Patent ID: 8302847

Claim:
A system for monitoring the parking status of vehicles, the system comprising: a plurality of wireless identification tags, each tag having a unique tag identifier, wherein each of the tags is associated with a selected vehicle; a portable handheld scanner to be used by a parking monitor, the portable scanner having a processor executing instructions thereon, the portable handheld scanner having a first communication device capable of reading a wireless identification tag of a selected vehicle located in relatively close proximity over a wireless link, the portable handheld scanner having a second communication device capable of communicating remotely over a wireless local area network: a portable wireless access point providing a third communications device in communication with the handheld scanner to transmit information about vehicle parking status over a wireless wide area network in real time; and a server having a database with fields for each of the selected vehicles including the tag identifier, vehicle information and vehicle owner, wherein the server communicates with the portable handheld scanner over the wireless wide area network to communicate data related to vehicle parking status.