Abstract: Methods, systems and processor-readable media for identifying a vehicle for street parking management. An initial identification of one or more vehicles detected parked along a street can be generated based on one or more of a group of factors. The initial identification can be communicated to a user of the vehicle by transmitting an image indicative of the vehicle parked along the street (e.g., via a mobile communications device). An operation can then be implemented for requesting a confirmation or a non-confirmation as to whether the vehicle detected and displayed on the image is associated with the user. Upon confirmation, an operation can be implemented for identifying the at least one vehicle as the initial identification. Upon non-confirmation, an operation can be implemented to query to identify the vehicle associated with the user from among a group of vehicles displayed via the image.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring parking and identifying vehicles by monitoring a parking region based on video data of the parking region received from a video camera, detecting a parking event associated with a vehicle in the parking region, adjusting a view of the video camera based on the parking event, physically tracking the vehicle using the video camera, capturing an image of a license plate of the vehicle, and resuming monitoring the parking region after capturing the image of the license plate.

Abstract: A method for detecting parking occupancy includes receiving video data from a sequence of frames taken from an associated image capture device monitoring a parking area. The method includes determining at least one candidate region in the parking area. The method includes comparing a size of the candidate region to a size threshold. In response to size of the candidate region meeting and exceeding the size threshold, the method includes determining whether the candidate region includes one of at least one object and no objects. The method includes classifying at least one object in the candidate region as belonging to one of at least two vehicle-types. The method further includes providing vehicle occupancy information to a user.

Abstract: This disclosure provides a method and system to detect a predefined activity, e.g., vandalism, loitering, trespass, etc., associated with a parked vehicle. According to an exemplary embodiment, a method includes capturing video of a parking area and processing the video to detect vandalism and/or loitering with respect to a region of interest associated with the parked vehicle.

Abstract: A system for estimating parking occupancy includes a vehicle-detection device including an adjustable mast supporting an image capture device at a select height. The image capture device acquires video of a current parking area. A computer processor in communication with the image capture device is configured to receive the video data and define a region of interest in the video data. The processor is further configured to perform a spatial transform on the ROI to transform the ROI to a normalized geometric space. The processor is further configured to apply features of a detected object in the normalized geometric space to a vehicle classifier—previously trained with samples acquired from a normalized camera perspective similar to the normalized geometric space—and determine the occupancy of the current parking area using an output of the classifier.

Abstract: Hybrid methods, systems and processor-readable media for video and vision based access control for parking occupancy determination. One or more image frames of a parking area of interest can be acquired from among two or more regions of interest defined with respect to the parking area of interest. The regions of interest can be analyzed for motion detection or image content change detection. An image content classification operation can be performed with respect to a first region of interest among the regions of interest based on the result of the image content change detection. An object tracking operation can then be performed with respect to a second region of interest among the regions of interest if the result of the image content classification operation indicates a presence of one or more objects of interest within the parking area of interest.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a system and method for determining a pixel classification threshold for vehicle occupancy determination. An IR image of a moving vehicle is captured using a multi-band IR imaging system. A driver's face is detected using a face recognition algorithm. Multi-spectral information extracted from pixels identified as human tissue of the driver's face is used to determine a pixel classification threshold. This threshold is then used to facilitate a classification of pixels of a remainder of the IR image. Once pixels in the remainder of the image have been classified, a determination can be made whether the vehicle contains additional human occupants other than the driver. An authority is alerted in the instance where the vehicle is found to be traveling in a HOV/HOT lane requiring two or more human occupants and a determination has been made that the vehicle contains an insufficient number of human occupants.

Abstract: Provided is a method and system for efficient localization in still images. According to one exemplary method, a sliding window-based 2-D (Dimensional) space search is performed to detect a parked vehicle in a video frame acquired from a fixed parking occupancy video camera including a field of view associated with a parking region.

Abstract: What is disclosed is a system and method for selecting the optimal wavelength ban combination for a multi-band infrared camera system which is optimized for skin detection. An objective function is constructed specifically for this application from classified performance and the algorithm generates wavelengths by maximizing the objective function. A specific wavelength band combination is selected which maximizes the objective function. Also disclosed is a 3-band and 4-band camera system with filters each having a transmittance of one of a combination of wavelength bands optimized to detect skin in the infrared band. The camera systems disclosed herein find their intended uses in a wide array of vehicle occupancy detection systems and applications. Various embodiments are disclosed.

Abstract: A method and system for determining one or more dimension estimations for a vehicle. A sequence of image frames of a vehicle is received, and a digital representation of the vehicle is extracted from each image in the sequence of image frames. A bounding box is determined for the vehicle based upon the extracted digital representation for each digital representation of the vehicle and at least one dimension of the vehicle is estimated based upon the determined bounding box. An indication of the at least one estimated dimension is output. The indication of at least one estimated dimension is transferred as an input to a comparison technique for further processing the indication of the at least one estimated dimension. The comparison technique can include a parking determination process configured to determine a recommended spot for the vehicle based upon the indication of the at least one estimated dimension.

Abstract: A method and structure for estimating parking occupancy within an area of interest can include the use of at least two image capture devices and a processor (e.g., a computer) which form at least part of a network. A method for estimating the parking occupancy within the area of interest can include the use of vehicle entry and exit data from the area of interest, as well as an estimated transit time for vehicles transiting through the area of interest without parking.

Abstract: A method for training a vehicle detection system used in a street occupancy estimation of stationary vehicles. The method includes defining first and second areas on an image plane of an image capture device associated with monitoring for detection of vehicles. The method includes receiving video-data from a sequence of frames captured from the image capture device. The method includes determining candidate frames that include objects relevant to a classification task in the second area. The method includes extracting the objects from the candidate frames, extracting features of each extracted object, and assigning labels to the each extracted object. The method includes training at least one classifier using the labels and extracted features. The method includes using the at least one trained classifier to classify a stationary vehicle detected in the first area.

Abstract: A video-based vehicle headlight state monitoring method and system. A vehicle image can be captured by an image-capturing unit and converted to a grayscale image. The grayscale image can be processed to locate a front license plate and identify a position of a headlight region in front of the vehicle utilizing an algorithm. An average digital count with respect to brightness of the headlight region can be compared with average digital count with respect to brightness of several parts of the vehicle and a background region to determine the vehicle headlights ON/OFF status. The headlights can be considered ON if the digital count level of the headlight region is higher than the digital count of the several parts of the vehicle and the background region. A warning signal can be initiated to turn the headlights on during a special situation utilizing a signal generator.

Abstract: This disclosure provides vehicle detection methods and systems including irrelevant search window elimination and/or window score degradation. According to one exemplary embodiment, provided is a method of detecting one or more parked vehicles in a video frame, wherein candidate search windows are limited to one or more predefined window shapes. According to another exemplary embodiment, the method includes degrading a classification score of a candidate search window based on aspect ratio, window overlap area and/or a global maximal classification.

Abstract: Methods and systems for training a parked vehicle detector. Video data regarding one or more parking sites can be captured. Positive training samples can then be collected from the video data based on a combination of one or more automated computing methods and human-input auxiliary information. Additionally, negative training samples can be collected from the video data based on automated image analyses with respect to the captured video data. The positive training samples and the negative training samples can then be used to train, re-train or update one or more parked vehicle detectors with respect to the parking site(s) for use in managing parking at the parking site(s).

Abstract: A method for detecting a double-parked vehicle includes identifying a parking region in video data received from an image capture device monitoring the parking region. The method includes defining an enforcement region at least partially surrounding the parking region. The method includes detecting a stationary vehicle in the enforcement region. The method includes determining the occurrence of an event relative to the stationary vehicle. In response to the determined occurrence of the event, the method includes classifying the stationary vehicle as being one of double parked and not double parked.

Abstract: A time based parking management method, system and processor-readable media. A video-based parking occupancy detection unit can operate in association with an image-assisted parking kiosk to provide an automatic parking-time monitoring element. An image with respect to a vehicle parked onsite (e.g., parking lot, street side parking, etc.) can be captured via an image-capturing unit associated with the video-based parking occupancy detection unit and/or the image-assisted parking kiosk. The vehicle can be identified based on input provided to a GUI associated with the parking kiosk with said image displayed to initiate a parking session. A parking fee can be calculated based on the actual time parked and payment can be made by at least one payment mode after said parking session terminates.

Abstract: A method for determining parking availability includes receiving video data from a sequence of frames taken from an image capture device monitoring a parking area. The method includes detecting at least one object located in the parking area. The method includes determining boundaries of the parking area. The boundaries include at least an inner boundary relative to the image capture device and an outer boundary relative to the image capture device. The outer boundary is substantially parallel to the inner boundary. The method further includes computing a length of at least one of the object and a space between objects using an object pixel for each of the inner and outer boundaries. Using the computed length, The method includes determining a parking availability in the parking area. The method includes outputting a notice of the parking availability to a user.

Abstract: Parking occupancy detection methods, systems and processor-readable media. A laser device unit includes a laser range finder, and a programmable pan-tilt unit is deployable on site to monitor one or more parking spaces. A laser emitting and receiving unit associated with the laser range finder determines the distance of an object by estimating a time difference between an emitted laser and a received laser. The laser range finder is controllable by the programmable pan-tilt unit and scans the parking spaces. A signal-processing unit can convert the measured distance profile to a parking occupancy data to provide continuous parking space estimation data for use in parking occupancy detection.

Abstract: Methods, systems and processor-readable media for portable parking occupancy detection. One or more cameras can be provided on a portable mast for capturing video on parking of a street. Optional attachments to the portable mast can include stabilization base and/or a set of guy ropes for further stabilizing the mast. A power unit can be utilized for delivering power to the system. A video capturing/processing unit either captures and records the video from the camera(s) for offline processing of parking occupancy or processes the videos on-site. Optionally, a wireless communication unit for transmitting either video or processed parking occupancy data to a central location can be employed.