Vehicle Camera Parking Location Reminder for Indoor Garages
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often forget the location of their parked vehicles, especially in indoor or multi-storey car parks, where GPS systems are inaccurate, and existing solutions like using mobile devices to capture images or videos are inconvenient and battery-intensive.
Innovation Solution
A device that detects parking-related events using vehicle cameras to capture and process location information, which is then transmitted to the user via a notification, optimizing data transmission and storage by focusing on relevant visual data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS or navigational systems are used to locate the parked vehicle, then the vehicle location can be determined, but the accuracy is poor in closed spaces such as underground car parks and the system only provides geographic coordinate without floor information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses visual information from camera images as an intermediary to determine parking location. Instead of relying directly on GPS coordinates which fail indoors, the system captures images of the parking environment and extracts visual features (signs, landmarks, spatial relationships) to identify the parking spot, thereby mediating between the unavailable GPS data and the needed location information
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/GPS-based navigation system with a vision-based system. By substituting satellite-dependent GPS with camera-based visual recognition, the system achieves indoor location capability where GPS is unavailable, trading satellite signal dependency for visual feature recognition
2Loss of information
If the mobile device continuously transmits video signals from vehicle cameras to the user, then the user can see the parking location, but this causes unnecessary data transmission and negatively affects battery and storage space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential location information from the continuous video stream. Instead of transmitting the entire video feed, the system identifies and extracts key visual features that indicate parking location (signs, spatial markers, recognizable landmarks) and transmits only this extracted information, thereby delivering location data while minimizing energy consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary processing of video signals to identify parking location before transmission. By pre-analyzing the video content to detect when the vehicle has stopped and extracting location information in advance, the system avoids continuous transmission and only sends data when relevant, reducing battery consumption
3Loss of information
If the user manually takes pictures or records videos with a mobile device to remember the parking location, then the location can be recorded, but this is inconvenient and requires user action each time
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically capturing images and extracting location information without requiring user action. The vehicle-integrated camera system autonomously records the parking environment, processes the visual data to identify location markers, and delivers the parking location information to the user's mobile device, eliminating the need for manual photo-taking or video-recording by the user
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary capture and processing of location information before the user needs it. By automatically capturing images at the moment of parking and pre-processing them to extract location data, the system has the parking location ready for immediate delivery to the user, eliminating the need for subsequent manual documentation efforts
Data Source
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AI summary
A device for indicating a parking location of a vehicle, comprising: a detection module configured to detect an occurrence of a parking-related event for the vehicle; a controller configured to obtain, from one or more video signals provided by at least one camera coupled to the vehicle, location information that indicates a parking location of the vehicle; and a notification module configured to trigger a notification to a user, upon the detection of the parking-related event, the notification including the location information. A method and computer program are also provided.