To efficiently utilize available space, parking areas commonly consist of a plurality of parking floors. Such e.g., multi-story car parks, which may comprise merely a few up to a large number of parking floors, enable many vehicles to be parked simultaneously. Along with the plurality of parking floors, however, arises the problem of keeping track of on which floor a vehicle is situated, e.g., has been parked. Although with positioning systems it is possible to keep track of the horizontal positioning of the vehicle, in e.g., a digital map, it is difficult to distinguish between the different floors. Furthermore, it is not unusual that a driver simply forgets on which parking floor he or she parked, or even forgets to check the same before leaving the vehicle and subsequently the multistory car park.
US 2013/0297198, for instance, addresses a need to generate accurate indoor mapping data of for instance a building, and relates to generating indoor map data from devices having GPS and non-GPS sensors.
Moreover, US 2009/0312975 relates to a forward-looking altitude detector, and discloses an altitude dead reckoning system using a speedometer and a forward-looking accelerometer for measuring changes in altitude.
DE 10 2011 076 245, for instance, relates to locating a motorcar in a multi-story car park. A motorcar-side communication unit emits a pressure value, a portable user device detects pressure around the portable user device, and an evaluating device compares the pressure values. As the portable user device approaches the parking floor of the vehicle, the difference between the pressure values decreases.
Although DE 10 2011 076 245 enables for a user carrying the portable user device to locate his or her vehicle, however, pressure sensors are a necessity. Furthermore, there is no suggestion regarding how to keep track on which floor the vehicle is positioned.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds