The item of interest that you should note is the beam with read beacons stretching down the length of parked cars. By the time my brother had parked the car beneath one of these I already knew just fantastic they were. These were the heart and soul of the coolest thing yet to hit parking areas since yellow paint.
These are simple sensors that somehow tell if a parking spot is occupied or not. If the spot if filled they turn red, if it is available they turn green. If this is all they did their usefulness would be immense. As you drive by rows and rows of parked cars a glance at the lights would tell you if any spot was open. No more surprises when the spot between two SUVs which looked open is found to house a 1985 Civic.
It gets better though. At nearly every junction in the parking garage is an LED display indicating how many open spots are available down a given path. It even breaks it down by handicapped and non-handicapped spots. To park your car you find a floor on the parking garage that says it has spots available, find a row with an open spot, and look for a green light. It worked brilliantly for us by pointing the way to the closest open spot on level.
And, actually, I lied about this being the best thing since yellow paint. The very same garage implemented something else not near as cool but also very useful a few years ago. Instead of taking your parking ticket at paying at a "toll booth" on your way out of the airport, they installed ATM-style payment kiosks throughout the parking garage that allow you to pay for parking before you even get in your car. This effectively adds dozens of additional payment points and greatly speeds up the payment process. Brilliant!
