Analog Devices and Cambridge Consultants announced a cost-effective smart monitoring system that helps resolve parking inconveniences for drivers.

The innovative system unveiled this time monitors empty parking spaces on roadsides or in indoor parking lots without the need to build separate, expensive infrastructure, enabling drivers to easily find a parking space and park in a short amount of time. Using this system can significantly improve various parking-related problems.

For example, as soon as a driver enters a parking lot, they are assigned a parking space, allowing them to proceed directly to that space without having to search for an empty spot. Alternatively, customers wishing to shop at a specific store can request a desired parking space in advance. Furthermore, by combining data obtained from parking space recognition sensors with license plate recognition technology, drivers can be provided with automatic payment and parking location information services.

This newly launched smart system is built on Analog Devices’ award-winning Blackfin® Low Power Imaging Platform (BLIP). BLIP is a low-cost, low-power embedded computer vision platform designed for a wide range of real-time sensing applications. Using highly sophisticated algorithms designed by Cambridge Consultants, BLIP can visually detect occupied or empty parking spaces. This represents a significant advancement compared to other solutions that require the costly task of excavating roads and parking lots to install individual sensors in each parking space.



Michael Murray, General Manager of Industrial IoT and Sensing at Analog Devices, said, “Through the BLIP platform, Analog Devices has been able to make a significant contribution to the rapidly emerging IoT sector, such as smart buildings and cities, which are undergoing a rapid transition from passive to real-time smart sensing nodes.”

In addition, stating, “I am very pleased to be working on this project in collaboration with Cambridge Consultants,” he added, “Thanks to Cambridge Consultants’ world-class expertise in developing complex algorithms, we were able to develop a unique solution in the application domain using algorithm-based BLIP to resolve parking inconveniences, which have been a major source of dissatisfaction for drivers worldwide.”

According to regularly published parking surveys, it can take up to 20 minutes to find a parking space, and as a result, on average, a driver wastes thousands of hours over their lifetime searching for a parking space. This exacerbates not only environmental pollution but also road congestion, along with the economic loss of wasted time.

“Our proprietary smart system utilizes machine vision to determine the occupancy of each space without the need for expensive infrastructure,” said Dipak Raval, Commercial Director at Cambridge Consultants. “This is an excellent example of how machine vision technology can provide a cost-effective way to monitor occupancy across a wide area, as cameras can ‘see’ multiple zones.”

He continued, “Based on our deep expertise in algorithm development, we have ensured that the technology operates correctly without errors for cars, trucks, and motorcycles of different sizes under various lighting conditions,” and added, “For example, it prevents the parking space from being mistakenly recognized as being in use when a pedestrian is standing in the parking space or a shopping cart is placed there.”