Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07C—TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
  • G07C1/00—Registering, indicating or recording the time of events or elapsed time, e.g. time-recorders for work people
  • G07C1/30—Parking meters
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
  • G07B15/02—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a system and a method for paying parking fees and for controlling the payment of parking fees, in which the parking fee system is a service of a mobile telephone system.
• Today such parking systems are developed where a conventional automatic parking fee machine found in the street or at the gate of a car park can be replaced by a car-specific device, for which parking time is bought in advance and loaded into the device .
• the systems are generally based on function cards or smart cards having a processor or a memory of their own, paid parking time being recurrently loadable into the card at a point of distribution of parking time, e.g. at a service station, by paying the necessary fee in advance.
• parking time is loaded from the card into a car-specific parking meter device by transferring the desired parking time from the function card to the parking fee device by means of the function keys of the parking meter device.
• the display of the parking fee device disposed e.g. on the dashboard of a vehicle shows the time loaded thereinto to a passing traffic warden.
• 89,753 discloses a car-specific parking-meter which loaded with parking time is controlled by transmitting a control command to the parking meter device by wireless data transmission.
• the device described in Finnish Published Specification 89,753 operates acceptably as a meter and an indicator of paid parking time.
• a drawback of said system is that a motorist has to buy an expensive device, or a parking meter just for parking, and that the system requires that a function card be bought and/or loaded in advance at a point of distribution of parking time.
• the payment of parking may be difficult.
• the time of the day can be such that the points of distribution are closed but a parking fee should still be paid.
• the object of this invention is to achieve such a parking fee system that does not have the above- mentioned drawbacks.
• the system of the invention in which users of the service have access to a service unit of the parking fee system by telephone for paying the parking fee by communicating a user-specific identity code and/or a car registration number and a code of the car park, is characterized in that a parking account is opened at the service unit of the system for each user of the service, in which account is kept of the parkings communicated thereto by the user, and that the system further comprises controlling means of the parking account by which means the data on parking is controllable by telephone from the service unit of the parking fee system.
• a chargeable parking system is achieved which does not require any additions to the present infrastructure nor any car-specific parking-fee devices or meters.
• the system can be readily implemented in parallel with other ways of paying the parking fee and the service operator can be a mobile telephone network operator or any company which makes an agreement with an operator to use the network and to implement the required parking accounts.
• An essential part of the invention is that it is easy to control the parked vehicles, which can also be done without any great investments or changes in the present infrastructure.
• Figure 1 shows a general view of parking taking place in accordance with the invention
• Figure 2 shows a general view of the system of the invention
• Figure 3 shows some embodiments of the system of the invention
• Figure 4 shows a controllable parking account used in the invention.
• Figure 1 illustrates a method accomplished in accordance with the invention for paying the parking fee.
• the invention relates to the mobile telephone system so that the service accomplished by means of the invention is enabled by a mobile phone 1. This is achieved in the same way as any supplementary service, such as call transfer etc., is enabled, by entering a predetermined code to the phone which will forward it to the service unit of the mobile telephone network.
• the identification data of the parking car such as the registration number, the code (XYZ) of the car park P and the starting time of parking is communicated by the mobile phone to the service unit which registers the starting time of parking for the user of the service in question.
• Car parks of different tariff zones can, for example, be distinguished by means of codes of the car park. Information e.g. on the longest permitted parking time and other such restrictions can also be included in the code.
• the cars belonging to the system of the invention could carry a sticker T on the windscreen.
• FIG. 2 shows parts of the mobile telephone system.
• the mobile phone 1 communicates in a normal manner on the radio path with a base station 2 which further communicates either on the radio path or by a fixed cabling with a mobile telephone switching centre 3.
• the mobile telephone switching centre 3 comprises parking accounts opened for users of the parking service in which account is kept of the parkings communicated thereto by the users.
• the mobile services switching centre is often referred to by the abbreviation MSC.
• the system of the invention also comprises a controlling means 4 of parking accounts, shown in Figure 2, by which means the data on parking communicated by the mobile phone and the parking time used by the car can be controlled from the mobile services switching centre 3. The controlling naturally takes place in real time.
• the controlling means 4 preferably comprise a mobile phone 4a and a computer or another terminal 4b connected thereto by means of which a connection to the mobile services switching centre 3 or to a corresponding service unit can be established, for example, by dialling a certain number. It is obvious to one skilled in the art how the mobile phone 4a and the portable computer 4b can be made to co ⁇ operate in order to achieve wireless data transmission.
• the controlling means could comprise a computer 4b or another terminal connected to a paging network and via the paging network to the service unit 3 of the mobile services switching centre and by means of which the data on parking can be presented to a controlling person.
• the paging system can for example maintain a database of the parked vehicles in the computer 4b, whereby the parking situation of each car can be controlled directly from the computer without separately contacting the service unit which maintains the parking accounts.
• the service unit containing the parking accounts of the mobile services switching centre is part of a service centre 5 which controls the operations of the network, as is shown in Figure 3.
• this service centre of the mobile telephone network can comprise the network's own service centre
• the service unit comprising the parking accounts of the mobile phone system can also be a register separate from the mobile services switching centre to which register a service number of the mobile telephone system only provides an access channel by calling a telephone number of the mobile services switching centre. This situation is shown in Figure 2 in which the mobile services switching centre 3 transmits a call to a database 8 containing the parking accounts of the parking service operator.
• Figure 4 shows an example of a record of the parking account to be controlled.
• the secret PIN or the like code of the subscriber of the service is in field 9, the car registration number in field 10, the starting time of parking in field 11 and in field 12 the code XYZ of the car park shown in Figure 1.
• Parking is activated by supplying the PIN number and the code of the car park.
• the car registration number may be known to the system in advance (connected to the PIN code) and the system itself naturally knows the time.
• the PIN code of the user of the parking service is encoded into a function card which..activates the phone, such as to the SIM card (Subscriber Identification Module) of the GSM system, or it is the same as the code of the card, any phone within the system can be used for parking which is connected to the digital mobile telephone network, such as the GSM network, and which can read the card, also e.g. a phone in the car park.
• the code in the SIM card is transmitted to a service unit 3; 5; 8 of the parking fee system from which the code can be controlled by the second GSM phone 4a and the terminal 4b possibly connected thereto which are included in the controlling means of the parking account.
• the parking charge cumulated to a user need not be controllable but instead, after each parking the data record of Figure 4 is set to zero and the produced parking charge is added to the charging account of the user.
• the charging can be done separately or in connection with the charging of telephone calls.
• a credit limit can be attached to the parking account which will stop chargeable parking from being continued and/or will generate an invoice to be sent to the user of the service.
• the possible fining for exceeding the maximum parking time, the credit limit or other errors can be arranged to be charged in a normal invoice since all the requisite information is already there; the place, the time and the registration number.

Landscapes

• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Devices For Checking Fares Or Tickets At Control Points (AREA)

Priority Applications (1)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8541541

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (66)

Citations (4)

• 1994
  • 1994-10-07 FI FI944738A patent/FI944738A/sv unknown
• 1995
  • 1995-10-06 WO PCT/FI1995/000554 patent/WO1996011453A1/en active Application Filing
  • 1995-10-06 AU AU36550/95A patent/AU3655095A/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (4)

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