Parking Availability Visualization via Intermediary App
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drivers often spend significant time searching for available parking spaces in large parking structures due to the lack of efficient location tools.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses user devices and a parking server to display available and unavailable parking spots through visual indicators on a user interface, utilizing aggregated information from users and automated means like sensors, with options for sorting and prioritizing sections based on availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If drivers manually search for parking spaces in large parking structures, then they can locate available spots, but the search process takes copious amounts of time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile application as an intermediary between drivers and parking spaces. The app receives real-time parking availability data from sensors or user reports, processes this information, and presents it through visual indicators (such as colored zones or icons) on the driver's mobile device. This intermediary system eliminates the need for manual searching by directly providing location and availability information, thus resolving the contradiction between time loss and operational ease.
2Productivity
If a system provides real-time parking information through user devices, then parking efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the core function of parking information provision from a complex centralized system and implements it through a mobile application that leverages existing smartphone capabilities. The app uses standard mobile devices, wireless communications, and simple visual display mechanisms already present in smartphones. By taking out the essential function and implementing it through readily available technology rather than specialized complex equipment, the system achieves high parking efficiency without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A server device may receive parking information that identifies a first plurality of parking spots, within a parking structure, that are available for parking, and a second plurality of parking spots, within the parking structure, that are unavailable for parking; store the parking information in association with information identifying the parking structure; receive, from a user device, a request for parking information associated with the parking structure; populate, in response to the request, a visual representation of the parking structure with the parking information, where the visual representation of the parking structure identifies the first plurality of parking spots and the second plurality of parking spots; and transmit the visual representation of the parking structure to the user device to assist a user, of the user device, in locating one of the first plurality of parking spots.