KIMbird is a smart parking system developed by Kim-Thorben Bulik, Mikael Persson, Nico Platen and Nina Larsson during the 2014 Summer University at the Mid Sweden Univeristy.
Its main function is to help drivers find a parking spot quick and easy, thus reduce congestion and improve the air quality in cities.
The system consists of two parts. The first one is the sensor system that detects which parking spots are occupied and which ones re free.
The camera-based sensor is attached to lamp posts, buildings etc. and each module is able to monitor up to five parking spots using stereoscopic cameras. We decided on the camera system since it would be the cheapest and most reliable one to implement. You don't have to rebuild a lot of parking lots to put sensors in the ground, you just put the camera module on existing lamp posts and buildings. Since they're located above the ground they won't get plown away during the winter or become affected by smow lying on the gound.
The sensors sends data to a database which keeps tabs on where in the city there are free parking spots.
The contents of a camera module
Stereoscopig measurements of the cars' locations
Communications in the monitoring system
The second part of the system is the app which lets users find a free spot quick and easy. It has built in gps functons that guides the user to either the closest free spot to their current location or the closest one to a pre-defined goal.
Main screen, user friendly and easy to understand.
Destination screen - if you know where you want to go and just want to find a free parking spot as close as possible to that location
The navigation map that guides you to your desired parking spot
Slide fron the right to pull out a map of your vicinity with all the available parking lots
The overview map with color coded pins showing how many parking spots that are available in each lot or structure
Settings page - if you need to change anything
