Monitoring Parking Space Availability

Multimodal Computing and Interaction

This project will improve the customer parking experience and utilization of available parking spaces by monitoring vehicles entering and leaving a parking area, and directing drivers to available parking spots through public displays or a smart phone app. The project initially will assess accuracy of different parking space monitoring approaches under different conditions (visibility, temperatures and precipitation), as well as establishing life-cycle costs, including estimates of maintenance expenses and durability of the sensors. To minimize requirements for installation of new wires, each sensor will wirelessly communicate with a base station to update the parking space occupancy information. We will concurrently build a system for displaying available parking spaces on a map and a navigational guidance app for smart-phones.