JP2013089158A - Parking state notification device by notation recognition - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a parking state notification device that does not require detection of a physical direction in which a camera is photographing.SOLUTION: A parking state notification device comprises: a video signal receiving section 12 that receives video signals from a camera 2 photographing parking block numbers 41-48 which are hidden by parked vehicles; a notation recognizing section 13 that recognizes the parking block numbers photographed by the camera 2, from the received video signals; a control section 10 that determines a parking state of each parking block from the state of the recognized parking block number; and an information transmitting section 15 that transmits information related to the parking state to a display device 3 or a predetermined destination.

Description

  The present invention relates to a parking status notification device for notifying a parking status related to whether or not a vehicle is parked in each parking zone in a parking lot where there are a plurality of parking zones that are zones for each vehicle to be parked.

  In a parking lot with many parking lots, in order to detect an empty parking lot in the parking lot and notify the driver and the parking lot manager, all the parking lots are photographed from above the parking lot with a CCD camera etc., and image processing by computer There is a technique for detecting whether or not a vehicle is parked in each parking section using the technique (for example, Patent Document 1).

  The technique described in Patent Document 1 is a parking / parking vehicle determination method for performing parking / empty vehicle determination in the parking space by image processing from a video imaged by a camera that captures a plurality of parking spaces in the parking space. As specific video processing, a parking section video is divided, and a plurality of divided areas are selected by selecting a divided area where a parked vehicle image area and an area where a parking road surface is exposed exist. Relative luminance comparison is performed in the set area, and it is determined whether or not the vehicle is parked in the parking section according to the presence or absence of the area covered with the image of the parked vehicle.

  However, this technique determines whether or not the vehicle is parked in the parking area where the camera is facing by video processing, but it is not known by video processing which parking section is the determination. Therefore, it is assumed that the camera knows which parking area is being shot. When shooting multiple parking areas with a small number of cameras, the direction (angle) in which each camera is shooting is detected. However, it is necessary to process the detected camera direction and video processing in cooperation, and the processing is complicated. In addition, when installing the camera, it is troublesome to adjust the angle as a reference of the camera.

JP 2001-126192 A

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a parking condition notification device that does not require detection of the physical direction taken by a camera.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is a parking status notification device in a parking lot where there are a plurality of parking lots, each of which is a zone of a vehicle to be parked, and is displayed at a predetermined location of the parking lot. Video signal receiving means for receiving a video signal from one or more cameras that captures a character, number, or symbol that identifies the parking area, and a notation for recognizing the notation taken by the camera from the received video signal The own apparatus includes a recognition unit, a parking state determination unit that determines each parking state of the parking area according to the notation recognized by the notation recognition unit, and information related to the parking state determined by the parking state determination unit. A parking state notifying unit for notifying a display unit, a predetermined information display device, or a predetermined destination, and the notifying recognition unit recognizes the notation. The parked zone is determined that the vehicle is not parked in if the notation recognizing means and judging that the vehicle is in the parking stall if it does not recognize the notation is parked.

  According to the present invention, by analyzing the video signal, in addition to whether or not the vehicle is parked, the notation for identifying the parking area is recognized, so that it is unnecessary to detect the physical direction in which the camera is shooting. A status notification device can be provided.

  Thereby, it becomes easy to divert the camera etc. which are already installed for the camera which cooperates with this parking condition notification apparatus.

Internal block configuration diagram of the present invention device and an overall view of a parking lot Example of data stored in parking status storage unit 14 Operation flowchart of the device of the present invention

  Hereinafter, embodiments (examples) of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an internal block diagram of a device of the present invention and an overall view of a parking lot. 1 is a parking status notification device (hereinafter referred to as this device) according to the present invention, 2 is a camera, 3 is a display device, 4 is It is a parking lot group.

  The parking section group 4 is an example composed of parking sections for eight vehicles. In each parking section, parking section numbers 41 to 48 (notation 101 to 108) for identifying the parking section are displayed on the road.

  In addition, the description which identifies this parking area may be the description by a character and a symbol other than a number (number). The place to be described may be other than on the road (for example, bad or signboard), and the point is that it may be a positional relationship in which the notation is hidden from the direction of the camera 2 in a parked vehicle.

  When the vehicles 53 to 57 are parked in the parking spaces, the parking space numbers 43 to 47 (notation 103 to 107) are hidden by the vehicles 53 to 57 and become blind spots as viewed from the camera 2.

  The camera 2 captures all the parking sections from above by changing the angle or zooming the parking section 4 from above, and transmits the captured image to the apparatus 1. In the example of FIG. 1, parking section numbers 43 to 47 (notation 103 to 107) where the vehicles 53 to 57 are parked are hidden by the vehicles 53 to 57, so that the camera 2 has the parking section numbers 43 to 47. Certain notations (103-107) are not shown. The device 1 determines that the parking zone numbers 43 to 47 whose notation is not shown are parked.

  When there is one camera 2, the angle and zoom may be controlled by remote operation to scan the entire parking section group 4 spatially. Alternatively, a plurality of cameras 2 may be installed, and the entire parking section group 4 may be spatially divided so that each of the divided areas is photographed.

  The apparatus 1 includes a control unit 10, a camera control unit 11, a video signal receiving unit 12, a notation recognition unit 13, a parking status storage unit 14, an information transmission unit 15, a vehicle number recognition unit 16, and a contract vehicle registration unit 17. ing.

  The control unit 10 determines the parking situation from the information notified from the notation recognition unit 13 and the information stored in the parking situation storage unit 14 and controls the entire apparatus 1.

  The camera control unit 11 controls the camera 2. The video signal receiving unit 12 receives the video from the camera 2 and transfers the video signal to the notation recognition unit 13 and the vehicle recognition unit 16.

  The notation recognition unit 13 recognizes the parking section numbers 41 to 48 (notation is 101 to 108) based on the video signal from the video signal receiving unit 12, and notifies the control unit 10 of the recognition result.

  The vehicle number recognition unit 16 recognizes the vehicle number from the number plates 63 to 67 of the parked vehicle based on the video signal from the video signal reception unit 12 and notifies the control unit 10 of the recognition result.

  The parking status storage unit 14 stores the parking status of each parking zone of the parking zone group 4 notified from the control unit 10.

  In the contracted vehicle registration unit 17, the vehicle number of the vehicle with a monthly parking contract is registered corresponding to each parking section of the parking section group 4.

  The information transmission unit 15 transmits information related to the parking status of each parking section of the parking section group 4 notified from the control unit 10 to the display device 3. In addition, an alarm of parking contract violation is reported to a report destination (not shown).

  The display device 3 displays the availability of each parking area based on the information received from the information transmission unit 15. The display device 3 is, for example, a large liquid crystal display installed at the entrance of a parking lot, and the driver of the vehicle to be parked looks at this display content and confirms an empty parking section. The display device 3 may be integrated with the device 1.

  FIG. 2 is an example of data stored in the parking status storage unit 14, a column 141 is a parking section number, a column 142 is a type (monthly, hourly rental), a column 143 is a state (empty, parked), a column 144 indicates the vehicle number of the parked vehicle.

  In the example of FIG. 2, parking lot numbers 41 (notation is 101) to 43 (notation is 103) are monthly parking lots, and other parking lots are time rental parking lots. The vehicle number (Gunma 1234) of the vehicle parked in the monthly parking section number 43 (denoted 103) is stored in the column 144.

  When the vehicle number (Gunma 1234) is not the vehicle number registered in the contract vehicle registration unit 17, the control unit 10 reports an alarm to the report destination (for example, the management center) via the information transmission unit 15. To do. In FIG. 2, the vehicle numbers of vehicles parked in the time-rented parking area are not recognized, but the vehicle numbers of these vehicles may also be recognized and stored in the column 144.

  FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the apparatus 1. Hereinafter, the operation flow of the apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. This flow starts with the apparatus 1, the camera 2, and the display device 3 powered on (S300).

  The apparatus 1 controls the angle and zoom of the camera 2 via the camera control unit 11, and the video signal obtained by the camera 2 capturing all the parking section numbers 41 to 48 (notation is 101 to 108) of the parking section group 4. Received by the video signal receiving unit 12 (S310).

  The received video signal is transferred to the notation recognition unit 13, and the notation recognition unit 13 performs video processing on the transferred video signal and corresponds to any of the notations 101 to 108 corresponding to the parking section numbers 41 to 48. It is determined whether or not the data has been recognized (S320).

  For example, the recognition may be performed by performing pattern matching processing with image data (not shown) of the parking section numbers 41 to 48 registered in advance in the notation recognition unit 13 and extracting substantially matching notations. Good.

  In addition, a two-dimensional barcode identifying the parking section is written on the road surface in the vicinity of the notations 101 to 108 corresponding to the parking section numbers 41 to 48, and the video data obtained by photographing the two-dimensional barcode is analyzed. The code data corresponding to the parking section numbers 41 to 48 may be extracted.

  When the notation corresponding to any of the notations 101 to 108 corresponding to the parking lot numbers 41 to 48 is not recognized (S320, No), the device 1 determines that the vehicle is parked in all the parking lots, The fact that it is full is notified to a predetermined destination (for example, full indicator lamp) via the information transmitting unit 15 (S321), and the process proceeds to S360.

  When a notation corresponding to any of the notations 101 to 108 corresponding to the parking lot numbers 41 to 48 is recognized (S320, Yes), the parking state corresponding to the recognized notation is stored as empty in the parking status storage unit 14. At the same time, the presence / absence of a notation that is no longer recognized is determined (S323). If there is no notation that is no longer recognized (S323, No), the process proceeds to S360.

  If there is a notation that is no longer recognized (S323, Yes), the parking section corresponding to the notation that is no longer recognized is specified, and the section is stored in the parking state storage unit 14 as a parked state (S324). The identification of the parking section that is no longer recognized can be easily specified by checking the difference from the data stored in the parking state storage unit 14, for example.

  The contracted vehicle registration unit 17 is referred to, and if the type of the specified parking section is a time rental, that is, if it is not monthly (S330, No), the process proceeds to S360.

  If the type is monthly (S330, Yes), the vehicle number recognition unit 16 recognizes the vehicle number of the parked vehicle (S331). At this time, the camera control unit 11 may control the angle of the camera 2 to zoom up the license plate of the vehicle.

  Then, the control unit 10 refers to the contracted vehicle registration unit 17 and determines whether or not the vehicle number recognized by the vehicle number recognition unit 16 is a contracted vehicle (S340). If it is a contract vehicle (S340, Yes), it will progress to S360.

  If it is not a contract vehicle (S340, No), an alarm will be reported to the report destination (for example, management center) via the information transmission part 15 (S350).

  After performing the above process, the control part 10 transmits the present parking condition memorize | stored in the parking condition memory | storage part 14 to the display apparatus 3 (S360), returns to S310, and repeats the above operation | movement. The display device 3 displays the empty information based on the received data.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a character, number, or symbol notation that identifies a parking space displayed at a predetermined location of the parking space is read by the camera, and the video signal from the camera is processed to obtain a free space. Therefore, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to control the angle of the camera 2 with high accuracy.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the case where only one camera 2 is installed has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a plurality of cameras may be installed. In that case, there is no problem even if the shooting ranges of a plurality of cameras overlap.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the device 1 and the display device 3 have been described as separate devices, but they may be integrated.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Parking condition notification apparatus 2 ... Camera 3 ... Display apparatus 4 ... Parking division group 10 ... Control part 11 ... Camera control part 12 ... Video signal receiving part by this invention 13 ... Recognition recognition unit 14 ... Parking condition storage unit 15 ... Information transmission unit 16 ... Vehicle number recognition unit
17 ... Contracted vehicle registration unit 41, 42, 48 ... Parking section number 53,54,55,56,57 ... Parked vehicle 63,64,65,66,67 ... Number plate

Claims (3)

It is a parking status notification device in a parking lot where there are a plurality of parking sections which are sections for each vehicle to be parked,
From the received video signal, video signal receiving means for receiving a video signal from one or more cameras that capture characters, numbers or symbols used to identify the parking lot displayed at a predetermined location of the parking lot The notation recognition means for recognizing the notation taken by the camera, the parking situation determination means for judging each parking situation of the parking section according to the notation recognized by the notation recognition means, and the parking situation determination means A parking state notifying unit for notifying information related to the parking state to a display unit provided in the own device or a predetermined information display device or a predetermined destination;
The parking status determination means determines that the vehicle is not parked in the parking area when the notation recognition means recognizes the notation, and enters the parking area when the notation recognition means does not recognize the notation. Is a parking state notification device by notation recognition, characterized in that it is determined that the vehicle is parked. The parking status notification device according to claim 1,
A parking state notification device by notation recognition, further comprising vehicle number recognition means for recognizing a vehicle number indicated on a license plate of a parked vehicle from the received video signal. The parking status notification device according to claim 2,
The parking situation determination means starts the vehicle number recognition means when detecting a parking section that has changed from a state in which the vehicle is not parked to a parked state. apparatus.

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