WO2019221612A1

WO2019221612A1 - A parking system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2019221612A1
Application number: PCT/NZ2018/050067
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul Maxwell Collins; David John MACKIE; Carl John Ten Broeke
Original assignee: Parking Sense Limited
Priority date: 2018-05-18
Filing date: 2018-05-18
Publication date: 2019-11-21

Abstract

A parking system including a parking space monitoring unit that detects a vehicle entering a parking space and, in response, transmits an identification signal to identify the parking space entered by the vehicle. A network of parking space monitoring units can be provided throughout a parking facility and connected over a bus to a bus controller, with multiple bus controllers connected to a node controller for the parking facility. A parking management system can oversee the operation of multiple parking facilities. A mobile application can run on a user device for interaction with the parking system.

Description

A PARKING SYSTEM AND METHOD

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a parking system, parking space monitoring unit and a method of managing parking in a parking space.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Commercial parking facilities have traditionally relied on labour-intensive and inefficient manual collection of fees, checking of valid parking permits and other administrative and supervisory tasks. They have also often required inconvenient manual payment by users. Smart parking systems can remove or reduce the human labour required in operating a parking facility, as well as increasing convenience for the user, by automating some or all of the processes traditionally performed manually.

Smart parking systems that have previously been proposed often require additional, dedicated user hardware or have required complex, unreliable and costly vehicle recognition systems.

Some previous smart parking systems have relied on a user carrying a parking tag, such as an RFID transponder, in order to identify the user to the parking system. These systems can be inconvenient to the user as they require the user to have their tag on them or in their vehicle whenever they might need to park. They are also relatively costly due to the use of dedicated parking tags. Additionally, the parking tags can fail due to battery failure, misplacement, exposure to the environment, misuse, or general wear and tear.

Some previous systems have used cameras with image detection capabilities to determine occupancy of parking spaces. These may use number plate recognition to identify the vehicle in a particular parking space. These systems can be unreliable because the cameras are negatively affected by poor light, dust, rain, fog and other environmental conditions. They also may have difficulty associating vehicles with parking spaces due to the difficulty of image analysis in real-world conditions, for example when there are vehicles or other objects occluding the camera’s view of the vehicle or parking space. Additionally, many cameras can be needed for adequate coverage of a parking facility, which increases costs and complexity. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved parking space monitoring unit, parking system or parking management method that doesn’t require additional user hardware or complex, unreliable and costly vehicle recognition systems, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one exemplary embodiment there is provided a parking space monitoring unit comprising:

a. a detector for detecting vehicle presence in a parking space; and

b. a transmitter which transmits an identification signal when the detector detects a vehicle entering a parking space.

According to another exemplary embodiment there is provided a parking system comprising:

a. a parking management system ;

b. a parking space monitoring unit comprising:

i. a detector for detecting vehicle presence in a parking space; and ii. a transmitter which transmits an identification signal when the detector detects a vehicle entering a parking space; and

c. a user device in communication with the remote parking management system capable of receiving the identification signal and communicating information based on the identification signal to the remote parking management system.

According to a further exemplary embodiment there is provided a method of managing parking in a parking space comprising:

a. managing use of a parking space via an application on a mobile device in communication with a parking management system ;

b. detecting the presence of a vehicle in a parking space;

c. transmitting an identification signal associated with the parking space to the mobile device; and

d. receiving the identification signal by the mobile device; and

e. communicating parking space information based on the identification signal to the parking management system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and constitute part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Figure 1 shows an illustrative example of a parking space monitoring unit.

Figure 2 shows an illustrative example of a base unit for use with a parking space monitoring unit.

Figure 3 shows an illustrative example of a parking system. Figure 4 shows an illustrative example of a parking system in a parking lot or parking building.

Figure 5 shows an illustrative example of a parking system including a parking management system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Smart parking systems replace some or all of the manual processes of traditional parking systems with automated processes to reduce the cost, labour and

inconvenience to the operator and the consumer. However, some smart parking systems can be unreliable and can rely on the use of dedicated user hardware and vehicle recognition equipment, which can be complex and costly. There are thus provided parking systems that may improve the efficiency, reliability and convenience of parking.

An illustrative parking space monitoring unit 10 is shown in FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 1 , the monitoring unit 10 includes a detector 12 for detecting the presence of a vehicle in a parking space.

The detector 12 may be configured to detect the presence of a vehicle when the vehicle obstructs a beam that would otherwise be received by the detector 12. The beam can be transmitted to the detector 12 from an external transmitter or transmitted by a transmitter of the monitoring unit 10 itself. In the latter case, the beam may be reflected back to the monitoring unit 10 when no vehicle is present to obstruct the beam.

Many types of beam are suitable for use in this context, for example an infrared, visible light, or ultraviolet beam could be used. However, an infrared beam is preferred as it is less subject to environmental interference. The beam could be coherent (e.g. a laser) or incoherent. The beam could be composed of one or more discrete frequencies or be a broadband signal. The beam could be continuous or intermittent. An intermittent beam is preferred where the transmitter is battery operated to conserve power.

The detector 12 could alternatively or additionally be an acoustic detector that is configured to detect the presence of a vehicle 30 from acoustic vibrations. This could involve sonic range-finding (e.g. SONAR) to detect the presence of a vehicle 30 near the monitoring unit 10, acoustic fingerprint analysis to detect the presence of a vehicle 30 from its spectral signature, Doppler analysis to detect the presence of a vehicle 30 from the effect on the frequency of an acoustic signal reflecting off a moving vehicle 30, or other techniques. In one example, the detector 12 could detect the presence of a vehicle 30 from its obstruction of an acoustic transmission, for example from a decrease in the amplitude of one or more frequencies of the acoustic transmission.

The acoustic transmission could be an infrasonic, audible or ultrasonic transmission.

The acoustic transmission could be composed of one or more discrete frequencies or be a broadband signal (e.g. white or pink noise). The acoustic transmission could be continuous or intermittent.

As shown in Figure 2, the base unit 20 may include an infrared transmitter 22 with an internal power source such as a battery, although a wired power source could be provided. If the infrared transmitter is pulsed for only short intermittent periods the battery may last for years. The base unit 20 could alternatively produce other detection transmissions as discussed above.

With reference to Figure 3 the detector 12 may detect the presence of a transmission from transmitter 22 of base unit 20 when no vehicle 30 is present. When a vehicle 30 is present the infrared beam is obstructed and this continued obstruction will cause the detector to indicate the presence of a vehicle 30. As shown in Figure 3 base unit 20 could alternatively include a reflector 24 or retroreflector positioned to reflect a beam transmitted from the monitoring unit 10 back to the detector 12 when there is no vehicle present in the parking space. This arrangement avoids the need for a power supply in the base unit 20 but may suffer from degradation of the reflector in use.

It will be appreciated that many other technologies may be suitable for the vehicle detection, for example magnetic detectors, vibration sensors or pressure sensors.

Once the detector 12 detects the presence of a vehicle 30 in a parking space, the transmitter 14 of the monitoring unit 10 transmits an identification signal. This identification signal can include, among other things, information identifying the monitoring unit 10, a bus controller 40 to which the monitoring unit 10 is connected, a node controller 50 to which the bus controller 40 is connected, and a signal strength packet. However, the identification signal could be a single identifier.

The transmitter 14 may be a radio-frequency transmitter that transmits the identifier using radio waves. The transmitter 14 could adhere to Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low- Energy standards in order to communicate with other Bluetooth-capable devices. In one example, the transmitter 14 can communicate with Bluetooth-capable user devices 32 such as mobile phones 32 and mobile computing devices (e.g. tablets, laptops, PDAs).

The power at which the transmitter 14 transmits the identifier can be fixed such that the transmitter 14 transmits the identifier one or more times at the same power level.

Alternatively, the transmitter 14 can be configured to transmit the identifier multiple times at successively higher power levels until it receives an acknowledgement that the identifier has been received. This acknowledgement could be received from a user device 32 that receives the identifier or from a back-end parking management system 60, described further below with respect to figures 4 and 5.

By associating a parking space and a user via an identification signal sent from the monitoring unit transmitter to the mobile device the user is only required to use a standard mobile device and integrates seamlessly with use of an application running on a mobile device as described below.

Also included in the monitoring unit 10 can be one or more visual indicators for indicating information such as parking space location, occupancy status, successful connection to the back-end parking management system 60 and association of a user account with the monitoring unit 10, payment status, compliance or non-compliance with parking rules (e.g. overstaying an allowed time period), and other information. The visual indicators could include coloured lights 16 that can change colour and/or flash to indicate the various information. For example, a green light could indicate an unoccupied park, a red light could indicate an occupied park, a blue light could indicate a parking session authorised and in progress and a flashing red light could indicate a car having overstayed its allowed time period.

An illustrative parking system is shown in FIG. 3-5.

In FIG. 3, a monitoring unit 10 is mounted above a parking space, for example on the ceiling of one level of a parking building. The base unit 20 is located on the ground in the parking space such that a transmitted beam has a clear path from the base unit 20 to the monitoring unit 10 when no vehicle is present in the parking space. In this example, the beam is an infrared beam transmitted from the base unit 20 towards the monitoring unit 10. When a vehicle 30 enters the parking space it obstructs this path and is detected by the monitoring unit 10.

Fig. 3 also shows alternative or additional vehicle detectors located in or near the parking space. These detectors may include a camera 17 with image recognition software or a vibration sensor; a pressure sensor; or magnetic sensor 18.

The transmitter 14 of the monitoring unit 10 is configured to, once a vehicle 30 is detected, transmit the identification signal which can be received by a user device 32, such as a mobile phone, of a user of the parking system. In this example, the transmitter 14 uses Bluetooth communications to transmit the identification signal to a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone 32 of the user of the parking system.

The mobile phone 32 can communicate with a parking management system 60 that coordinates operation of the parking system. The mobile phone 32 can communicate with the parking management system 60 through a cellular network 70 providing data services or through a wireless local area network 72 in the parking facility. In parking buildings connection to the cellular network 70 may be unreliable, in which case wireless access points may be provided in the building for the user device 32 to communicate with the management system 60. If connection to the cellular network 70 is adequate, this would avoid the need for wireless access points in the parking facility. The mobile phone 32 could also communicate information back to the monitoring unit 10 over the Bluetooth link.

The mobile phone 32 can run a parking application that enables it to interact with the parking system. The application may allow a user to: locate a parking facility; view capacity, pricing and other parking facility information; select a desired parking facility; launch a navigation application to guide them to the selected parking facility;

communicate with a parking space monitoring unit 10; communicate with a parking management system 60; access a parking facility wireless network, communicate with other devices at the parking facility; manage their account; and make payments, among other things.

The mobile phone 32 may communicate information based on the received identification signal to the management system 60 to associate the user with the correct parking space. In the case that multiple identification signals are received by the mobile device, the user may manually select the one corresponding to the correct parking space or the parking application may have rules to automatically select the correct parking space, for example by using respective signal strengths to select the parking space corresponding to the strongest received identification signal.

The information based on the identification signal and information identifying the user can also or alternatively be transmitted internally through the parking system. For example, the phone 32 can transmit an account identifier through the Bluetooth link to the monitoring unit 10, which can then communicate this along with information based on parking space identification information through the bus controller 40 and node controller 50 to the parking management system 60.

A user may also use a keypad of the mobile phone 32 for manual entry of a parking space identifier to associate a user with a particular parking space.

The parking management system 60 may associate the user with the respective park using information based on the identification signal and information that identifies the user of the mobile phone 32, for example the IMEI number associated with the phone 32, an identifier of a SIM of the phone 32, or a user name or account identifier input to the application. It can then use this information for billing the user for parking or other services rendered. As well as parking services, the parking system can offer charging services for wirelessly charging electric vehicles 30. As shown in FIG. 3, a wireless power transmitter 26 can be located in the parking space or in a dedicated charging zone. A user can request wireless charging through the application. The application can communicate with the parking management system 60 via an application programming interface (API) 62 or directly with a controller of the wireless power transmitter 26 using Bluetooth communications.

As shown in FIGS. 4 & 5, there may be many parking space monitoring units 10 located in a facility. The parking system can be arranged in a tree structure formed from monitoring units 10, bus controllers 40, and a node controller 50. The node controller 50 can be connected to multiple bus controllers 40, each of which is connected to multiple monitoring units 10.

The monitoring unit 10 may include a wired communication module, through which it can communicate with higher-level devices in the parking system such as a bus controller 40, a node controller 50 and a back-end parking management system 60. For example, the bus controller 40 can periodically poll the monitoring unit 10 for parking space status information using the wired communication link. Whilst wireless communication could be employed, wired communication between monitoring units 10 and bus controllers 40 is preferred for its robustness.

One particularly simple and robust form of wired communication is to encode transmissions onto a power supply line by selectively shorting of the power supply line.

In some examples, the monitoring unit 1 0 is provided with electrical power from a bus controller 40 via a power supply line. The wired communication module and the bus controller 40 are configured to communicate with each other over this power supply line, for example using a Manchester encoding scheme in which each data bit is represented by a low-to-high or high-to-low transition in the line voltage. It will be appreciated that many other kinds of wired communication could be used, either over the power line or through a separate communication line.

The bus controllers 40 can communicate with the monitoring units 10 using the wired communications modules as detailed above. Each bus controller 40 can also include a constant current power source 44 for the monitoring units 10 of its bus. The bus controller 40 is configured as a master device and the monitoring units 10 as slave devices such that the monitoring units 10 will respond to communications from the bus controller 40, for example when polled for parking space information. In order to reduce unnecessary communications, the bus controller 40 can be configured to periodically poll all monitoring units 10, receive responses from connected monitoring units 10, and for a period of time thereafter only poll the monitoring units 10 from which it received responses. This allows the bus controller 40 to only poll currently connected monitoring units 10, while being able to adapt to changes in the configuration of monitoring units 10 on the bus. When a new monitoring unit 10 is connected to the bus, this will be polled and will respond to the bus controller 40 during the periodic polling of all monitoring units 10. The bus controller 40 can then poll the connected monitoring units 10 on the bus according to this updated configuration.

The bus controllers 40 can transmit changes in parking space information to the node controller 50 through communications lines. For example, they can be connected through a wired communication line such as a serial RS-485 interface. The node controller 50 can thus collect parking space information from all monitoring units 10 beneath it in the tree structure when the bus controller 40 collects new information from a monitoring unit 10 that it is in communication with. A parking facility such as a parking building or parking lot may have one associated node controller 50, a bus controller 40 for each level or section of the building or lot, and a parking space monitoring unit 10 for each parking space.

The node controller 50 can communicate with the parking management system 60 through a cellular network 70. The node controller 50 and parking management system 60 communicate through a virtual private network (VPN) using secure tunnelling protocols, encryption and endpoint authentication. The parking management system 60 can be in communication with multiple remotely located node controllers 50 and thus coordinate the operation of multiple parking facilities.

As shown in FIG. 5, the parking facility can include electronic visual displays such as signs for providing parking information to users. Typically, this information will include the number of spaces available in part or all of the facility. In the example of FIG. 5, there is one sign 42 associated with each bus controller 40 and one sign 52 associated with each node controller 50. This means that in a parking building or parking lot, there can be a sign 42 indicating the number of parking spaces available in each level or section of the facility and another sign 52 indicating the total number of spaces available in the facility. A dot matrix display may be employed to enable display of any desired content. It will be appreciated that there may be more than one sign associated with each of the bus controllers 40 and the node controller 50. The electronic signs can be under the control of the parking management system 60. The management system 60 can communicate with the signs through the cellular network 70 directly to a radio receiver associated with each sign, or through the node controller 50 and bus controller 40 that the sign 42 is in communication with.

The parking facility can also include a camera 54 near an entrance and/or exit of the facility. The camera 54 can be in communication with the parking management system 60 via the node controller 50 or directly through the cellular network 70. The parking management system 60 can use images from the camera 54 to record damage to vehicles 30, and time between the vehicle 30 entering and exiting the facility. The management system 60 can also correlate an image of a vehicle 30 with a particular parking space. For example, images of a vehicle 30 entering the facility can be compared to images of the vehicle 30 exiting the facility and, if the condition of the vehicle 30 has changed between the images, it can be concluded that the vehicle 30 sustained damage while in the facility. Further, the entry and exit times of the vehicle 30 can be compared to the occupancy times of parking spaces of the facility and an inference made about which parking space was likely occupied by the vehicle 30. One or more of the images of the vehicle 30 entering or exiting can then be correlated with this space.

The facility may also include an electromagnetic ranging unit 56 such as a LIDAR or LEDAR (LED-based LIDAR) device near the entrance and/or exit of the facility. This unit can be used to count vehicles 30 entering and/or exiting the facility. This count of vehicles 30 can be used to: verify the count provided to the node controller 50 by the monitoring units 10; provide an additional or alternative count for display by the electronic signs; or analyse user behaviour, among other things. For example, the number of spaces available in the facility may be based on the total number of parking spaces minus the number of spaces that are currently occupied minus the number of vehicles 30 that have entered the facility but not yet parked.

The facility can include markings 34 or beacons 36 to help guide autonomous (“self driving”) vehicles 30 around the facility and into parking spaces. FIG. 4 shows markings 34 on the driving path through the facility. These can be any markings 34 recognisable by sensors of the vehicle 30, for example visual markings recognisable by a camera, magnetic markings, current-carrying wires, or reflectors. FIG. 4 also shows beacons 36 that can transmit electromagnetic signals to the car for use as navigational reference points. The signals could also include specific guidance instructions for the vehicle 30. The electromagnetic signals in this example are radio waves, although other electromagnetic signals could be used.

Having described the parking system in detail, an example method of use will now be given.

A user wishing to use the parking facility may first download the parking application to their mobile phone 32. They may also create an account with the parking management system 60 by providing the requisite information, which may include their name, vehicle registration number, driver’s licence number and credit card number. They could create the account on a website or through the application.

When the user is looking for a park, they can launch the parking application which will access their current location using GPS data provided by their phone 32. The application will display to them the locations of nearby parking facilities along with the number of parking spaces available at each facility and allow them to chose one. Once the user has selected a parking facility, the parking application can launch a navigation application on the user’s phone 32, such as Google Maps, if they have one installed. The application can then provide the coordinates of the parking facility to the navigation application, which will then take over the guidance of the user to the facility.

When the user arrives at the facility, they can use the electronic signs to find a section or level with an available parking space and further use the lights 16 provided on the monitoring units 10 to locate a suitable parking space. The lights 16 may be different colours based on the occupancy status, services provided and cost of the respective parking spaces. For example, a user may look down a row of parking spaces and see several red lights indicating occupied parking spaces, a green light indicating an unoccupied standard-cost parking space, a purple light indicating an unoccupied premium (high-cost) parking space and a flashing purple light indicating an unoccupied premium parking space with wireless charging facilities. They can then easily select a suitable parking space.

Once the user drives into a selected parking space, their vehicle 30 is detected when the infrared beam is broken and the monitoring unit 10 broadcasts a low-energy Bluetooth signal that can be received by the user device 32. The signal includes an identifier of the parking space. The application may display the identifier in a format easily recognisable to the user (e.g.“Level 1 , Space B34”) and the user can compare the identifier to a visually displayed identifier at the parking space. Once the user confirms the parking space through the application, the application will cause the phone 32 to transmit the parking space identifier to the parking management facility. This may be transmitted using a data service of a cellular network 70 or through WiFi connection to a wireless access point provided in the facility.

When the parking management system 60 receives this information, it can confirm the validity of a user’s account, create an association between the account and the parking space, and control the light 16 on the monitoring unit 10 to indicate this to the user. For example, the light 16 may quickly flash several times. The management system 60 can then either check a prepaid parking account for sufficient funds or initiate a transaction with a credit or debit card provider to charge a user’s credit or debit account. Once it is determined that the user has sufficient funds for parking, the management system 60 may change the status of the parking space to occupied, which will be reflected in a change of the light 16 (e.g. from green to blue). The change in occupancy status of the space may also be signalled to the bus controller 40 and node controller 50, which may update their respective counts of available parking spaces and update the information displayed on their respective signs.

The user may then validly stay in the parking space for a prearranged amount of time (either dictated by the parking management system 60 or selected by the user) or for an open-ended amount of time, limited only by available credit. If the allowed amount of time expires before the user removes their car from the parking space, the light 16 will indicate this by flashing red. A fine may be issued against the user’s account by the management system 60 or a parking facility employee may be alerted to the vehicle 30 to issue a ticket or have the vehicle 30 clamped or towed.

While the present invention has been illustrated by the description of the embodiments thereof, and while the embodiments have been described in detail, it is not the intention of the Applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and method, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departure from the spirit or scope of the Applicant’s general inventive concept.

Claims

1 . A parking space monitoring unit comprising:

a. a detector for detecting vehicle presence in a parking space; and

2. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the detector detects the

presence of a vehicle by its obstruction of a beam.

3. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein a transmitter transmits a beam to the detector.

4. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 including a transmitter which transmits a beam that is reflected to return to the detector, when not obstructed.

5. The parking space monitoring unit of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the detector is an infrared detector.

6. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the detector is a visible or ultraviolet light detector.

7. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the detector is an acoustic detector.

8. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the detector is configured to detect vehicle presence in a parking space based on receipt of an indication of vehicle presence from a base unit.

9. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter is a radio

frequency transmitter.

10. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 9, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit according to Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low-Energy standards.

1 1 . The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the identification signal includes one or more of a node controller ID, bus controller ID, unit ID and a signal strength packet.

12. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , further comprising a wired

communication module for communicating with a control unit.

13. The parking space monitoring unit of any one of the previous claims, further including an electrical power input for receiving power from a power supply line.

14. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 13 when dependent on claim 12, wherein the wired communication module is configured to communicate with the control unit over the power supply line.

15. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 14, wherein the wired communication module is configured to communicate over the power supply line by shorting the power supply line according to a Manchester encoding scheme.

16. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the identification signal a plurality of times at successively higher powers until the parking space monitoring unit receives an acknowledgement that the identification signal has been received.

17. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 1 , further comprising one or more visual indicators for indicating to a user parking space information.

18. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 17, wherein the one or more visual

indicators include one or more coloured lights.

19. The parking space monitoring unit of claim 17, wherein the one or more visual

indicators include one or more flashing lights.

20. A parking system comprising:

a. a parking management system ;

b. a parking space monitoring unit comprising:

21 . The parking system of claim 20, further comprising a base unit configured to transmit a continuous or intermittent transmission to the detector, wherein the detector is configured to detect vehicle presence based on an absence of the transmission.

22. The parking system of claim 21 , wherein the base unit is configured to transmit an infrared transmission, visible or ultraviolet light transmission to the detector.

23. The parking system of claim 20, further comprising a reflector configured to reflect a continuous or intermittent transmission from a transmitter to the detector, wherein the detector is configured to detect vehicle presence based on an absence of the reflection.

24. The parking system of claim 23, wherein the reflector comprises one or more

retroreflective elements.

25. The parking system of claim 20, further comprising a base unit configured to transmit an indication of vehicle presence in a parking space to the detector, wherein the detector is configured to detect vehicle presence based on the indication.

26. The parking system of claim 25, wherein the base unit includes one or more of a pressure switch, magnetic detector, ultrasonic detector or image detector and wherein the indication of vehicle presence is based on an output one or more of the pressure switch, magnetic detector, ultrasonic detector or image detector.

27. The parking system of claim 20, further comprising a bus controller in communication with a plurality of parking space monitoring units.

28. The parking system of claim 27, further comprising a node controller in

communication with the parking management system and a plurality of bus controllers.

29. The parking system of claim 27, wherein the bus controller and the parking space monitoring units are configured to communicate with each other over power supply lines.

30. The parking system of claim 28 wherein the node controller and bus controllers are configured to communicate with each other using communication lines.

31 . The parking system of claim 28, wherein the node controller and the parking

management system are configured to communicate with each other using a cellular communication network.

32. The parking system of claim 28, wherein the node controller and the parking management system are configured to communicate with each other using a virtual private network.

33. The parking system of claim 27, wherein the bus controller and parking space

monitoring units are configured as master and slave devices, respectively.

34. The parking system of claim 27, wherein the bus controller is configured to:

a. periodically poll all parking space monitoring units that it is in communication with;

b. receive responses from one or more of the parking space monitoring units; and c. for a period of time thereafter, repeatedly poll only the one or more parking space monitoring units that responses were received from.

35. The parking system of claim 27, wherein the bus controller is configured to receive parking space status information from the parking space monitoring units that it is in communication with.

36. The parking system of claim 28, wherein the node controller is configured to receive parking space status information from the bus controllers that it is in communication with.

37. The parking system of any one of claims 20 to 36, further comprising one or more electronic visual displays for indicating parking space information.

38. The parking system of claim 37 when dependent on claim 35, wherein at least one of the one or more electronic visual displays is associated with the bus controller and configured to display parking space information for parking spaces monitored by the parking space monitoring units that the bus controller is in communication with.

39. The parking system of claim 37 when dependent on claim 36, wherein at least one of the electronic visual displays is associated with the node controller and configured to display parking space information for the bus controllers that the node controller is in communication with.

40. The parking system of any one of claims 20 to 39, wherein at least some of the

parking spaces are in a parking lot or parking building comprised of a plurality of sections or levels, and wherein: each section or level has an associated bus controller in communication with parking space monitoring units of that section or level; and

the parking lot or parking building has an associated node controller in communication with bus controllers of that lot or building.

41 . The parking system of claim 40 when dependent on claim 38, wherein the at least one electronic visual displays associated with the bus controller is configured to display the number of parking spaces available in the section or level associated with that bus controller.

42. The parking system of claim 40 when dependent on claim 39, wherein the at least one electronic visual displays associated with the node controller is configured to display the number of parking spaces available in the parking lot or parking building.

43. The parking system of claim 37, wherein the parking management system is

configured to control the one or more electronic visual displays.

44. The parking system of claim 37, wherein the parking management system is

configured to communicate with the one or more electronic visual displays using a cellular communication network.

45. The parking system of claim 21 , wherein the parking space monitoring unit and the base unit are located on different sides of the parking space such that a car entering the parking space can block transmission or reflection of the transmission from the base unit to the monitoring unit.

46. The parking system of claim 20, wherein the user device is configured to receive the identification signal from the transmitter using Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy standards.

47. The parking system of claim 20, wherein the user device is configured to

communicate with the parking management system using a cellular communication network or wireless local area network.

48. The parking system of claim 20, wherein the user device is a mobile phone or mobile computing device having stored thereon an application configured to facilitate interaction between:

the mobile phone or device and the parking management system; and

the mobile phone or device and parking space monitoring unit.

49. The parking system of claim 40, further comprising a camera located at or near an entrance to the parking lot or parking building and in communication with the node controller associated with the lot or building.

50. The parking system of claim 49, wherein the node controller or parking management system is configured to record damage to vehicles, record the time between a vehicle entering and exiting the parking lot or parking building, or correlate an image of a vehicle with a particular parking space, based on the output of the camera.

51 . The parking system of claim 40, further comprising an electromagnetic ranging unit located at or near an entrance to the parking lot or parking building and in communication with the node controller associated with the lot or building, wherein the node controller or parking management system is configured to count vehicles based on the output of the electromagnetic ranging unit.

52. The parking system of claim 27, wherein the bus controller comprises a constant current source for the parking space monitoring units that it is in communication with.

53. The parking system of claim 29, wherein the bus controllers transmit information about changes in the parking system to the node controller.

54. The parking system of claim 40, wherein the parking lot or parking building comprises markings or beacons for aiding navigation of autonomous vehicles.

55. The parking system of claim 20, further comprising vehicle wireless charging facilities.

56. The parking system of claim 55, wherein the vehicle wireless charging facilities are configured to be operated by the user device interacting with the parking

management system via an application programming interface (API).

57. The parking system of claim 55, wherein the vehicle wireless charging facilities are configured to be operated by the user device interacting with the vehicle wireless charging facilities using Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy communications.

58. A method of managing parking in a parking space comprising:

b. detecting the presence of a vehicle in a parking space;

c. transmitting an identification signal associated with the parking space to the mobile device; and d. receiving the identification signal by the mobile device; and e. communicating parking space information based on the identification signal to the parking management system.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the step of communicating parking space

information is performed by the mobile device.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein the step of communicating parking space

information is performed internally through a parking system.

61 . The method of claim 58 further comprising: f. operating a visual indicator located at or near the parking space to indicate when an association between the parking space and a user is established.

62. The method of claim 58, further comprising:

g. displaying, via the application, parking facilities or parking spaces in a

geographical region.

63. The method of claim 62, further comprising:

h. allowing, via the application, user selection of a parking facility or space; and i. launching a navigation application to assist navigation to the parking facility or space in response to the selection.

64. The method of claim 58, further comprising:

j. indicating, using electronic visual displays at or near a parking facility or space, one or more of parking space location, availability, type, cost, or rule compliance/non-compliance.

65. The method of claim 58, further comprising:

k. upon detection of the presence of a vehicle in a parking space, indicating, using at least one visual indicator at or near the parking space, payment status of a service associated with the parking space.

66. The method of claim 58, wherein the step of receiving the identification signal by the mobile device further comprises: I. selecting the identification signal associated with the parking space from a set of identification signals based on user input or respective signal strengths of the identification signals of the set.

67. The method of claim 58, further comprising:

m. associating, using the parking management system, the identification signal with an account of a user of the application and recording a charge for a service associated with the parking space against the account.