stored (for example, until the vehicle leaves).

In the first embodiment, the correct license plate information is transmitted to the parking lot server by holding the QR code over the camera. However, the mobile terminal 30 transmits the license plate information associated with its own terminal to the communication line. You may make it transmit via.
In the first embodiment, the screen shown in FIG. 8 is presented to the user and the content is selected. However, the license plate information included in the warehousing information and the license plate information associated with the portable terminal 30 are displayed. If they match, the presentation of the screen is omitted and the mobile terminal 30 automatically “response 1
"May be transmitted to the parking lot server 20.

  In addition, after executing Step S25 (Step S33), the number discriminating unit 22 has the three discriminators learned by using the license plate image acquired in Step S14 and the confirmed license plate information. Also good. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the license plate information may be divided into a home office, a classification number, a business discrimination character, and a designated number, and a corresponding discriminator may be learned. According to this structure, the identification accuracy of license plate information can be improved while operating a parking lot.

(Second embodiment)
The second embodiment is an embodiment in which the mobile terminal 30 further receives information related to parking from the parking lot server 20 and presents information such as warehousing time, elapsed time, and parking fee to the user.

In the present embodiment, after the process of FIG. 6 or FIG. 9 is completed, the parking lot server 20 transmits the following information to the mobile terminal 30.
(1) Warehousing time (2) Parking fee information per unit time (3) Information representing the position of the passenger compartment Further, the mobile terminal 30 presents the received information according to the user's request. The current parking fee may be calculated based on the parking fee per unit time, the warehousing time, and the current time.

Moreover, you may make it transmit the information regarding parking to the portable terminal 30 from the parking lot server 20 at arbitrary timings. For example, the parking lot server 20 may transmit the following information to the mobile terminal 30 in response to a user request.
(1) Current parking time (2) Current parking fee (3) Parking fee information per unit time (4) Information indicating the position of the passenger compartment In this case, information such as the current parking time and parking fee is stored in the parking lot server. 20 may be generated and transmitted. FIG. 11 is an example of a screen presented to the user. In this example, the warehousing time, the current time, the elapsed time, the current parking fee, and the remaining time until the parking fee is added are displayed.

  Moreover, in 2nd embodiment, the position of the parked vehicle is displayed with a figure according to a user's request | requirement. FIG. 11 shows an example in which the vehicle compartment number and the parking position on the floor are displayed graphically. The graphic to be presented to the user may be transmitted from the parking lot server to the portable terminal, or the portable terminal stores only the map corresponding to the parking lot in advance, and the portable terminal It may be generated.

  Thus, in the second embodiment, information desired by the user, such as parking time and parking fee, can be provided by transmitting information to the mobile terminal 30 separately from the warehousing information.

  In this embodiment, information to be presented to the user (or data for generating the information to be presented) is transmitted from the parking server 20 to the mobile terminal 30. However, the information is included in the warehousing information, and the warehousing is performed. Information that the mobile terminal 30 presents to the user may be generated based on the information included in the information.

(Third embodiment)
In the first or second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the camera for identifying the license plate is installed in a state offset from the center of the vehicle. That is, since the camera and the license plate are not parallel, the license plate image is captured in an angled state. However, since the angle between the camera and the license plate changes every time depending on the vehicle type and the parking position, if the discriminator is trained without taking the angle into account, the discrimination accuracy may be lowered.
In order to cope with this, the third embodiment is an embodiment in which learning and identification are further performed using information representing the angle between the camera and the license plate.

In 3rd embodiment, the number identification part 22 has a function which estimates the angle of a camera and a license plate based on the acquired license plate image.
The angle between the camera and the license plate may be estimated by analyzing the license plate image. For example, the edge of the license plate or the region where the characters in the license plate exist may be extracted and estimated from the angle formed by the upper side and the lower side. Alternatively, the relative position of the vehicle with respect to the camera may be measured by sensing the vehicle that has entered, and may be estimated based on the measurement result. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 12, the angle θ is estimated as the angle between the camera and the license plate (the arrow indicates the direction in which the camera is facing).

  In the third embodiment, in step S15, the estimated angle is added to the input to the discriminator to perform discrimination. Further, when learning the discriminator, learning is performed by adding the estimated angle to a part of the learning data. Thereby, a learning result can be obtained for each angle, and the accuracy of identification can be further improved.

(Fourth embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the warehousing information is broadcasted to the portable terminal in the vicinity of the passenger compartment using short-range wireless communication. In contrast, the fourth embodiment is an embodiment that does not use short-range wireless communication.
In the fourth embodiment, information that identifies the portable terminal in the user information table stored in the storage unit 24 and the fact that the passenger compartment device 10 does not have the short-range communication unit 14 (identifier of the portable terminal) Is different from the first embodiment in that is added.

Moreover, in 4th embodiment, the parking lot server 20 transmits warehousing information to an object portable terminal via a communication line in step S22. Note that the processing in steps S23 to S25 is the same as that in the first embodiment.
In the present embodiment, when identification of a license plate fails (including when wrong contents are acquired), it is not possible to specify a mobile terminal to communicate with. Therefore, in the fourth embodiment, the passenger compartment device 10 is further provided with notification means for notifying the user of an error. The display device and the voice guidance device may be incorporated in, for example, the passenger compartment pole shown in FIG.

In the fourth embodiment, in step S22, when the mobile terminal to be communicated cannot be specified, the display device or the voice guidance device is used to notify that license plate recognition has failed, and then the process is performed. The process proceeds to step S31. In the fourth embodiment, the mobile terminal 30 is configured to be able to display an image obtained by encoding license plate information associated with the terminal at an arbitrary timing.
Since the process after step S31 is the same as that of 1st embodiment, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  Thus, according to the fourth embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained without using short-range wireless communication.

(Modification)
The above embodiment is merely an example, and the present invention can be implemented with appropriate modifications within a range not departing from the gist thereof. For example, the illustrated embodiments may be implemented in combination.

  Further, the image acquisition unit included in the passenger compartment device may use a camera having a drive mechanism that moves the visual field around an axis parallel to the passenger compartment pole 200. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the camera may be panned following the position of the license plate. Further, the panning angle may be controlled based on the result of sensing the vehicle that has entered the vehicle, or may be controlled so that the license plate comes to the center of the image by analyzing the image acquired by the camera.

In each embodiment, license plate information and a user are linked using a user information table, but other information may be linked. For example, billing destination information may be stored in the user information table.
Moreover, in each embodiment, although the portable terminal which a user possesses was mentioned as an example of a user terminal, the user terminal in this invention does not necessarily need to be a portable terminal. For example, a car navigation device may be used.

  Further, in each embodiment, the mobile terminal 30 that has received the warehousing information transmitted by broadcast presents the information illustrated in FIG. 8 to the user, but the irrelevant mobile terminal in the vicinity of the target passenger compartment Means for preventing notifications may be added. For example, the notification may be blocked when the warehousing information is received again within a predetermined time after receiving the warehousing information once. In addition, in a state where the vehicle associated with the mobile terminal has not yet left, the notification may be blocked when the mobile terminal receives the warehousing information again. In order to realize this, information that the vehicle has left may be transmitted from the parking lot server 20 to the portable terminal 30.

  Moreover, in each actual form, the vehicle compartment device 10 detects the vehicle and acquires the license plate image, and the parking lot server 20 identifies the license plate information, identifies the user, etc., but the parking lot server 20 The vehicle compartment device 10 may be provided with part or all of the means having the means, and the vehicle compartment device 10 may perform part or all of the processing shown in FIGS.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Car room apparatus 11 Vehicle detection part 12 Image acquisition part 13, 21, 31 Communication part 14 Short-range communication part 20 Parking lot server 22 Number identification part 23, 32 Control part 24 Storage part 30 Portable terminal 33 Input / output part 100 Parking lot System 200 compartment pole

Claims (14)

A parking management device that manages vehicles entering a parking lot having a plurality of vehicle compartments,
Imaging means for capturing a license plate of a vehicle stored in the passenger compartment using a camera and acquiring a first image;
An identification unit having an identifier and identifying license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image;
When the identification means identifies the license plate information, the warehousing information including the information for identifying the vehicle compartment and the identified license plate information is broadcast to the user terminals existing near the vehicle compartment by short-range wireless communication. User notification means for transmitting;
User confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal;
Based on the content of the response to the warehousing information, the charging means for confirming the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered the warehousing, and performing a charging process based on the license plate information,
A parking management device comprising: When the content of the response to the warehousing information indicates that the identified license plate information is incorrect,
The imaging means acquires a second image by capturing an image encoded with license plate information presented by a user using the camera,
The parking management device according to claim 1, wherein the billing unit determines the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered by decoding the license plate information from the second image. When the content of the response to the warehousing information indicates that the identified license plate information is incorrect,
The user confirmation means obtains license plate information associated with the user terminal from the user terminal,
The parking management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the billing unit determines the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered by using the license plate information. The parking management device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the discriminating unit learns the discriminator based on the first image and the confirmed license plate information. The parking management device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising information transmission means for transmitting parking lot information including information relating to a parking fee per unit time to the user terminal. The charging unit transmits to the user terminal at least one of information indicating a current parking time, a current parking fee, and a position of a passenger compartment in response to a request from the user terminal. Item 5. The parking management device according to any one of Items 1 to 4. The parking according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the identification unit divides the first image into a plurality of regions each including different character types, and performs learning and identification for each character type. Management device. The parking management device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the identification unit estimates an angle of a license plate with respect to the camera, and further learns a classifier using the estimated angle. The said imaging means further has a mechanism which changes the angle of the camera in a horizontal direction according to the position of the license plate in said 1st image. The one in any one of Claim 1 to 8 characterized by the above-mentioned. Parking management device. A parking lot system comprising a parking management device for managing a vehicle stored in a parking lot having a plurality of compartments, and a user terminal possessed by a user of the parking lot,
The parking management device is
Imaging means for capturing a license plate of a vehicle stored in the passenger compartment using a camera and acquiring a first image;
An identification unit having an identifier and identifying license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image;
When a vehicle entering the passenger compartment is detected, the storage information including information identifying the passenger compartment and the identified license plate information is broadcast to the user terminals existing near the passenger compartment by short-range wireless communication. User notification means for transmitting;
User confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal;
Based on the content of the response to the warehousing information, charging means for confirming the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered, and charging processing based on the license plate information,
The user terminal is
As a response to the received warehousing information, a parking lot system comprising response means for transmitting information indicating correctness of the warehousing information to the parking management device. The user terminal is
It further comprises display means for displaying a second image that is an image obtained by encoding license plate information,
The parking management device
The imaging means captures the second image presented by the user using the camera,
The parking system according to claim 10, wherein the billing unit determines the license plate information of the stored vehicle by decoding the license plate information from the second image. The user notification means of the parking management device transmits the license plate information identified by the identification means further included in the warehousing information,
The response means possessed by the user terminal provides information indicating that the warehousing information is correct to the parking management device when the license plate information included in the warehousing information matches the license plate information associated with the terminal. It transmits. The parking lot system of Claim 10 or 11 characterized by the above-mentioned. The parking management device
Further comprising information transmitting means for transmitting to the user terminal parking information including information on a parking fee per unit time;
The user terminal is
Based on the parking lot information, the parking fee of the vehicle being stored is determined, information indicating the position of the passenger compartment is generated based on the incoming information, and the parking fee, the passenger compartment is determined according to a user request. The parking lot system according to any one of claims 10 to 12, further comprising information presenting means for presenting at least one of information representing the position of the parking space. A parking management device that manages vehicles entering a parking lot having a plurality of vehicle compartments,
Imaging means for capturing a license plate of a vehicle stored in the passenger compartment using a camera and acquiring a first image;
An identification unit having an identifier and identifying license plate information of the vehicle based on the first image;
Storage means for storing information associating license plate information with a user terminal possessed by a user;
When the identification means identifies the license plate information, to the corresponding user terminal, the user notification means for transmitting the warehousing information including information identifying the vehicle compartment and the identified license plate information;
User confirmation means for obtaining a response to the warehousing information from the user terminal;
Based on the content of the response to the warehousing information, the charging means for confirming the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered the warehousing, and performing a charging process based on the license plate information,
When the identification means fails to identify the license plate information, an error notification means for notifying the user visually or audibly to that effect;
Have
When the identification unit fails to identify the license plate information, the imaging unit uses the camera to capture an image that is encoded by the license plate information presented by the user and obtains a second image. Acquired,
The parking management device, wherein the charging means determines the license plate information of the vehicle that has entered by decoding the license plate information from the second image.

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