IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 04 Issue: 10 | Oct-2015, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 107 ANDROID APPLICATION FOR S-PARK SYSTEM Gaurav Kate, Kaustubh Dave 1 , Saprem Kulkarni 2 , R. B. Dhumale 3 Department of E & TC Engg., Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune, India. Abstract Finding a parking space in most metropolitan areas, during the rush hours, is difficult for drivers. The problem arises from not knowing where is the empty space; even if it is known, many vehicles may pursue very limited parking spaces to cause serious traffic congestion. In this project, a prototype of smart parking (S-Park) system is designed and implemented that allows drivers to effectively find and reserve the empty parking spaces using an android application connected to Internet. By periodically polling the parking status from the sensor networks deployed in parking lots, the reservation status is affected by the change of physical parking status. The drivers are allowed to access the server on their Android smartphones. The proposed smart parking policy has the potential to solve the problems of parking systems, as well as reduce traffic congestion caused by parking searching thus making the system two-way efficient, that is, cost wise and time wise. Key Words: Smart parking system, Android based application, Embedded server, One time password. --------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. INTRODUCTION Searching for the parking space in metropolitan areas is now becoming time consuming. Due to mismanagement in the parking space, it is difficult for drivers to find the parking slot which results more traffic congestion and air pollution by constantly wandering in certain area for available parking space. Many smart parking systems are trying to reduce such traffic congestion and improve convenience for drivers. There are some currently working parking guidance systems which obtain available parking space information from deployed sensors and provide it to drivers[5]. However, these systems are not helpful to guide the drivers to find the proper empty parking slot in the parking space. When available spaces are limited, and if more drivers are heading towards these spaces, it will cause severe congestion. Even though driver reaches the parking area, there are certain problems such as blind search [3] in finding the empty slots. It causes not only wastage of money but wastage of fuel also. To solve the this problem, techniques like buffered parking information sharing(BPIS) [3] are used. But determining the number of buffered spaces is difficult. If buffered spaces are low, there is problem of “multiple -cars- chase-single-space”. If buffer is large then efficient utilizations of parking slots is very low. There are some systems like smart parking service based on wireless sensor networks [1] which uses wireless sensors to effectively find the available parking space. But to use this system, additional hardware needs to be installed in the car which is not feasible. New Smart Parking System Based on Resource Allocation and Reservations [2] which has facility to reserve the parking slot for fixed amount of time. However, if the driver does not follow the timings as per reservation it causes inconvenience for others. The solution proposed in this project works as when user wants to park car at the parking, the user uses the Android application to check for available parking slots. The availability is updated by the server when the availability is checked by the user. If the slot is available, the user then enters the payment mode and payment details. These details are stored on the server and an OTP (One Time Password) is generated, which is given to the user after payment is verified. This OTP is then valid for a certain amount of time after which it expires. The user when reaches the parking, is required to enter the valid OTP and based on the current availability of the parking slots, the nearest available parking slot is allocated. The proposed solution provides an efficient method for providing parking space to the user as they are allotted specific and unique OTP (One Time Password) on successful booking of parking slots. This eliminates the need of human intervention at the parking lot, as the user simply needs to enter the OTP at the console provided at the entrance of the parking lot. Also the provided OTP remains valid for a pre-defined amount of time which eliminates the problem of the user booking the space and not showing up which can result in under utilization of the parking lot. 2. METHDOLOGY In the system, the server periodically sends signals to the sensor controller which checks for the availability using the proximity sensors installed at each of the parking spaces. Based on the statuses of these proximity sensors, the occupancy and availability is updated on the server and this status is then shown to the user whenever availability is checked on the android application. Now, when the user wants to book a parking space, and a space is available, payment method is chosen and payment details are entered by the user. On authentication of the payment details, a space is booked on the server and a One Time Password (OTP) is generated which is a unique identification for the user. That OTP is stored at both places, that is, at the user side (android application) and server side. Now when the user reaches the parking, the OTP is required to be entered on the console. This entered OTP is then verified with respect to correctness as well as time limit with the server and indicated to the user