Carwash queue management system with license plate recognition and method of operating the carwash queue management system

Abstract

A method of operating a carwash includes driving a vehicle to a point of sale station of the carwash, purchasing a carwash transaction, and taking a first picture of a license plate number of the vehicle after the completion of the purchase of the carwash transaction at the point of sale station. The license plate number is associated with the carwash transaction as a carwash ticket. The vehicle is then sent to a carwash queue disposed downstream of the point of sale station. The carwash ticket information is sent to a carwash tunnel. A second picture of the license plate number of the vehicle is taken right as it approaches the carwash tunnel. The license plate number is associated with the carwash ticket and the vehicle is washed according to a wash dictated by the carwash ticket.

Claims

1. A carwash, comprising: a point of sale station to be used by a carwash customer for purchasing a carwash transaction relating to a selected type of vehicle wash service; a first camera disposed upstream of said point of sale station for reading a license plate number of a vehicle, said first camera connected to said point of sale station and the license plate number being associated with the carwash transaction and the selected type of wash service; a carwash tunnel disposed downstream of said first camera and having a controller connected to at least one of said point of sale station or said first camera and receiving the license plate number and the carwash transaction; a vehicle queue disposed between said point of sale station and said carwash tunnel, the vehicle entering said vehicle queue after completing a transaction at said point of sale station, the vehicle proceeding in the vehicle queue in an untracked manner; and a second camera disposed upstream of said carwash tunnel, said second camera reading the license plate number of said vehicle at an end of said queue or in a region of an entrance to said carwash tunnel and forwarding the license plate number to said controller, said controller associating the license plate number taken by said second camera with the carwash transaction purchased and setting wash settings of said carwash tunnel to carry out the selected type of wash service.

2. The carwash according to claim 1, wherein said carwash tunnel washes the vehicle according to the carwash transaction.

3. The carwash according claim 1, wherein said point of sale station is one of a plurality of point of sale stations.

4. The carwash according claim 1, wherein: said carwash tunnel has a controller connected to said second camera and at least one of said point of sales station or said first camera; said controller receiving the carwash transaction and the license plate number from the point of sale station, said controller further receiving the license plate number from said second camera; and said controller configuring a washing queue of said carwash tunnel based on the license plate number and the carwash transaction.

5. The carwash according claim 1, wherein said first camera and said second camera each store license plate recognition software and identify license plates of photographed vehicles.

6. The carwash according claim 1, wherein said carwash tunnel having a presoak station, a washing station and a drying station, parameters of said presoak station, said washing station and said drying station are set based on the carwash transaction.

7. A method of operating a carwash, which comprises the steps of: driving a vehicle to a point of sale station of the carwash; purchasing a carwash transaction relating to selected carwash services at the point of sale station; reading a license plate number of the vehicle during the purchasing of the carwash transaction at the point of sale station; sending the license plate number and the carwash transaction to a controller of a carwash tunnel; combining the license plate number with the carwash transaction to form a carwash ticket; sending the vehicle to a vehicle queue disposed downstream of the point of sale station, wherein the vehicle proceeds through the queue in an untracked manner; reading the license plate number of the vehicle for a second time as the vehicle approaches an entrance to the carwash tunnel; associating the license plate number read for the second time with the carwash ticket; and the controller setting wash settings of the carwash tunnel to carry out washing of the vehicle according to a wash dictated by the carwash ticket.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the vehicle queue has a beginning, a middle and an end and the vehicle is only tracked once at the end of the vehicle queue or at an entrance to the carwash tunnel.

9. The method according to claim 7, which further comprises: providing a plurality of point of sale stations; and allowing vehicles to enter the vehicle queue in a random order from the point of sale stations and the vehicle being untracked until reaching a region immediately adjacent to the entrance of the carwash tunnel.

10. The method according to claim 7, which further comprises setting parameters of a presoak station, a washing station and a drying station all disposed in the carwash tunnel, the parameters being set are based on the carwash transaction.

11. A method of operating a carwash, which comprises the steps of: driving a vehicle to one of a plurality of point of sale stations of the carwash; purchasing a carwash transaction relating to selected carwash services at the one point of sale station; taking a first image of a license plate number of the vehicle during a purchasing of the carwash transaction at the one point of sale station via a first camera; associating the license plate number with the carwash transaction as a carwash ticket; sending the license plate number and the carwash transaction to controllers of a plurality of carwash tunnels; sending the vehicle to a vehicle queue disposed downstream of the one point of sale station, wherein the vehicle proceeds through the queue in an untracked manner; taking a second image of the license plate number of the vehicle as the vehicle approaches an entrance to one of the carwash tunnels via a second camera; associating the license plate number taken from the second image with the carwash ticket; and a corresponding controller setting wash settings of the one carwash tunnel to carry out washing of the vehicle according to a wash dictated by the carwash ticket in the one carwash tunnel.

12. The method according to claim 11, which further comprises allowing vehicles to enter the vehicle queue in a random order from the point of sale stations and the vehicles being untracked until reaching a region immediately adjacent to the entrance of an approaching carwash tunnel of the carwash tunnels.

13. The method according to claim 11, which further comprises setting parameters of a presoaking station, a washing station and a drying station all disposed in the one carwash tunnel, the parameters being set are based on the carwash transaction.

14. The method according to claim 11, which further comprising displaying in the one carwash tunnel the selected carwash services purchased in a visual manner to be observed by a customer entering the one carwash tunnel.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 is an illustration of a carwash with an entry point with multiple pay stations leading to a carwash tunnel and a tunnel queue camera for reading a license plate according to the invention;

(2) FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining a method according to the invention; and

(3) FIG. 3 is an illustration of a carwash tunnel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(4) Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown an automated carwash 1. As a vehicle 2 approaches the automated car wash 1, the vehicle 2 stops at a point of sale station or kiosk 3 where the customer enters desired carwash information and pays for his\her carwash. After the customer makes a purchase or wash redemption at a point of sale station 3, the vehicle's license plate number is processed and attached to a transaction upon purchase or redemption. The vehicle license plate number is processed by an entrance camera 4 associated with the point of sale station 3 (e.g. the license plate number is now associated with the desired carwash service that was purchased at the point of sale station 3). More specifically, the camera 4 which resides outside of the point of sale station 3 has a live feed, takes still images and has onboard or external technology that recognizes license plates number. The license plate number and the associated purchased wash information are then sent to a controller 11 of a carwash tunnel 6.

(5) After the purchase, an entry gate 5 is lifted and the vehicle 2 drives into a physical vehicle queue 9 disposed between the point of sale station 3 and a downstream carwash tunnel 6. The physical vehicle queue 9 is sequential, namely the first vehicle in is the first vehicle out. However, the vehicles can get out of order causing the possibility that the vehicles 2 get the wrong carwash. For instance, a vehicle may leave the carwash via a bypass 13 and not enter the carwash tunnel 6. In general, the vehicles 2 are funneled into a single file line with the vehicle 2 in the front entering the carwash tunnel 6 and receiving the next wash that is in a carwash queue of the controller 11 of the carwash tunnel 6. There may or may not be any gates present to assist in keeping vehicles 2 in the proper order.

(6) As the vehicle 2 travels to an entrance 7 of the carwash tunnel 6, a tunnel camera 8 will collect the image of the license plate once again, process the numbers and letters in the image with onboard and/or external license plate recognition technology, then reorder the carwash queue based on the license plate number so that it is ensured that each vehicle 2 in line gets the correct wash. The lanes and number of carwash tunnels 6 at the car wash location 1 may vary. However, as each vehicle 2 is about to enter a carwash tunnel 6, its license plate is read and the wash information is transferred to the controller 11 of the carwash tunnel 6 which sets the proper wash settings. Therefore, multiple vehicle queues 9 and multiple carwash tunnels 6 may be in operation at any given point and since the license plate dictates the wash formula (e.g. services), all vehicles 2 are properly washed with this simple method. In essence, the cameras 4, 8, the carwash controller 11 and the point of sale station 3 form a vehicle tracking system that automatically pairs the vehicle 2 with the vehicle washing selection choices. This automatic pairing of the vehicle 2 with the transaction information increases the number of vehicles 2 that can be washed in a given period of time by decreasing the number of vacant vehicle wash tunnels 6 and the number of vehicles 2 waiting in line.

(7) At this time we note that license plate recognition software can be incorporated into each of the cameras 4, 8 and the cameras 4, 8 can do the license plate recognition (e.g. the cameras have their own processors and memory for storing and executing the license plate recognition software). In the alternative, the cameras 4, 8 can forward the imaged license plates to the controller 11 which stores the license plate recognition software 12. In addition, the point of sale station 3 receives the initial license plate information and correlates this information with the selected wash criteria and sends it to the controller 11 of each carwash tunnel 6.

(8) What is unique about the use of license plate technology for organizing the queue is that each vehicle has a unique identifier that cannot be confused (e.g. no two vehicle license plates will be identical). In addition, the vehicle does not have to be continuously monitored as it progresses in the vehicle queue 9, rather it only need be identified at the initial point of sale station 3 and right before entry into the carwash tunnel 6. Therefore, only two cameras 4, 8 with access to license plate reading technology are necessary. The license plate information is sent to the point of sale station 3, which now combines the license plate information with the customer's wash order and the combined information is sent to the tunnel controller 11. In addition, the raw information can be directly sent to the tunnel controller 11 which can correlate the license information with the carwash information.

(9) In addition, to obtaining the license plate number, the date, time, camera, location, lane or queue position, type, brand, model and color information can be forwarded to the tunnel controller 11. The tunnel controller 11 sets up the carwash tunnel 6 for washing the vehicle 2 based on the type, brand and model information obtained by the cameras 4, 8 as an optional feature. In this manner the machinery of the carwash tunnel 6 can be preset to manage individual vehicles. For example, the process of washing a pickup truck is different from that of washing a small sedan.

(10) Throughout the application we refer to cameras 4, 8 as license plate readers. The application is not limited to camera-based license plate readers as sensors and scanners may also be used.

(11) FIG. 2 is a flow chart for further explaining the invention. At step 30 a customer enters the carwash site. At step 40, the customer makes a carwash purchase or redemption. At the entrance, the camera 4 takes a picture of the of the license plate number and software processes the license plate number and attaches the license plate number to the transaction containing the desired wash services. At step 50, the vehicle 2 is sent to the vehicle queue 9. At step 60 the vehicle 2 is funneled into a single line for the carwash tunnel 6. At step 70, the tunnel queue camera 8 takes a picture of the vehicle license plate number right before it enters the carwash tunnel 6. Based on the license plate number taken by the second camera 8, the associated carwash information is obtained and this information sets up the carwash tunnel 6 to perform the desired services purchased by the customer. At step 80, the carwash queue of the tunnel controller 11 is reordered based on the next approaching vehicle 2.

(12) As can be noted this system can work with one or more carwash tunnels 6 controlled by only one input area which may have one or a multiple of point of sale stations 3. In addition, vehicles 2 can be sent to a second carwash tunnel 10 and as the car enters the second carwash tunnel 10, its license plate is read and the correct carwash information is sent to the second carwash tunnel 10. In this manner a carwash may have multiple point of sale stations 3 and multiple carwash tunnels 6, 10.

(13) FIG. 3 shows a simplified carwash tunnel 6, 10. The carwash tunnel 6, 10 has a conveyor 20 for moving the vehicle 2 to various stations of the carwash tunnel 6, 10. The carwash tunnel 6, 10 has an entrance arch 21 lighted with the confirmation of the selected carwash transaction. Then follows a pre-soak and underbody wash station(s) 22. This is followed by a friction washing with tire brush and side rocker brush station 23. Then comes the wash arch 24 and a top brush pendulum 25. After this comes the blower station 26 and the buff-n-dry wraps 27. All of these stations 21-27 can be preconfigured based on the requested carwash transaction and the type and dimensions of an entering vehicle.