International Business Machines Corporation
Finding available parking spaces using cognitive algorithms

Abstract:

A mobile computing device such as a smartphone is used to find a parking garage with available spaces for a motor vehicle. The smartphone has a navigation app which receives a destination and computes an estimated time of arrival to that destination. It then broadcasts a request to parking garages in the vicinity of the destination with the ETA. Parking service systems associated with those garages respond with predicted parking availability. A cognitive system analyzes the responses and provides optimal recommendations based on user preferences such as cost, distance and safety. The user selects one of the recommended garages, and the computing device sends a reservation to the selected garage. The navigation app provides first directions to the destination until the vehicle is proximate thereto, and then switches to directions to the garage. The cognitive system can analyze a history of user selections and updating the user's preferences.