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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8131596 | Method and system of payment for parking using a smart device In a first embodiment, a location-aware payment system including: a smart device, the smart device including: a location sensing mechanism for detecting its location; an identification mechanism for identifying the smart device; and a wireless communication mechanis... | 03/06/2012 |
| 7424968 | Method and apparatus for public street parking using RF and RFID technology Method and apparatus for monitoring and regulating public street parking using RF and RFID technology including: tracking expired parking tickets and illegally parked vehicles and identifying parked vehicles using parking ticket from another location. The apparatus ... | 09/16/2008 |
| 7421413 | Delicate metering of computer usage A pay-per-use or metered-use computer uses a balance manager to monitor usage and update a value balance according to a first usage schedule when the computer is in active use. When the activity level of the computer is reduced below a threshold, the balance manager... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7382280 | Parking violation recording system and method A parking violation recording system capable of recording violations based on the location of a violating vehicle, is provided. The system includes at least one camera located on a mass transit vehicle, oriented so that it is capable of viewing a violating vehicle a... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7382278 | Parked vehicle location system A parked vehicle location system including a plurality of detectors, where each detector is operative to detect whether or not a vehicle is present in at least one of a plurality of parking spaces, and provide a notification characterizing the detection, and parking... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7321317 | Method for intelligent parking/pollution and surveillance control system The invention relates to systems to manage parking meters using mechanical, electrical and electromechanicals monitoring and transmitting devices. Such intelligent parking meters may be used for example to monitor pollution by idling vehicles, survey the area about ... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7237716 | Parking system for sending messages The present invention provides a parking system having a parking meter in close proximity to a corresponding parking bay in which a user's vehicle is able to be parked. A payment receiving means is further provided for receiving payment and thereafter establishing a... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7236085 | Lock with remotely activated lockout feature A method for controlling access to a storage unit owned by an owner, wherein a renter has access to the storage unit unless the owner receives the legal right to deny the renter access to the storage unit and decides to do so. In this method, the storage unit is sec... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7225070 | Parking guidance system for large vehicles A parking guidance system for large vehicles has a horizontal bar, a data collection assembly and a console unit. The horizontal bar is hollow and is mounted on the rear bumper, and houses the data collection assembly. The data collection assembly uses multiple ultr... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7198227 | Aircraft cargo locating system An aircraft cargo locating system determines the location and weight of aircraft cargo placed in unit loading devices. A wireless tag, such as an Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag is affixed to each of the loading devices. The system receives information fro... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7181426 | Method and systems for space reservation on parking lots with mechanisms for space auctioning, over-booking, reservation period extensions, and incentives Disclosed is a computer-driven reservation system for reserving spaces in a parking facility at an airport terminal. The reservation system comprises a central server, a database of locations and associated plurality of spaces, which may be reserved for customer use... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7171488 | Managing data delivery in a data communications network A method of managing network resources in a terminating node of an information delivery network can include receiving an inbound data container comprising a data item. The data container can specify a size of the data item and global positioning information for an o... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7162459 | Method and system for estimating weights of mailpieces A weight estimating system for estimating the weight of a mailpiece and a postage metering system including such a weight estimating system. The weight estimating system includes a measuring system, a diverter mechanism and a microprocessor system. The measuring sys... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7151998 | Navigation apparatus and navigation system A navigation apparatus includes a position detecting device for detecting a current position of an automotive vehicle, an operation mode setting device for setting whether or not an electronic toll collection system is utilized on a toll road, and a communication de... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7146345 | Parking barrier with accident event logging and self-diagnostic control system A parking area entrance or exit barrier includes a control system which receives inputs from various accessories associated with the operation of the barrier, and which provides control signals to the various accessories of the barrier. One of the accessories includ... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7139370 | Using hyperlinks to establish call sessions A communication system includes various terminals that are capable of establishing call sessions over a data network. Each of the terminals includes a display in which hyperlinks can be presented. User selection of the hyperlinks is communicated to one or more appli... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7114651 | Method for control of parked vehicles A method of controlling vehicles parked in a parking system. A user sends a user-specific code to a parking system computer via a mobile telephone system when beginning and terminating a parking period. The identity of the parking zone concerned is sent to the compu... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7110744 | Communication and proximity authorization systems A proximity service unit for providing at least one predetermined service for use with multiple types of wireless devices. The proximity service unit includes a multiple channel wireless transceiver, a proximity unit validation assembly, and a legacy activation unit... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7080051 | Internet download systems and methods providing software to internet computer users for local execution A customer computer connects to an online service provider by phone, Internet, or other telecommunications link. The link gives the customer access to additional processing and storage resources such as virtual storage, processing power and/or additional software or... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7029167 | Parking meter A parking meter includes a microcontroller and a timer coupled with a microcontroller. A mechanism for accepting payment by coin, credit card or both is coupled with the microcontroller for accepting payment for use of an associated parking space. The microcontrolle... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7014355 | Electronic parking meter system The field of the present invention is parking meters and more particularly to the use of electronically operated parking meters coupled with a sensor for positively sensing unobtrusively the presence or absence of a vehicle in a specified parking space controlled by... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6999825 | Locker system, locker controlling method, control center, and recording medium A user access the control center by a user terminal, and send a request for searching an available locker box in a desired area. The control center has database storing data representing which locker box is available. The control center searches the database for the... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6972698 | GPS e-marker Method and system for a satellite network data communication enabled electronic bookmarking device for bookmarking positional information of a desired location or locations in addition to bookmarking broadcast music clips over registered radio or television stations... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6965883 | Charging mechanism for multicasting An apparatus for calculating a cost of receiving multicast data from a multicast session. A multicast network includes at least one multicast service, each multicast service including at least one multicast session. The apparatus receives a request to establish a co... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6956845 | Integrated customer web station for web based call management A Web-based call routing management workstation application which allows authorized customers to control toll free routing and monitor call center status. An architecture including one or more web servers located in a firewalled demilitarized zone (DMZ) as communica... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6946974 | Web-based systems and methods for internet communication of substantially real-time parking data A parking system includes an internet-accessible Web server storing substantially real-time parking data associated with occupancy of a plurality of parking spaces. The parking data can be rendered by a display device running a browser application. The Web server tr... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6941286 | Method and apparatus for providing refunds in a postage metering system A method for facilitating refunds in a postage metering system includes the steps of receiving at a computer a request for a refund of a postage amount; using the computer for accessing a dispute account data base for identifying a dispute account associated with th... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6940392 | Method and apparatus for varying signals transmitted by a tag An apparatus (10, 240, 300) includes a signpost (11, 241-256, 322, 612, 623, 626-628, 652, 661, 682, 686, 703) which transmits signpost signals (24) that are received by a tag (12, 271-275, 301-316, 395-397, 616-618, 641-643, 653, 656-657, 66... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6938004 | Method of providing photofinishing credit A management system and method of assigning credit for unprintable images provided by a customer. When unprintable frames are submitted for processing, such as scanning, printing or storage, the method allows the photofinisher to keep track of the number of image su... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6934372 | System and method for accessing the internet on a per-time-unit basis A system and method for accessing the internet on a per-time basis, through an Internet service provider (ISP), includes an access station. Application software is provided to an electronic terminal, from which Internet access may be attempted. Upon initiation of th... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6928150 | Call charging notification An approach for providing charging information of a call established over a data network is disclosed. A communications system includes a user agent that initiates a call to another user agent according to an application layer protocol. The system also includes a ne... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6923368 | Automated system for filling in and delivering offence tickets A system for filling in and delivering offence tickets which includes a portable input device (12) provided to a police officer (10), an offence ticket which is a tamper-resistant, contact-free smart card (14) adapted to be presented in front of... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6911133 | Automated system for issuing and managing offence tickets The invention concerns a system for issuing and managing offence tickets comprising a portable input device provided to the policeman for recording therein data concerning the contravening vehicle, a ticket medium to be issued to the vehicle owner and adapted to be ... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6889899 | Vehicle parking system A parking system is disclosed which includes a parking meter (10) which has a transceiver (12) and (14) for transmitting and receiving information and which in one embodiment may comprise an over the air telephone, fixed land line telephone or t... | 05/10/2005 |
| RE38626 | Parking regulation enforcement system A video camera mounted on a parking enforcement patrol vehicle and connected to a computer near the operator. The system is driven along a patrol route where parked vehicles are governed by a posted time limit. The system enforces the local parking regulation by aut... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6791473 | Smart parking meter system A Smart Parking Meter System makes it possible to track whether or not a vehicle occupies parking meter stalls and whether or not the time has expired. The system uses a wireless communication protocol which may be of the type known under the trade mark “Bluetooth... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6771185 | Parking guidance and management system A parking guidance and management system. The system provides graphical information regarding the relative availability of parking spaces within a parking garage or other large facility. The system relies on a pair of sensors in each space which combine to provide h... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6750786 | Systems and methods for internet communication of parking lot information A parking system includes a wireless communications device capable of accessing a server over the Internet and a software application for receiving parking data transmitted over the Internet to the wireless communications device. The wireless communications device c... | 06/15/2004 |
| 6747575 | Parking meter smart housing with electronic memory The invention is directed to an electronic parking meter and a method of configuring an electronic parking meter. In addition to a meter housing and an electronic metering mechanism within the housing, the parking meter includes a memory positioned within the housin... | 06/08/2004 |
| 6686834 | Taxi meter having discriminating means for eliminating erroneous inputs A taxi meter system mounted on a taxicab for accurately computing a fare for a taxicab trip as function of time and distance is disclosed. The system provides discrimination means that eliminate the contribution to the fare that may otherwise be created b... | 02/03/2004 |