Researchers from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Malaysia (Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia) have developed a vision-based intelligent parking space detection system that could help motorists identify the free spaces in car parking lots.
To enable the system to automatically identify the location of the parking spaces, the researchers painted large filled-in circles on the floor of the parking lot in the center of the parking bays. This also enables the vision system to identify the presence or absence of a car.
After an RGB image of a parking bay with several parking spaces has been acquired by a camera, it is converted to a grey scale image. Next, a thresholding operation is performed to produce a binary image which is then enhanced to remove any noise and to trace the boundary of the objects that have been detected in the image.
Finally, the shapes of the objects in the images are calculated. From these, it can be deduced whether or not the brown circular object indicative of an empty parking space is present in the image.
The results can then be displayed on a graphical user interface as well as on an LCD panel as shown in the image above.
The researchers presented their work in the June issue of the International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology. A copy of an article on the subject can be found here.
Other articles from Vision System Design that you might also find of interest:
1. Vision system helps automate car park management
An automatic license-plate recognition system has been developed by Niaar (Dubai, UAE) for plate recognition at check-point gates in multi-story parking plazas.
2. Vision system monitors parking offenders
The City of Fredericksburg, VA, has improved the way it manages parking by adopting a vision-based, automated parking system known as autoChalk from Tannery Creek Systems.
3. Vision system monitors the transport of dangerous goods
Engineers at Survision (Rueil-Malmaison, France) have developed an imaging system that can help restrict the access of vehicles transporting dangerous goods in tunnels.
-- Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design
