PARKING LOT DESIGNED FOR ABSENT-MINDED DRIVERS

[AussieMark]

Parking Lot Designed for Absent-Minded Drivers

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore company has a high-tech solution for absent-minded drivers who lose their cars in parking lots.
Stratech Systems Ltd has developed a parking lot surveillance system that pinpoints the location of a car after drivers key in their license plate number at a kiosk.

After punching in the number, a map appears on a screen indicating the zone and lot where the car is parked.

A display panel at the car park's entrance also gives directions to the nearest vacant spot.

"The system comprises intelligent software bundled with a camera surveillance system, which provides a security aspect as well," a Stratech spokesman told Reuters.

If someone loiters in the car park, he said, the system can be configured to alert security.

The price of the system ranges from around S$100 ($60) to S$400 per parking spot, depending on the number of features, Stratech said. To outfit a 300-lot car park, the bill could come to between S$30,000 ($17,420) and S$120,000 ($69,690).

The company also charges an annual maintenance fee of between 10 and 15 percent of the total cost of the project, the spokesman said.

Listed on Singapore's stock market, Stratech returned to the black with a S$4.02 million profit in the six months to June 30. It made a loss of S$25.9 million in the previous half-year.

Its shares were down half a cent at S$0.18 on Thursday morning. The stock has nearly tripled since the start of the year, outperforming the broader Straits Times Index which has gained only 25 percent in the same period.

[stormchazer]

Wouldn't this require them to read a map on the Kiosk? If they can't find their car, whose to say they can read the map.

[Amanzi]

Im famos for "loosing" my car, being pregnant has compounded the problem! I would love to punch in a number and be able to find my car...

I went to Sea-World, and literally could not find my car for over 3 hours! 90 heat, walking row by row... I would have given someone $100.00 if they could have found it for me... I eventually climbed up a light pole and did areial survaliance