Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for operating a parking management system and a corresponding parking management system. Technical Background

Conventionally, when parking a vehicle the driver of the vehicle visits a parking meter to pay parking fee and in return is issued a parking right. The driver normally pays the parking fee using coins or a credit card. Attempts have been made to simplify this model and to provide for other means for payment of the parking fee.

For example, WO9320539 describes a vehicle parking system in which each parking place incorporated in the system is assigned a unique digital and/or alphabetical code which is unique to that particular parking space. A user of the disclosed vehicle parking system uses his mobile telephone to transmit a combined code comprising the code unique to that parking space, a vehicle code and a personal or payment responsibility code to a database where it is recorded together with the time of reception. The personal or payment responsibility code is assigned to the user and associates the vehicle directly with the one responsible for payment of the parking fee.

When the user collects the vehicle from the parking space, he/she again sends the combined code to the database, over the mobile telephone; whereupon the database records that the parking period has been

terminated. Data is processed and converted to a form which denotes the place, time and cost of the parking period. The parking cost is debited by a municipal telephone company, or through the National telephone company, through its normal debiting routines.

A drawback with such a system is that the user is forced to go through a more or less complicated registration process to be assigned the personal or payment responsibility code before being able to be issued a parking right. This decreases the instant accessibility for the user to use the system, thereby forcing the operator to rely on the conventional payment methods including at least one or preferably a combination of coins and credit card.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for operating a parking management system where the user is given easier and instant access to the system as well as minimizing the pressure on the operator of the parking management system to rely on conventional payment methods.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the invention, this and other objects are achieved by a method for operating a parking management system for providing parking management rights for a user parking a vehicle using a user terminal operated by the user having a network connection to a parking rights server and a vehicle database, the method comprising the steps of receiving a parking initiation message from the user, the parking initiation message comprising user specific identity data and vehicle specific identity data, querying the vehicle database for previously stored entries corresponding to the vehicle specific identity data, issuing a parking right for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data if no matching entry is found in the vehicle database, determining a parking fee for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data, transmitting a request for payment of the parking fee to a recipient based on the user specific identity data, receiving a cancelation message from the recipient for objecting to paying the requested parking fee, and storing the vehicle specific identity data in the vehicle database, thereby blocking issuance of further parking rights for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data.

The present invention is based on the understanding that it may be possible to issue parking rights to a user parking a vehicle without the need for the user to go through any registration process. Requests for payment of parking fees relating to incorrectly issued parking rights, e.g. by a wrongful user, are handled through a process where the recipient of the request for payment of the parking fee is allowed to disapprove to the payment, however with the result that no further parking right may be issued for the vehicle having relation to the issued parking right. Accordingly, if the recipient disapproves to the payment, the vehicle having relation to the payment will no longer be issued parking rights if any further requests for parking rights are requested by any possible user.

The invention provides for example administrative advantages for both the operator of the parking management system as well as the user parking the vehicle. For example, the operator may minimize any user management to a minimum, as really no user lists need to be logged, rather only

information as to when and at which duration vehicles relating to the user are have been parked. On the other side the user need not keep any record as to for example login details for the parking management system, possibly slowing down the user when compiling the parking initiation message.

In a preferred embodiment the user specific identity data comprises a governmental issued national identification number, such as for example the Social Security Number used in United States of America or the Personal identity number used in Sweden. Other similarly issued national identification numbers of low privacy sensitive character are of course possible and may in some countries be preferred. Generally, any governmental issued national identification number may be used for determining the recipient of the transmission of the request for payment of the parking fee, including for example a postal address or an e-mail address. Similarly, the vehicle specific identity data comprises a, possibly governmental issued, registration identifier for the vehicle.

Preferably, the user terminal operated by the user is a mobile terminals and the parking initiation message is a mobile text message, although it may be possible to provide the information of the parking initiation message by means of a voice call. Examples of mobile, and preferably handheld, user terminal may comprise a combination of mobile phones, personal computers, laptops, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and other communication devices with a user interface and a capability of connecting to the parking rights server using a computer network. Similarly, the mobile text message is preferably an SMS (Short Message Service) message specified for mobile phone communication but may of course depend on the specific type of mobile terminal used in communicating with the parking rights server.

Possible examples include email messages being sent from a laptop.

For determining the parking fee, it may be desirable to have knowledge of the location of where the vehicle is parked. In an embodiment the location information may be comprised with the initiation message, for example being based on location information (e.g. parking area code) assigned to a specific parking area by means of a sign. In another embodiment the location information (e.g. LONG/LAT) may be provided by e.g. a GPS receiver arranged together with the user terminal, and thereby possibly automatically included with the parking initiation message. It is however of course possible and within the scope of the invention to disregard any location based information for determining the parking fee, for example in cities, areas where a flat parking fee is applied. For determining parking fee for the vehicle, the user may "check out" when terminating the parking, for example by transmitting a termination message to the parking management system. The termination message may for example comprise any one or a combination of the user specific identity data and the vehicle specific identity data. Similarly as above, the information of the termination message may be provided by means of a voice call. The parking fee may also be determined based only based on the parking initiation message, for example in relation to fixed fee parking. Also, the cancellation message may at least be one of a mobile text message or comprises a voice call .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a parking management system for providing parking management rights to a user parking a vehicle, the parking management system comprising a parking rights server and a vehicle database and having a network connection to a user terminal operated by the user, the parking rights server being adapted to receive a parking initiation message from the user, the parking initiation message comprising user specific identity data and vehicle specific identity data, query the vehicle database for previously stored entries corresponding to the vehicle specific identity data, issue a parking right for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data if no matching entry is found in the vehicle database, determine a parking fee for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data, transmit a request for payment of the parking fee to a recipient based on the user specific identity data, receive a cancelation message from the recipient for objecting to paying the requested parking fee, and store the vehicle specific identity data in the vehicle database, thereby blocking issuance of further parking rights for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data.

As discussed above in connection with the first aspect of the present invention, the inventive system allows the user to be issued parking rights when parking a vehicle without having to go through any registration process.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer program means for providing parking management rights to a user parking a vehicle, wherein the computer program product comprises code for receiving a parking initiation message from the user, the parking initiation message comprising user specific identity data and vehicle specific identity data, code for querying a vehicle database for previously stored entries corresponding to the vehicle specific identity data, code for issuing a parking right for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data if no matching entry is found in the vehicle database, code for determining a parking fee for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data, code for transmitting a request for payment of the parking fee to a recipient based on the user specific identity data, code for receiving a cancelation message from the recipient for objecting to paying the requested parking fee, and code for storing the vehicle specific identity data in the vehicle database, thereby blocking issuance of further parking rights for the vehicle having the corresponding vehicle specific identity data. The computer readable medium may be one of a removable nonvolatile random access memory, a hard disk drive, a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a USB memory, an SD memory card, or a similar computer readable medium known in the art.

Further features of, and advantages with, the present invention will become apparent when studying the appended claims and the following description. The skilled addressee realize that different features of the present invention may be combined to create embodiments other than those described in the following, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

These and other aspects of the present invention will now be described in more detail, with reference to the appended drawings showing currently preferred embodiments of the invention, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a parking management system comprising a parking rights server, and being in connection with a plurality of user terminals, for performing the method according a currently preferred embodiment of the present invention, and

Figure 2 is a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment of the Invention

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which currently preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided for thoroughness and completeness, and fully convey the scope of the invention to the skilled addressee. Like reference characters refer to like elements throughout.

Referring now to the drawings and to Fig. 1 and 2 in parallel, there is depicted a parking management system 100 comprising a parking rights server 102 and a vehicle database 104. As operation, a driver parks his vehicle, such as a car 106 within a parking area comprising a plurality of parking spaces. The parking area has been assigned a parking area code, for example displayed on a sign 108.

Preferably before leaving the parking area the driver uses a user terminal, such as for example a mobile phone 1 10 to transmit a parking initiation message M1 , for example in the form of a mobile text message such as an SMS, which is received S1 by the parking management system 100. The parking initiation message M1 preferably comprises user specific identity data, such as for example a Social Security Number or a Personal identity number, together with vehicle specific identity data, such as the vehicles registration number. The parking initiation message M1 preferably also comprises the parking area code.

In return to transmitting the parking initiation message M1 , possibly also in the form of an SMS, to the parking management system 100, the driver preferably gets a response message M2 indicating that the parking initiation message M1 has been received and that a parking right has been issued S3 for the vehicle 106, for example based on a query S2 of the vehicle database 104. According to the invention, no previously completed

registration process is necessary for issuing a parking right to the driver or for allowing a user to use the parking management system 100.

Possibly, and if some predetermined conditions not have been fulfilled, the parking management system 100 may instead return a response message M2', which indicates that no parking right has been issued for the vehicle 106. The reason for not issuing a parking right is further elaborated below.

A parking attendant 1 12 wanting to control the validity of issued parking rights for the vehicle 106 may be given access the parking

management system 100 for example using a PDA (Personal Digital

Assistant). The parking attendant 1 12 may query, M3, the parking

management system 100 using the parking area code and the vehicle registration number for the vehicle 106. In response the parking attendant 1 12 gets a parking validity message M4 indicating that vehicle 106 has a valid parking right. Depending on the type of parking right issued to the vehicle 106, the validity message M4 may also comprise information as to how much time there is left before the vehicles 106 parking right expire.

Alternatively, the parking attendant 1 12 may receive a validity message M4' that indicates that vehicle 106 has no valid parking right. In such a case the parking attendant may issue a parking fine, where the fine for example may depend on the time since a previously issued parking right expired.

On returning to the vehicle 106, the driver may optionally send a message, in the form of a termination message, to the parking management system 100, this time for the purpose of terminating the parking. The termination message may for example comprise the vehicle registration number. A response message may in return be sent from the parking management system 100 to the driver.

It is however of course possible that the parking initiation message M1 comprised an indication from the drive at which duration the driver is interested in obtaining a parking right. In such a case, it may not be

necessary for the driver to send a termination message for terminating the parking. As discussed above, it is also possible to apply a flat fee system where parking is provided at a fixed cost.

Depending on the type of initiation message M1 sent from the driver to the parking management system 100, a parking fee is determined S4. A request for payment of parking fees accumulated during a predetermined period, such as a month, may then be transmitted S5 by the parking management system 100 to the person having the user specific identity data comprised in the parking initiation message M1 .

Turning not to the reason for not having to force the driver/user of the parking management system 100 to go through and complete a registration process before using the management system 100. According to the present invention the recipient of the request for payment of parking fee(s) is given an opportunity to object to paying the requested parking fee(s). More precisely, if the recipient of the request for payment of parking fee(s) believes that the request is wrong, he may send a cancellation message which is received S6 by the parking management system 100, for example stating that he is not the driver/user of the vehicle for which the parking right(s) have been issued and/or that his user specific identity data have unlawfully been used for the purpose of issuance of parking right(s).

If the parking management system 100 finds the objection valid, a combination of the vehicle specific data, the user specific identity data and possibly a user terminal specific feature, such as a mobile phone number, is stored S7 in the vehicle database 104, such that further queries S2 of the vehicle database 104 does not generate further issuance of parking rights. Accordingly, erroneously used vehicle specific data and/or user specific identity data will be added to a "blacklist", thereby stopping further issuance of parking rights. Furthermore, as no registration process is necessary, a user/driver using multiple vehicles may park and be issued parking rights for the multiple vehicles, and eventually receives a request for payment of parking fees for all of the multiple vehicles. Additionally, less administration needs be provided by the operator of the parking management system 100.

Also, even though the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplifying embodiments thereof, many different alterations, modifications and the like will become apparent for those skilled in the art. Variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by the skilled addressee in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measured cannot be used to advantage. Also, any biased reference in the text is made merely for the sake of brevity and convenience.