Image Based Parking Lot Monitoring

SystemJoe Harkins

Monitoring available parking spaces benefits both RIT’s Parking Office as well as commuting students, faculty and staff.

This project is to create a proof of concept for a wide scale monitoring system using cameras and image processing.

The specific goal of the project is to use a single camera and image processing software to monitor the number of open spaces in a section of RIT’s F-Lot.

Project Overview

Customers:◦ Mark Smith –

mwspd21@rit.edu◦ Randy Vercauteren –

rpvcps@rit.edu

Stakeholders:◦ Mark Smith◦ Facilities

Management◦ Parking and

Transportation Office◦ Commuting

Students, Faculty and Staff

Customers and Stakeholders

Functional Decomposition

Customer Need Number

Importance

Customer Need Description

CN1 1 Involve multiple engineering disciplines

CN2 9 High Student Awareness

CN3 9 Accurately communicate number of open parking spaces

CN4 3 Be able to differentiate between different types of parking spaces

CN5 9 Operational in various light and weather conditions

CN6 1 Easily expandable if decision is made to deploy in all parking lots

CN7 1 Long operational lifeCN8 9 Able to cover entire parking lot

  Source Function Specification (metric) Unit of Measure

Marginal Value

Ideal Value

Comments

S1 CN7 System Number of Cameras #   1  

S2 CN5 System Operational Time time   8am-4pm  

S3 C1 System Cost $   500  

S4 CN4, CN1 System Differentiate between types of spaces

-   3  

S5 CN5 System Weatherproof -      

S6 CN5 System Operating Temperature Range

deg F   -20 - 100  

S7 CN1, CN6 System Able to mount to a variety of surfaces

-      

S8 CN8, CN1 System Combine images from multiple cameras

-      

S9 CN3, CN1 System Accuracy of open space detection

error   < 5%  

Customer Needs and Specifications

Single camera in a fixed position Single camera that swivels, taking a full

image at an interval between 10 and 30 seconds

Potential Concepts

Budget Estimate: ◦ Camera/Receiver: $200◦ Computer for processing: Old RIT computer? If not

$200◦ Cables/Wires: $50◦ Total: $450

Budget and Student Staffing

DisciplineHow

Many?Anticipated Skills Needed (concise descriptions)

EE 2

Circuit Design and Power Systems – For powering the camera and the display as well as power and data to and

from the processorAlgorithm Design – Create an algorithm to process the

image

ME 1Stress Analysis – Bracket/mounting for cameras

Thermodynamics – For processer to ensure adequate coolingStatistics – For the image analysis algorithm

CE 2

Digital Image Processing – Develop a way to obtain parking space data from the images

Device Programming – Programming for the processor and how it outputs into a usable data stream to be used by the

display

Questions?