"Sensors, screens direct cars to Sea-Tac parking"

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sensors, screens direct cars to airport parking
The Associated Press 


SEATTLE - A project to enable the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
garage to direct travelers to open spaces yielded an unusual solution - at
least as far as parking garage technology goes. 

Facing a tight budget, the Sea-Tac team found that the two most popular
systems for counting vacant spaces were too expensive. At Portland
International, for example, each parking space is equipped with an
ultrasonic detector that knows if the space is occupied. 

Albert Shen, the consultant who managed the technology retrofit for Sea-Tac,
said Portland's system would cost $1,100 per space, or $9.5 million for
Sea-Tac's 8,500 long-term parking spots. 

The other widely used system relies on copper wires embedded in the floor to
sense and count cars as they enter and leave. That system, used at
Dallas-Fort Worth, was also too pricey, though Shen did not provide a
figure. 

So Sea-Tac, which is operated by the Port of Seattle, decided to design its
own system based on software the port already used for surveillance and
security. In less than 18 months, a software engineer and a small army of IT
workers built what Shen says is the first video analysis-based space count
system. 

Shen said it's possible that Sea-Tac would license its system, which the
airport hopes will cut down on parking-garage rage and carbon emissions. 

It uses 88 cameras throughout the garage. Software analyzes the video feeds,
detects moving cars and keeps track of how many cars are parked in each
section. Signs at entrances that tell drivers how many spaces are available
in each section on each floor are updated frequently. 

The cameras aren't positioned to capture license plate numbers or serve any
security purpose, and the airport doesn't keep the footage, said Sea-Tac
spokesman Perry Cooper. 

Sea-Tac's approach isn't as precise as a space-by-space tally, and its
accuracy still depends on a great deal of human intervention because garage
workers must count the cars parked in each section each night and update the
system. 

But the price was right - $400 per space, or $3.4 million, Shen estimated. 

The Seattle area airport garage was built in chunks over 30 years. Other
airports with older garages are keeping an eye on how well this system
works, as they, too, face high costs to update their facilities. 

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