An automated parking system applies machine learning with machine vision to create a new automated plate-by-plate parking system.
Cities of the future will be smart, or that’s what governments across the world would like us to believe. They will integrate the information and communication technology and internet of things (IoT) technology to manage the city, enabling efficient use of resources and assets. These assets range from power plants to law enforcement systems to even parking lots.
In fact, efficient parking management, or smart parking, is an integral part of optimizing the transportation system of a city. This becomes all-the-more important as the industry is rapidly moving towards autonomous cars. Several companies are experimenting in this vertical and one of them is the New York-based CloudParc.
CloudParc is a smart city platform with parking as its first use case. Its application is a fully automated plate by plate parking system that applies machine learning with machine vision, deployed using commercial off-the-shelf IP video cameras and cloud computing. Speaking to asmag.com, Mike Critelli, CEO of the company elaborated on their solution.
“Currently, there are many great evolutionary parking solutions and we still have meters and meter readers and consumers working hard to make a payment and then to avoid tickets while municipalities struggle and fight for parking revenues,” Critelli said. “With CloudParc, the consumer can park quickly and go, paying for exactly what they use to the minute. The municipality collects what it deserves. Convenience and cash, total win-win.”
What makes an efficient parking solution?
CloudParc has a patented smart city platform that relies on a unique machine vision system, enabled by machine learning and enhanced by artificial intelligence, that, when deployed on streets or off-street venues, recognizes, identifies and continuously tracks moving objects in the system’s field of vision. It can also apply rules for a wide range of smart city use cases, including traffic management and monitoring, security and law enforcement, municipal services performance monitoring and quality of life management.
“Beyond the company’s patents, the platform has been developed to enable highly reliable vehicle, pedestrian, and bicyclists tracking for parking and traffic management use cases,” Critelli said. “The ability to track a vehicle continuously across multiple cameras and processors and to communicate information in real time to any number of recipients is a highly valuable capability that will continue to be enhanced the longer the platform is deployed. While there are many machine vision and machine learning platforms developed for ground-level object recognition and management, CloudParc is the only platform to provide a broader above-the-street visioning and intelligence capability. The ability to extract data and perform automatic management and enforcement functions is unique and, because of our patent portfolio and our proprietary machine learning software, likely to remain unique and sustainable.”
What makes it even more interesting and sustainable is the degree to which it will provide extended vision for both current motorists and autonomous vehicles that need insights beyond what they have in their line of sight, such as hazards existing around corners or on the opposite side of uphill roads.
Factors that could drive demand for this
CloudParc’s solution enables parking management that offers motorists benefits such as detection of available parking spaces and automating payment via license plate. It offers benefits to authorities too, which include comprehensive, even-handed, auditable enforcement that can be matched to public sentiment.
“Through our all-in-one platform, traffic congestion and harmful emissions decline, motorist, bicyclist, pedestrian, and public safety improve, and municipalities gain far more real-time and precise insight on how to use on-street and off-street land for the most productive uses,” Critelli added. “Moreover, municipalities will capture far more revenue from parking management than they can from any other system.”
Critelli believes that what will ensure their success is their priority in focusing on public engagement and on the use of increased parking and enforcement revenues for greater and visible public benefits. What makes it even more interesting and sustainable is the degree to which it will provide extended vision for both current motorists and autonomous vehicles that need insights beyond what they have in their line of sight, such as hazards existing around corners or on the opposite side of uphill roads.
“Our ability to deploy our machine vision systems and communicate back to motorists will improve safety beyond anything available today,” Critelli said.