Airport Parking System
Controlling swapped tickets, abuse of lost ticket policies and stolen vehicle detection can be real problems for the airport parking management team. Identifying the license plate number and the make and model of the vehicle at entry and comparing it to the license plate number and vehicle make and model encountered at the exit gate is one reliable way of preventing such crimes. A lost ticket no longer prevents an accurate accounting of the length of time a vehicle has been in the parking inventory as the system captures the license plate number and correlates the image of the vehicle at the exit point to find when that vehicle entered the premises. Make and model and license plate matching allow for the detection of license plate swapping and provide a signficant deterrent to the stealing of vehicles from the parking lot.
Integrating license plate recognition and make and model correlation into a airport parking revenue system allows for revenue to be associated with a vehicle, and not with a ticket,which may be lost or swapped. It has been estimated that up to 15% of parking revenue is lost on an annual basis due to ticket fraud. Maintaining vehicle and plate images, along with their time and date stamps, allows for accurate resolution of ticket discrepancies such as these…resulting in improved customer service levels and prevention of lost revenue.
The Transport Data Systems concept for the airport parking lot uses the latest developments in make and model identification and license plate capture. The ability to accurately determine the make and model of the vehicle and to simultaneously capture and OCR high resolution video images of the front and rear of the vehicle provides the airport parking lot owner with the ability to correlate entering and exiting vehicles to an accuracy greater than 98%. This allows the removal of the ticket machines in manual lanes and the use of automated lanes for AVI tag processing. This translates into the ability to significantly reduce vehicle theft and provide for complete license plate inventory using highly automated means, thereby removing the need for daily vehicle inventory management. This application of recently developed video processing techniques along with today's very high speed processors has made this application viable and affordable, especially in light of the reduction in the number of personnel required to operate the parking lot. The system pays for itself in a relatively short period of time.
The LPR systems can be deployed to screen all vehicles entering an airport. The system identifies each vehicle entering the airport over multiple separate traffic lanes, and cross-checks the license plate number with security databases. Results are provided in real time and transferred immediately to security personnel.
Operational Concept
A vehicle approaches an unmanned entry lane. The entry lane is equipped with front and rear cameras. It may also have a badge/card reader for reading passes and an AVI reader for reading AVI tags. As the vehicle enters the lot, front and rear images are captured. A record is prepared and sent to the central server. The record includes the ticket number and the captured images.
At the central location the front and rear images are passed through an optical character recogntion application to retrieve the license plate and insert it into the data record. At the same time the make and model of the vehicle is determined and added to the record. A portion of the record containing the license plate number and the make and model is sent to all exit lanes for high speed retrieval during the exit process.
Some time later the vehicle prepares to leave the lot. The exit lane is equipped with front and rear image capture cameras. It may also have an AVI reader for reading AVI tags. As it approaches the exit booth front and rear images of the vehicle are captured.
Case 1 - Vehicle Has An AVI Tag
When the AVI reader detects an AVI tag the tag number is used to access the local database and retrieve the appropriate vehicle record. The entry and exit make and model determinations and the entry and exit license numbers are compared electronically.
Make and Model and License Plate Numbers Match - In the event the license plate numbers and the make and models match, the fare is collected and the exit gate is autmotically raised to allow for exit of the vehicle. The transaction including the AVI tag number is passed to the central server. A purge message is sent to all exit lanes eliminating the appropriate record from the exit lane controllers.
Make and Model and License Plate Numbers Do Not Match - In the event license plate numbers and/or the make and models do not match, the lane controller notifies the central server that a vehicle mismatch has occured. A security officer is immediately notified of the mismatch and the pictures of the image are forwarded. This allows the security officer to immediately determine if the exiting vehicle is in fact different from the one which entered with the tag.
Visual Match - If they are the same, he indicates to the lane controller that the image is acceptable. The collector then collects the fare. The lane controller sends a transaction to the central server. The transaction includes the new profile and the new image that was taken at the exit location. The entry and exit transactions are mated and stored together for later review by the Authority.
Images Do Not Match - If the vehicles are different, the collector creates an alarm to appropriate security personnel indicating that a theft may be in progress. The collector goes ahead and collects the fare. The lane controller sends a transaction to the central server. The transaction includes the new images that was taken at the exit location. The entry and exit transactions are mated and stored together for later review by the Authority.
Case 2 - Customer Does Not Have A Ticket
In the event the patron does not have a ticket, the operator views the exit lane image and determines the license plate. The operator loads the license plate into the machine and requests a search for the license plate. When the license plate is located, the central server sends a response back to the lane controller with the ticket number and the image captured during entry. The lane controller does a comparison of the profiles of the vehicle and confirms that the vehicle did in fact enter with that ticket.
Make and Model Match - In the event the make and models match, the fare is collected. The vehicle passes out of the lot. The transaction including the ticket number is passed to the central server. The central server deletes the appropriate database record including the ticket number, make and model and image. A purge message is sent to all exit lanes eliminating the appropriate record from the exit lane controllers.
Profiles Do Not Match - In the event the make and model does not match, the lane controller queries the central server and retrieves the image that was captured upon entry. The collector compares the retrieved image with the vehicle to determine if the vehicle is in fact different from the one which entered with the ticket.
Make and Model Match - If they are the same, he indicates to the lane controller that the image is acceptable. He then collects the fare. The lane controller sends a transaction to the central server. The transaction includes the new profile and the new image that was taken at the exit location. The entry and exit transactions are mated and stored together for later review by the Authority.
Make and Model Do Not Match - If the vehicles are different, the collector creates an alarm to appropriate security personnel indicating that a theft may be in progress. The collector goes ahead and collects the fare. The lane controller sends a transaction to the central server. The transaction includes the new make and model and the new image that was taken at the exit location. The entry and exit transactions are mated and stored together for later review by the Authority,
Advantages
The advantages of this approach stem from the fact that the make and model and ticket and image must all match up. It is possible to change license plates on a vehicle but it is very difficult to change the make and model. Furthermore it eliminates the requirement for collectors on entry which maintaining a very secure system.
This system can be constructed using standard AVI technology that is readily available from a number of different ticket equipment suppliers. The TDS approach interfaces with the AVI reader to provide the parking lot owner/operator with the profiling and image recognition techniques.
The central processing system integrates the tag information with the make and model and images to provide a completely integrated parking lot control system.
The system can be readily associated with tickets and/or card systems as well. A similar operational concept can be applied using the ticket number or the card number in place of the tag number. Furthermore the inclusion of ticket technology can provide yet another layer of protection for the parking lot operator.
The manual and time-consuming process of taking vehicle inventories is a thing of the past with TDS Portable ALPR products. While simply driving through the parking area, a portable ALPR system can capture all vehicle make and model and license plate information as well as time and date stamps, and location. Automating this process allows for improved asset utilization, reduced cost, and greater accuracy of data.