JPH03253992A - Parking lot managing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively use a parking spec by detecting a parking space position and the parking time of a vehicle by a mobile vehicle number plate reader. CONSTITUTION:When the number plate of a vehicle is photographed by an entrance vehicle photographing camera 11 and number plates of vehicles parking in parking space positions are photographed by a mobile vehicle photographing camera 13, read information is managed by a central processing unit 30 and vehicle guide lamps 15 are lit in accordance with management contents to guide the vehicle to an idle parking space. When a parking vehicle goes to a parking exit, its number plate is photographed by an exit vehicle photographing camera 12, and picture information is read by a picture processing device 29 and the pertinent vehicle is collated by a central arithmetic processing unit, and the character for parking is calculated in accordance with the difference between the entrance time and the exit time, and a breaker 17 is opened when the user throws cash into a charge automatic adjusting machine 16. Thus, the parking lot is effectively used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a parking lot management device that is widely applicable to flat parking lots, multi-level parking lots, and the like.

[Prior Art] When parking lot users use parking lots, especially large-scale parking lots, they often have a hard time finding an empty space. In order to solve this problem, the parking lot is divided into multiple blocks, guidance lights are installed in each block, and the number of vehicles entering and exiting each block is counted to ensure that the block is full. There is a parking lot management device that controls the lighting of guide lights by determining whether or not the parking lot has reached the parking lot.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, with the system that guides users to empty spaces using guide lights for each block, it is possible to guide users to empty blocks, but it is difficult to guide users to empty spaces within blocks. Unable to guide users appropriately.

Therefore, users had to visually search for empty spaces within the block.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned management device does not have a function of storing where a parking lot user has parked their vehicle. Therefore, if a user parks their vehicle in the parking lot, then exits the parking lot, and then attempts to re-enter the parking lot, they may not know where they parked their vehicle or may be confused. there were.

In addition, as a means to eliminate such drawbacks, cameras for photographing vehicles are installed at all parking space positions, and all parked vehicles are photographed. It is possible to think of a way to instantly know whether the vehicle has been parked. However, in this case, vehicle photographing cameras, image processing devices, etc. must be installed at all parking spaces, which increases equipment costs and is not easily realized.

Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to be able to accurately guide parking lot users to vacant parking spaces, to accurately indicate the location where users parked their cars, and to prevent theft accidents and improve safety in the parking lot. To provide a parking lot management device which can secure parking spaces, make effective use of parking spaces, and require relatively low equipment costs.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems and achieve the objectives, the present invention takes the following measures.

A mobile vehicle license plate reader detects in which parking space location, with what license plate, and for how long a vehicle has been parked.Based on this detection information, the vehicle is guided to an empty parking space and the vehicle is The system now performs parking lot management tasks such as providing directions to parking spaces and calculating parking fees.

[Effect] As a result of taking the above measures, the following effects occur.

For parking lot users, they are not confused even in a vast parking lot because they are accurately guided to an empty parking space. Furthermore, even if you forget the location of the parking space you used, you can easily and accurately know the location.

From the parking lot management side, since the situation within the parking lot can be constantly monitored, theft accidents can be prevented and safety within the parking lot can be ensured, and parking spaces can be used more effectively. In addition, instead of installing a TV camera at each parking location, a mobile TV camera sequentially photographs the license plates of vehicles parked at each parking space location. can be photographed with a single TV camera. Therefore, equipment costs can be reduced.

Embodiment FIGS. 1 to 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a flat parking lot, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the schematic configuration of the entire device. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a vehicle photographing camera at the entrance of the warehouse, which photographs the license plate, which is the vehicle registration number, of the vehicle entering the warehouse.The license plate image is then processed by an image processing device for vehicle number recognition, which will be described later, along with the time of entry. send to

Reference numeral 12 denotes a vehicle photographing camera at the exit, which photographs the license plate of the vehicle leaving the garage, and sends the license plate image along with the exit time to an image processing device to be described later.

13 is a mobile vehicle photographing camera installed in the parking lot. This camera 13 moves along the guide rail 14 and sequentially photographs the license plates of vehicles parked in the parking lot from diagonally above. This check confirms whether the vehicle has been parked for a certain amount of time. 1
Reference numeral 5 denotes a vehicle guide lamp embedded in the floor surface for guiding vehicles to the vacant parking space position, and is used to smoothly guide vehicles using the parking lot to the vacant parking space position. Reference numeral 16 indicates an automatic toll payment machine installed at the exit of the toll gate, and 17 indicates a gate. 18 is a parking status display board, and one is a parking position display board. The parking position display board 19 displays in which parking space position and for how long a vehicle with which license plate is parked.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the communication information network configuration of the parking lot management device shown in FIG. 1. 21 to 23 are all transmitting modem devices, each of which is connected to the vehicle photographing camera 11 at the parking entrance.
, receives image signals from a vehicle photographing camera 12 at the exit, and a mobile vehicle photographing camera 13. 24 to 26 are receiving modem devices that receive signals from the transmitting modem devices 21 to 23, respectively, and 27 is a local node coupled to the information communication network (optical LAN) 20.

Through this local node 27, the receiving modem devices 24 to 26 . Vehicle guidance lamp 15, automatic fare adjustment machine 16
, a parking position display device 19, etc. are connected to the network 20. A center node 28 is connected to the information communication network 20, and is connected to an image processing device 29 and a central processing device 30. In this way, the information communication network 20 has a local node 27, a center node 2
8, information can be transmitted between each part in the parking lot and the image processing device 29 and central processing device 30 for vehicle number recognition.

The image processing device 29 takes in license plate image information from the entrance/exit vehicle camera 11, 12 in the parking lot and the mobile camera 13 and recognizes the vehicle number. The central processing unit 30 performs system control within the parking lot.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram for transmitting image information photographed by the mobile vehicle photographing camera 13 to an image processing device 29 for vehicle number recognition through the information communication network 20. 3
1 is a proximity sensor arranged corresponding to each parking space along the travel route of the mobile vehicle photographing camera 13, and the proximity sensor 33 of the mobile vehicle photographing camera 13 is
When approaching that position, it works together with the proximity sensor 33 to issue a trigger signal for causing the control section 34 of the mobile vehicle photographing camera 13 to send out a photographing command signal. 32 is a proximity sensor arranged in the array of the proximity sensors 31, for example, one every tenth;
When the proximity sensor 33 in the mobile vehicle camera 13 approaches, it works in conjunction with the proximity sensor 33 to issue a trigger signal for causing the control unit 34 of the vehicle camera 13 to send an image information transmission command. It is.

The camera 13 moves along the guide rail 14 as shown by the arrow. During this movement process, the proximity sensor 33 is grounded at each parking space position (00)~
(12) Every time you approach the proximity sensor 31 at the address,
A control section 34 receiving a photographing command trigger provides a photographing signal to the camera body 36. Therefore, the vehicle license plate in that parking space is photographed. This captured image information for one screen is recorded in the image memory 35. Images for 10 screens (addresses 00 to 09) are recorded in the image memory section 35. When the proximity sensor 33 comes to the position of the proximity sensor 32, it receives an information transmission trigger. For this reason, the control unit 3
4 gives a transmission command to the image memory 35. therefore,
Image information for 10 screens is transmitted at once via the transmission modem 23. After assigning an address to the image data from the image memory 35, the transmitting modem 23 transfers the data to the receiving modem 2.
Send to 6. Receiving modem 26 provides the received image information to local node 27 . The above image information is thus sent to two image processing devices for vehicle number recognition and the central processing unit 30 via the information communication network 20 including the local node 27.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained.

The number of passing vehicles is now reaching the parking lot population shown in Figure 1. Then, the vehicle entrance camera 11 photographs the license plate of the vehicle. In addition, a mobile vehicle photographing camera 13 photographs the number bulletin of a vehicle parked at a parking space position. The read information is managed by the central processing unit 30. The lighting of the vehicle guidance lamp 15 is controlled according to the management contents. Therefore, the user is guided to an empty parking space.

A parked vehicle approaches the parking lot exit shown in FIG. 1 to leave the parking lot. Then, the vehicle photographing camera 12 at the exit exit
The vehicle's license plate was photographed again. The obtained image information is read by two image processing devices, and the vehicle is verified by the central processing unit. In this way, the parking fee is calculated according to the time difference between the parking time and the parking time. When the user inserts cash into the automatic fare adjustment machine 16, the breaker 17 opens. Parking lot users will be able to exit.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a multi-story parking lot 40. One point in which this embodiment differs from the first embodiment is that, as shown in the figure, a mobile vehicle photographing camera 43 is moved along guide rails 44 provided on the sides of each floor. The mobile vehicle photographing camera 13 of the first embodiment photographs the vehicle number from above, whereas the present embodiment photographs the vehicle from the side. In addition, instead of the other three barrier gates 17, each parking lane
A tire lock mechanism 42 is provided at the parking lot of the parked vehicle 41.
If the vehicle is parked without a contract, for example, and the toll has not been paid, a tire lock mechanism is activated to prevent the vehicle from leaving.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a system network configuration of a parking lot management device applied to the multi-story parking lot 40 of FIG. 4. The difference from Fig. 2 is that the tire lock 42 at the parking space position is locked during the fare settlement operation.
The point is that a control system has been added to prevent the vehicle from leaving the warehouse. The automatic fare adjustment machine 16 and the breaker 17 are omitted.

In other words, this system is configured in such a way that the vehicle cannot be exited unless the charge is settled in advance using a settlement machine (not shown). In this case, the entry time and exit time of the vehicle entering and exiting the garage are determined based on the vehicle number and parking position obtained by processing the image information captured by the mobile vehicle camera 13 and the image processing device 29, and the central processing unit 30. The parking fee for the parked vehicle is calculated based on the parking time calculated in .

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] The present invention uses a mobile vehicle license plate reader to detect in which parking space position and for how long a vehicle with which license plate has been parked, and based on this detection information. The system performs parking lot management tasks such as guiding the driver to an empty parking space, guiding the vehicle to the parking space, and calculating parking fees.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to accurately guide a parking lot user to an empty parking space, to accurately indicate the position where the user has parked, and to prevent theft accidents and maintain safety in the parking lot. It is possible to provide a parking lot management device that can secure parking spaces, make effective use of parking spaces, and require relatively low equipment costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a flat parking lot. Figure 1 is a diagram showing the system configuration of a parking lot management device, and Figure 2 is a diagram showing the information communication of the device. FIG. 3 is a system diagram showing the configuration of the network. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a system related to information detection and data transmission by a mobile vehicle camera. Figures 4 and 5 show a second example in which the present invention is applied to a multi-story parking lot.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the system configuration of the parking lot management device, and FIG. 5 is a system diagram showing the configuration of the information communication network of the same device. 42...Tire lock.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A mobile vehicle license plate reading device detects in which parking space location and for how long a vehicle with which license plate has been parked, and based on this detection information, guides the user to an empty parking space and uses it. A parking lot management device characterized in that it performs parking lot management tasks such as guiding vehicles to parking space positions and calculating parking fees.