US 11,810,403 B2
Parking methods and systems
Mark J. Moran, Woodbury, MN (US); Richard W. Kelley, II, Corcoran, MN (US); David E. Collins, Jr., Plymouth, MN (US); Marcus N. Schmidt, Minnetonka, MN (US); Christopher W. Baldwin, St. Paul, MN (US); and Padmavathi Ramuni, Plymouth, MN (US)
Assigned to Municipal Parking Services, Inc., Minnetonka, MN (US)
Filed by Municipal Parking Services, Inc., Minnetonka, MN (US)
Filed on Nov. 7, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/982,098.
Application 17/982,098 is a continuation of application No. 16/712,687, filed on Dec. 12, 2019, granted, now 11,495,059.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/778,642, filed on Dec. 12, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2023/0056678 A1, Feb. 23, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G07B 15/02 (2011.01); G06K 7/14 (2006.01); G06Q 20/12 (2012.01); H04W 4/20 (2018.01); G06V 20/10 (2022.01); G06V 20/58 (2022.01); H04N 23/661 (2023.01); G06V 20/62 (2022.01)
CPC G07B 15/02 (2013.01) [G06K 7/1417 (2013.01); G06Q 20/127 (2013.01); G06V 20/10 (2022.01); G06V 20/586 (2022.01); H04N 23/661 (2023.01); H04W 4/20 (2013.01); G06V 20/625 (2022.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A smart parking system, comprising:
a parking meter, including a housing and a microcontroller disposed inside of the housing;
a camera in communication with the microcontroller, wherein the camera is aimed towards a parking space that is monitored by the parking meter; and
a central control computer networked with the parking meter,
wherein the microcontroller of the parking meter is configured to generate a first machine-readable code in response to an input from a user and transmit a first machine-readable code data for the first machine-readable code to the central control computer,
wherein the central control computer is configured to perform a vehicle registration verification, comprising:
receiving a second machine-readable code data from a smartphone app executing on a smartphone of the user that is networked with the central control computer;
receiving a license plate data from the smartphone app of the user for a vehicle that the user wishes to register for a subscription parking service;
performing a license plate recognition on an image of a license plate of a vehicle located in the parking space that is monitored by the parking meter;
comparing the first machine-readable code data to the second machine-readable code data to determine whether there is a machine readable code match;
comparing the license plate data to a result of the license plate recognition to determine whether the vehicle located in the parking space that is monitored by the parking meter matches the license plate data for the vehicle that the user wishes to register for the subscription parking service.