Preference-based smart parking system in a university campus

This study introduces the concept of space preferences to enhance the operation of recurrent-users car parking systems. On campus, at KFUPM, several parking buildings are available for students, employees, and faculty. Still, substantial amount of time is wasted just looking for a suitable parking space. The authors propose to enrol all users together with their top ranked preferred parking spots and pedestrian exit of choice. Upon presentation of the user ID card, the system retrieves their preferences, matches them to the updated database of vacant spots, then directs the user to their topmost vacant parking spot. The system directs the user to the nearest parking building if no vacancy. Two options have been evaluated to detect parking vacancies: one is based on ultrasonic sensors and the second uses a set of cameras. The sensor-based system was built around an Arduino platform paired with a wireless channel for communication. For the camera-based system, the authors introduce a new set of features mixing both edge and texture information from the parking spot images. A performance analysis of both systems was carried showing that the sensor-based implementation outperforms the camera-based one for the authors' specific application with an accuracy of 100 and 98%, respectively.