Smart parking solution based on IOTA

To make the process of parking easier for businesses and for consumers a blockchain company has come up with a smart solution, based on a decentralized network and the use of a cryptocurrency.

For the busy business employees spending time finding parking spaces and then having to find a parking meter to pay (either in advance or on exit) wastes valuable time, especially when making deliveries or visiting clients. A smart parking solution aims to make this process easier.

According to Digital Journal, the smart parking solution comes from the company NetObjex (based at Newport Beach in the U.S.). The technology makes use of the IOTA decentralized network. IOTA is described as the ‘ledger of things’ and it enables devices can trade exact amounts of resources on-demand. The service also allows data to be captured and stored from sensors and dataloggers securely and to be verified via the ledger.

IOTA is described as decentralized because IOTA has no miners. This means each participant in the network that is making a transaction, actively participates in the consensus. As such, IOTA is probably, according to Baltic Data Science, more decentralized than any other blockchain.

The company NetObjex has worked with partner companies Advantech and PNI Sensor Corporation to create a system whereby drivers of vehicles (of even self-driving cars) to autonomously pay for parking through the integration of cryptocurrency wallets.

For this to happen, Smart2Zero reports, accurate sensors are required in vehicle parks. The developed smart parking solution males use of PNI’s PlacePod in-ground or surface-mounted smart parking sensors. These sensors provide real-time vehicle detection and also signal the location of available parking spaces.

The PlacePod sensors communicate with a cloud computing solution, sending signals via Advantech’s LoRa Solutions – M2.COM standardized LoRa IoT Sensor Node WISE-1510 and LoRa IoT Gateway WISE-3610.

The vehicle to sensor communication is achieved via Bluetooth Low Energy wireless communication. This is a short term solution, with digital short range communication equipment penciled in for the longer time.

With all of this technological communication, IOTA’s decentralized network allows for device discovery, authentication, communication, and transactions. The set-up indicates another step in the digital transformation of the transportation sector.