Apparatus and method for locating, identifying and tracking vehicles in a parking area

1. A method for use in the management of vehicle parking in a vehicle parking area having a plurality of vehicle parking spaces, the method comprising:

determining the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces; and

displaying the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces to people seeking to park vehicles, wherein the step of determining the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces comprises:

repeatedly capturing a sequence of images of pre-defined vehicle parking spaces;

processing the repeatedly captured sequence of images of the pre-defined vehicle parking spaces resulting in segmentation of the respective images into vehicle and non-vehicle objects; and

identifying one or more features in the respective processed captured images, wherein the features are representative of a vehicle's presence.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining one or more identifying features of each of a plurality of vehicles located in vehicle parking spaces;

receiving a request to locate a specific vehicle with at least one of said one or more identifying features;

determining one or more possible locations for said specific vehicle based on said at least one of said one or more identifying features and the determined one or more identifying features of each of a plurality of vehicles; and

displaying said one or more possible locations in response to said request.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said one or more features in the respective captured images comprise one or more of: the license/number plate, the colour, the make, the model , the shape, the size, or the contour of a vehicle.

4. A system for use in the management of vehicle parking in a vehicle parking area having a plurality of vehicle parking spaces, the system comprising:

one or more first detection units for determining the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces; and

one or more display units for displaying the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces

wherein each first detection unit comprises:

one or more camera elements for repeatedly capturing a sequence of images of predefined vehicle parking spaces,

one or more image processing units for processing the repeatedly captured sequence of images obtained by the first detection unit resulting in segmentation of the respective images into vehicle and non-vehicle objects, and

one or more processors for identifying one or more features in the respective processed captured images, wherein each of the features are representative of a vehicle's presence.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein each camera element is arranged such that cells of an image from the camera element are associated with one or more vehicle parking spaces, and the image processing units determines the location of the vacant vehicle spaces based on the individual cells of the images.

6. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein each display unit comprises one or more audio display devices and/or one or more visual display devices.

7. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein each display unit is arranged to communicate with one or more remote devices for facilitating displaying the locations of the vacant parking spaces.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the remote devices comprise on-vehicle devices.

9. The system according to claim 4 , further comprising:

one or more second detection units for determining one or more identifying features of each of a plurality of vehicles located in vehicle parking spaces; and

one or more interface units for receiving a request to locate a specific vehicle with at least one of said one or more identifying features;

wherein each processor determines one or more possible locations for said specific vehicle based on said at least one of said one or more identifying features and the determined one or more features in the respective captured images; and

a each display unit displays said one or more possible locations in response to said request.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the first and second detection units are implemented in a single detection unit.

11. The system according to claim 4 , wherein said one or more features in the respective captured images comprise one or more of: the license/number plate, the colour, the make, the model, the shape, the size, or the contour of a vehicle.

12. A computer readable data storage medium having stored thereon computer code means for instructing a computer to execute a method for use in the management of vehicle parking in a vehicle parking area having a plurality of vehicle parking spaces, the method comprising:

determining the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces; and

displaying the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces,

wherein the step of determining the locations of vacant vehicle parking spaces comprises:

repeatedly capturing a sequence of images of pre-defined vehicle parking spaces;

processing the repeatedly captured sequence of images of the pre-defined vehicle parking spaces resulting in segmentation of the respective images into vehicle and non-vehicle objects; and

identifying one or more features in the respective processed captured images, wherein the features are representative of a vehicle's presence.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the captured images of the vehicle parking spaces are processed by an algorithm.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the processing algorithm is an adaptive, a self-learning algorithm, or both.

15. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising detecting one or more event status of the vehicle parking spaces based on the processing of the captured images.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the one or more event status include vacant, occupied, in-transit, toward, away, stop, no-human, human-towards, human-away, crowd towards, crowd away, or crowd-stop.