How parking zone occupancy is calculated

As Sharp cameras detect vehicles entering and exiting a parking zone, the AutoVu™ Free-Flow system calculates the occupancy of the parking zone. You can then display this information in Security Desk Monitoring task tiles.

Event	Vehicle count
Vehicle enters This can include vehicles with: Accurate license plate reads License plates that are not read correctly NOPLATE reads License plates that were not captured when exiting the parking zone, and are now reentering the parking zone	Parking zone occupancy increases by one.
Vehicle exits This can include vehicles with: Accurate license plate reads License plates that are not read correctly NOPLATE reads Unknown vehicle exited (indicating that the exit read does not match the entry read)	Parking zone occupancy decreases by one.
Inventory reset You can reset the inventory of a parking zone using the Reset parking zone inventory action. This action can be triggered by either a hot action or a scheduled task. For more information on hot actions, see the Security Center User Guide.	Parking zone occupancy reset to zero.

Event

Vehicle count

Vehicle enters

This can include vehicles with:

Accurate license plate reads
License plates that are not read correctly
NOPLATE reads
License plates that were not captured when exiting the parking zone, and are now reentering the parking zone

Parking zone occupancy increases by one.

Vehicle exits

This can include vehicles with:

Accurate license plate reads
License plates that are not read correctly
NOPLATE reads
Unknown vehicle exited (indicating that the exit read does not match the entry read)

Parking zone occupancy decreases by one.

Inventory reset

You can reset the inventory of a parking zone using the Reset parking zone inventory action. This action can be triggered by either a hot action or a scheduled task. For more information on hot actions, see the Security Center User Guide.

Parking zone occupancy reset to zero.

NOTE: If a parking session is closed because the maximum session time has been exceeded, there is no change to the parking zone occupancy count.

How editing plate reads affects parking sessions and parking zone occupancy

Editing an entry plate read:
- If you edit the entry plate read for a vehicle that has an active parking session, the parking session is updated with the correct plate number. In this case, the parking zone's occupancy is not affected. If the system uses Pay-by-Plate Sync parking permits, the parking session's paid time, violation, or grace period state is reevaluated with Pay-by-Plate Sync.
- If a vehicle's plate is misread when it enters the parking zone, a parking session is created and the parking zone's occupancy is increased. In this case, you must edit the entry plate read before the vehicle leaves the parking zone or before the parking session exceeds the maximum session time because at this point, the session is closed and editing the plate read does not update the parking session. However, this situation does not affect occupancy. When the vehicle's license plate is read correctly at the parking zone exit, the vehicle will be flagged as an unknown vehicle and the parking zone's occupancy is reduced.
- If the entry read is a NOPLATE read, the vehicle is included in the occupancy of the parking zone, but a parking session is not created. Editing the read creates a parking session for the vehicle and the permit is evaluated based on the entry time of the vehicle.

Editing an exit plate read:
- If you edit an exit plate read that matches the plate number of an active parking session, the system closes the session and the parking zone's occupancy is updated accordingly.
- When a NOPLATE read is generated at the exit of a parking zone, the occupancy count for that zone is reduced. If that event is edited to a plate number that matches that of an active session in the parking zone, then the parking session is closed because we know that NOPLATE read is the same vehicle.