Automatic parking lot occupancy computation using motion tracking

Nowadays it is very hard to find available spots in public parking lots and even harder at facilities such as universities and sports venues. A system that provides drivers with parking availability and parking lot occupancy will allow users find a parking space much easier and faster. This thesis presents a system for automatic parking lot occupancy computation using motion tracking. The use of computer vision techniques and low cost video sensors makes it possible to have an accurate system that allows drivers to find a parking spot. Video bitrate and quality reduction and its impact on performance were studied. It was concluded that high quality video is not necessary for the proposed algorithm to obtain accurate results. The results show that relatively inexpensive and low bandwidth networks can be used to develop large scale parking occupancy applications.