Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Automatic Parking Payment Assistant |
Daniel Ahn Freddy Zhang Mehul Dugar |
Dean Biskup | design_document1.pdf final_paper1.pdf photo1.jpg photo2.jpg presentation1.pdf proposal1.pdf |
|
| Mehul Dugar, Freddy Zhang, Daniel Ahn (mdugar2, fz8, dka3) **Automatic Parking Payment Assistant** **Problem** - Parking lots, while serving an invaluable role to drivers globally, come with several shortcomings that can annoy customers. Something that annoyed us in particular is having to wait outside a parking lot while the single-file line of cars goes through the ticket booth at the entrance. While annoying for parking lot customers, this can also lead to traffic congestion on the roads that lead to the parking lot, meaning that non-customers who happen to frequent these roads are also delayed. Additionally, parking lot customers are frequently forced to pay for the time they spend looking for a parking space which is unfair if the parking lot is busy. **Solution** - Our solution is to introduce a parking lot system that is able to use cameras to scan license plates and time how long each car is parked. The cameras would be placed at the base of each parking space and would scan the opposite parking space. This would allow cars to enter the parking lot without collecting a ticket, significantly reducing the bottleneck at the entrance of the parking lot. We also plan to use a security bar to mark reserved parking spaces for further convenience. The solution consists of 4 main subsystems: the camera module, the IR sensor module, the security bar, and the central logger. **Solution Components** - 1. The camera module - used to scan the license plate. A camera will be needed with high enough resolution to scan a license plate at a far enough distance (~10-15 feet). An RF communication component is also needed to communicate with the central logger module. 2. The IR sensor module - used to detect if the car is still there. An IR sensor will be needed. 3. The security bar - an accessory to the parking sensor, used to mark and block reserved spots. A servo motor and a long, visible bar will be needed. 4. The central logger - A central computer used to log the car’s license plates and how long each license plate was parked for, in addition to marking reserved spaces to raise the security bar. A computer connected to an RF communication component will be needed. **Criteria for Success** - For this project to be successful, it must be able to accurately read a license plate to 100% accuracy and how long a car is parked to within a few minutes’ precision. The central logger must display this information in an intuitive way that allows for easy usage. The security bar must raise as soon as the central logger asks for it to be raised. For the project to be a success in terms of this project setting, we plan to build the project for a theoretical parking lot with just 2 spaces for a proof of concept. This means that we will need 2 of each module except for the central logger. |
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