AN APP TO FIND A PARKING SPOT
Almost every driver knows what it’s like to drive around in circles to find a parking space, finally spot one, get ready to turn into it, and then discover that it’s a shopping cart corral. Or perhaps it’s occupied by a motorcycle.
According to a report from transportation specialist INRIX, Americans spend an average of 17 hours a year searching for a place to park at an estimated cost of $20.4 billion in wasted resources.
Thankfully, Sai Nikhil Reddy Mettupally, a master’s student in computer science at University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH), is working on a solution, developing an app that will help drivers find empty parking spots.
Unlike other parking apps that rely on expensive inground sensors, Mettupally’s would use technology that analyzes images collected through video surveillance cameras to detect which parking spots are empty.
Mettupally, whose research won second place in the graduate master’s division at the 2018 Science and Technology Open House in Alabama, hopes his app—dubbed InstaPark—will display the real-time grid layout of empty and occupied parking spots using a phone’s GPS.
“I’ll be happy,” he said, “if I can solve a problem that bothers a lot of people and help save their time and resources.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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