Smart parking: Parking occupancy monitoring and visualization system for smart cities

Parking space is becoming a serious problem due to the day-by-day increase in number of vehicles on the road. Particularly, in cities with large population, or in places where sports or artistic events are scheduled, looking for parking space is a major problem and finding a parking spot can be a frustrating experience. In order to combat this problem, some parking lots have introduced sensors to detect when a car enters or leaves a parking lot in order to track capacity and alert drivers if they are full. This is a partial solution that allows drivers to determine if a parking lot has open parking spots, but not the exact location of those spots. In this paper, we present a prototype of smart parking system using wireless sensor technology and networks. Using a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), parking spot statuses (occupied or idle) are detected and transmitted to a database. This information then be accessed by users through website or mobile app (application) to receive real-time updates. This system should provide users with near instantaneous updates of available parking spots while the WSN allows for flexibility of sensor placement. With the successful implementation of smart parking, the economical and time costs associated with traffic jams, cost associated with wasted gas fuel, and time looking for an empty parking space that are caused by inefficient parking will be significant reduced.