Using Emerging Technologies to Find a Geographic Parking Location in a Dynamic Environment

Abstract

GPS (Global Positioning System) has now-a-days become very popular because of the ease it provides to find the best and most easiest way to the destination of the user. The most widely used applications based on GPS that are available now are the map based navigation applications and the applications that help in tracking vehicles. This research explores ways to combine GPS technology and smart phone technology to solve the location identification problem. An instance of this problem is finding the location of a vacant parking space by a moving vehicle. Finding the information about the vacancy of a parking lot is an important issue because it involves the continuous monitoring of the parking lot in order to ensure the accuracy of the system. The user must be updated on a regular basis so that the user may not face any difficulty when he tries to find a vacant parking space. The location coordinates retrieved by the inbuilt GPS of the smart phone are based on the accuracy level set. Navigation applications always need the most accurate location coordinates for giving exact results.This thesis develops an iOS application based on the location co-ordinate values retrieved by the inbuilt GPS in order to find a vacant parking space in a very large parking lot. The thesis also tries to stabilize the location coordinates which may change depending on the weather conditions and wind direction in that particular area. The thesis does not involve any usage of sensors but only makes use of the location coordinates. The accuracy of the location coordinates is very important to ensure accurate updated information about the parking spots that are vacant when delivering the information to the user. The underlying idea is the availability of vacant parking spaces using signals sent by the smart phone and its inbuilt GPS.