Large-area parking-monitoring system
View Patent ↗The present invention discloses an improved large-area parking-monitoring system. It comprises first and second parking-monitoring devices. The first parking-monitoring device transmits its parking occupancy data to the second parking-monitoring device via WiFi signals. The second parking-monitoring device transmits the collected parking occupancy data to a base station via cellular signals. This parking-monitoring system has a reduced cellular usage.
1. A large-area parking-monitoring system comprising a plurality of externally-powered re-configurable parking-monitoring devices including first and second monitoring devices, each of said monitoring devices comprising:
a detector for generating parking occupancy data for a plurality of parking spaces;
a medium-range wireless communication module for transmitting said parking occupancy data between selected ones of said parking-monitoring devices; and
a long-range wireless communication module for transmitting collected parking occupancy data to a base station;
wherein:
said first monitoring device receives parking occupancy data from said second monitoring device via medium-range wireless communication signals and transmits collected parking occupancy data to said base station via long-range wireless communication signals in a first configuration;
said second monitoring device receives parking occupancy data from said first monitoring device via medium-range wireless communication signals and transmits collected parking occupancy data to said base station via long-range wireless communication signals in a second configuration.
2. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the long-range wireless communication module of said second monitoring device is disabled in said first configuration.
3. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the long-range wireless communication module of said first monitoring device is disabled in said second configuration.
4. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said medium-range wireless communication module is a WiFi communication module.
5. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said long-range wireless communication module is a cellular communication module.
6. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein selected one of said parking-monitoring devices is mounted on a support.
7. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 6 , wherein said support provides power to said selected one of said parking-monitoring devices.
8. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said parking-monitoring devices are smart-phone-like devices.
9. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 8 , wherein said parking-monitoring devices use a smart-phone operating system.
10. The large-area parking-monitoring system according to claim 8 , wherein said parking-monitoring devices run an image-recognition app.