Auto Park

Auto Park

Goats

Computer Systems Technology - Software Development and Network Engineering

12/08/2020

Auto Park is an application developed for improving the current parking procedures available today. The benefits of this application are vast and will help in automating yet another tedious task. The way the application works at its core is by using image recognition techniques with a 98% accuracy to simplify and automate parking procedures. The goal of this application was to provide our customers, the business owners, a way to control their business operation and become able to view the current business operational status.

Currently we have 3 applications working concurrently to provide full functionality for our application. The main application that is integral to our application is the core application, responsible for recognizing the license plate of a car from a picture or even from a live video feed. After receiving the necessary data, the data is time stamped and stored in our cloud based real-time database. The second application developed is the user iOS application, which will be developed to provide the user a centralized application for users (drivers) to view their parking history as well as pay off unsettled bills. The third application completing our whole application is the web portal. The web portal has separate functionality based on which user is logged in currently.

We created an admin portal for us to have a basic overview of how the application is running as well as a point of access to changing user information if our iOS users are struggling with any account changes. The web portal also has a business owner portal for the owner of the parking garage or lot. On this portal the business owner will be able to control some features such as setting the hourly rate.

In the coming weeks, the application will enter the final testing phase and UI improvement phase. During these phases, we will be trying to test the application thoroughly to make sure there is no failure at any point. During the development phase, we implemented light testing on every feature available but during the final test, we well be stressing having graceful executions of all units. The final step will be improving the UI to make the application much more pleasing to the eye, as well as reconfigure the layout of the pages to make the features available to the users of our application straight forward.

When the group first came to fruition the original idea we came up with was a facial recognition application which was integrable to any web or mobile application as well as any security standalone systems. The plan for this application was to come up with a new algorithm to cross reference the stored image in our database with the image captured through the available camera on the secured device.

This application was meant to be developed through Java and using Tencent's image recognition api along with MySQL database. The application during the development phase, went rather smoothly but as worries of privacy issues and Tencent's bad press became too big to ignore, GOATS had to investigate other possibilities to use our time effectively on a project that wouldn't have as many problems. This is where Auto Park comes into play. Auto Park is the application we have currently been working on. Auto Park shares some similar traits with the initial application to make the development transition as smooth as possible. The new application was decided upon on September 2020, with new tools such as Google Firebase as database, iOS applications for the core application and user application but we resorted to sticking with the Java application when it came to develop the web Console. Since September, GOATS having a reduced timeline relative to the original plan, had to be diligent in their work and time use.

Realizing these newly added constraints on this project, we had to speed up the process by putting in more hours and having an open line of communication throughout the semester. At this point, we have been able to complete the core application, which is responsible for recognizing, time stamping and creating a record for the parking history based on the car. The user application is also completed, designed for simplicity and ease of access to its many features for our users to be able to view and pay their parking records as well as take track and make changes to their account and account status.

The web portal is all but done as well except for fine tuning the analytical functionality and beautifying the application. The team did an exceptional job of having an open line of communication and creating an application with a complex architecture with great efficiency. Within the next 2 weeks, the application will be complete and can be recognized as a finished product.

We are a group of very talented and responsible individuals that are very eager to make a difference in the world by leveraging our knowledge in technology. Our group consists of individuals who are very passionate in the field of technology with experience in database architecture, mobile computing, back-end and front-end web development. We have utilized the skills we have acquired and expanded on them by combining new tools and techniques to develop an application that meets the necessities of a real-world environment application.

Since the formation of the group, the team has been dedicated in working together efficiently, to create AutoPark, an innovative, easy to use application. The team members were able to deliver on their respective parts in the development aspect. When it came to communication, the group was very adept at keeping a strong line of communication with consistent updates through slack. Due to the consistent line of communication, any issues that each member faced was dealt with utmost efficiency and great collaboration amongst the team members.