ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,493,900, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to Pied Parker Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.).

"Image-based parking recognition and navigation" was invented by Gianni Rosas-Maxemin (Sacramento, Calif.), Robert Mazzola (Sacramento, Calif.), Francisco Sandoval (Sacramento, Calif.), Callam Poynter (Sacramento, Calif.) and Noah Kindler (Palo Alto, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Image-based parking recognition and navigation systems and methods are disclosed. An example method includes: obtaining camera data collected by the plurality of cameras, the image data identifying one or more parking locations; analyzing the camera data in accordance with o...