Method for Enabling Participating Members to Equitably and Efficiently Disseminate Parking Locating Information in a Timely Manner

Abstract

A method for distributing parking location information via a social platform to community members of the social platform to enable community members to acquire a parking spot, wherein a community of street parking motorists who alternately need or have parking spot information is created, community members simultaneously broadcast parking spot information (Beacons) and parking spot requests, where a single motorist who will soon be relinquishing his/her spot is matched to another motorist within a target radius who has requested a parking spot, and where a community member can monitor a dashboard that reflects real time matchmaking activity based on several factors including tier association, spot/profile alignment and queue entry order such that participating members can equitably and efficiently disseminate parking location information in a timely manner.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for distributing parking location information via a social platform to community members of the social platform to enable community members to acquire a parking spot, the method comprising:
 marking, by an informer from within the community members, a parking spot geographical location;   transmitting, by the informer, a beacon including information identifying the geographical location of the marked parking spot to a web server;   sending the transmitted beacon from the web server to a pairing engine, the beacon being placed in an offer queue within the pairing engine;   sending, by a parking spot seeker from within the community, a request for a parking spot to the web server;   sending the request for the parking spot from the web server to the pairing engine, the request for the parking spot being placed in a seeker queue;   evaluating, at the pairing engine, relevant parking spot seeker requests for parking spots with respect to beacons in the offer queue to identify matches to specific criteria within the beacons and specific criteria within the parking spot seeker requests;   sending an offer for the parking spot to the seeker from within the community when the request for a parking spot which matches the specific criterion is identified;   determining whether the parking spot seeker from within the community has accepted the offer for the parking space spot; and   sending from the pairing engine, via the web server, the geographical location of the accepted parking spot to the parking spot seeker from within the community if the parking spot seeker from within the community accepts the offer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 utilizing turn-by-turn instructions provided to the parking spot seeker from within the community based on the geographical location of the marked parking spot to travel to the accepted parking spot;   wherein the informer receives profile information associated with the parking spot seeker from within the community, the informer receiving real-time information associated with progress of the parking spot seeker from within the community.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the parking spot seeker from within the community is provided with a time period in which to arrive at the accepted parking spot. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 determining whether the parking spot seeker from within the community has arrived at the accepted parked spot based on a geographical location of the parking spot seeker from within the community matching the geographical location of the accepted parking spot prior to expiration of the time period in which to arrive at the accepted parking spot;   initiating a time delay; and   sending a notification indicating a successful transfer to the informer and the parking spot seeker from within the community.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 determining whether the parking spot seeker from within the community has arrived at the accepted parked spot based on a geographical location of the parking spot seeker from within the community matching the geographical location of the accepted parking spot prior to expiration of the time period in which to arrive at the accepted parking spot;   sending a query to the parking spot seeker from within the community if the parking spot seeker from within the community fails to arrive at the accepted parked spot prior to expiration of the time period in which to arrive at the accepted parking spot;   deleting the request from the seeker queue, deleting the beacon from the offer queue, and ending a parking spot acquisition if the parking spot seeker from within the community indicates a parking spot is no longer required; and   maintaining the request for the parking spot in the seeker queue and deleting the beacon from the offer queue, and ending the parking spot acquisition if the parking spot seeker from within the community indicates a parking spot is still required.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said marking the parking spot geographical location comprises creating a transaction record in the transaction data of the web server, said transaction record containing profile information and a vehicle location geographical coordinates of the informer which marked the parking spot. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the beacon comprises at least one of UserID information, a Global Unique ID (GUID), GeoCoordinates, a Current Date/Time Stamp, a Current Vehicle type, a Parking Spot type and a Spot Availability Estimate. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 issuing, by the informer, a tip-off to at least one parking spot seeker within the seeker queue at the pairing engine when a beacon is canceled.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the tip-off is issued to two parking spot seekers.
 maintaining the parking spot seeker in the seeker queue at an unchanged location in the seeker queue.