Night parking detection
View Patent ↗The present invention discloses a night parking-monitoring device. It monitors the state change of a parking space at night by tracking at least a light of a vehicle.
1. A parking-monitoring device for monitoring at least a parking space under a low ambient lighting, comprising:
a camera located on a fixed structure, wherein said camera captures a sequence of images of at least a light of a vehicle, but cannot acquire the details of said parking space under said low ambient lighting;
a processor coupled to said camera, wherein said processor determines the change of the parking state of said parking space only from a track of said light obtained from said sequence of images, without using the output of any vehicle indicator.
2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said light is a headlight of said vehicle.
3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said light is a taillight of said vehicle.
4. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said camera captures images at a faster rate at night than during the day.
5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said parking state is changed when the direction of said track changes.
6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein said parking state is changed when the displacement of said track exceeds a pre-determined value.
7. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a vehicle-movement sensor.
8. The device according to claim 7 , wherein said camera captures said sequence of images when said vehicle-movement sensor detects a nearby moving vehicle.
9. The device according to claim 7 , wherein said camera does not capture any images when said vehicle-movement sensor does not detect a nearby moving vehicle.
10. The device according to claim 7 , wherein said vehicle-movement sensor comprises an audio sensor.
11. The device according to claim 7 , wherein said vehicle-movement sensor comprises an optical sensor.
12. The device according to claim 7 , wherein said vehicle-movement sensor comprises an electromagnetic sensor.
13. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a passing-by vehicle detector, wherein the state of the said parking spaces is determined from at least an image of said parking space illuminated by at least a light beam output from a passing-by vehicle.