CN111557024B

CN111557024B - Method for implementing toll lane toll charging for multi-lane roadway

Info

Publication number: CN111557024B
Application number: CN201880084631.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: J·A·博拉斯; W·D·盖斯特; R·卡里尔; J·E·博拉斯
Original assignee: Gotor Ltd
Current assignee: Gotor Ltd
Priority date: 2017-12-29
Filing date: 2018-12-31
Publication date: 2022-09-02
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-31
Also published as: CN111557024A

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for charging the toll of a toll lane for a multilane roadway. A position polygon is prescribed along the roadway and the parking space to facilitate determining a position of the vehicle relative to a feature associated with the position polygon. In one application, the position polygons are used to identify the exit and entrance of a dedicated toll lane along a roadway and to ensure proper ingress and egress of vehicles into and out of the toll lane.

Description

Method for implementing toll lane toll charging for multi-lane roadway

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application claims the benefit of provisional application No.62/611,973, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to toll and parking payment systems, and more particularly to using novel techniques to obtain high geographic positioning accuracy determinations for dynamically specified toll lanes and parking spaces for mobile payment.

Background

The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers in smart phones has revolutionized location-based services since the advent. However, there are such events: where positioning accuracy (or lack thereof) results in loss of life of personnel and cannot be used in certain applications; one of these applications is in the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane. The best theoretical accuracy of existing GPS is on average 5 to 15 meters and may vary depending on the surroundings (obstacles to the satellite's line of sight), the equipment (type) used, weather and many other factors, with the worst case being on average 30 to 40 meters. HOV and many other applications require better accuracy performance to ensure that the vehicle is actually in the HOV lane, and to determine when the vehicle is not in the HOV lane.

One reason that the accuracy of existing position fixes varies greatly is because commercial GPS is derived from the traditional L1 signal transmitted from existing satellites. Under adverse conditions and blocking conditions, the signal is susceptible to multipath reflections and interference and therefore does not provide the shortest signal path to the GPS receiver, instead multipath signal boluses (e.g., signal echoes resulting from signals reflected by large structures, both natural and man-made) can produce widely varying averaging accuracies. However, 2018 a new mass market oriented GPS chip has been applied to smart phones, which improves accuracy to 30 cm. This new chip takes advantage of another signal now available in the new generation of satellites called L5. This signal also provides satellite positioning and timing synchronization information, but the new signal is almost twice as powerful as the L1 signal, and it uses a more robust modulation at a different frequency that reduces interference and improves multipath rejection, making it easier for a GPS receiver to acquire the L5 signal. This may enable a new level of location-based services in conjunction with a more energy efficient chip manufacturing process, an improved smartphone power-saving architecture, and the availability of more new satellites with L5 signals.

HOV toll lanes or quick-rate toll lanes for multi-occupant vehicles may provide users with an efficient way to bypass traffic; and provides a way for the organization to raise additional funds for the construction of new roads. HOV lanes may charge a full price for single-passenger vehicles, a half price for multi-passenger vehicles with two or more passengers, and no fee for multi-passenger vehicles with three or more passengers. However, the construction time of the HOV lane is long, and if an accident or construction occurs in the lane, the HOV lane cannot solve the traffic congestion problem because the HOV lane cannot be dynamically re-specified.

Likewise, parking spaces are problematic. Parking spots and spaces typically require some infrastructure (such as parking attendants, parking meters or centralized payment kiosks). In some places, the driver may pay for a particular parking place by telephone, but these still require physical delineation of the parking space. Without sufficient setup time to determine the average position, which is typically longer than one would like to wait before walking out and leaving the vehicle, current GPS accuracy is not sufficient to identify a given parking spot when the vehicle is driven into a particular space.

Other vehicle-related services would greatly benefit from higher accuracy GPS, for example, the ability to distinguish between private roadways and public roadways to determine road usage taxes, which is increasingly being considered as the number of electric vehicles (which do not pay taxes by purchasing gasoline) increases. In addition, higher accuracy GPS may enable services such as "roadside" distribution, enabling drivers to drive into specific parking/waiting spaces on the merchant's floor, indicate their space to the merchant, and have the goods brought to their specific parking spaces.

Since all models will take some time to adapt to the new chip technology, a solution is needed to improve GPS accuracy in charging with only the L1 signal. Accordingly, there is a need for methods and apparatus for improving the positioning accuracy of various vehicle related applications.

Disclosure of Invention

One aspect of the invention relates to a method of effecting toll lane toll charging for a multi-lane roadway having at least one toll lane and at least one non-toll lane, the method comprising the steps of: loading, at a mobile computing device running a toll application, a toll lane map file from a remote server operated by a traffic authority, the toll lane map file specifying the at least one toll lane on the multi-lane roadway on which a vehicle containing the mobile computing device is traveling; the mobile computing device determining that the vehicle has entered the at least one toll lane based at least in part on receiving a signal by a satellite positioning receiver in the mobile computing device, the mobile computing device determining location information to compare to the toll lane map file based on the signal, and further based on inertial measurements made by the mobile computing device; after determining that the vehicle is within the at least one toll lane, the mobile computing device determines that the vehicle has left the at least one toll lane based at least in part on other location information obtained by the satellite positioning receiver of the mobile computing device receiving other signals, the mobile computing device comparing the other location information to the toll vehicle map file, and further based on other inertial measurements made by the mobile computing device; in response to determining that the vehicle left the at least one toll lane, the mobile computing device, by executing the toll application, determines a distance traveled in the at least one toll lane by determining a point at which the vehicle entered the at least one toll lane to a point at which the vehicle left the at least one toll lane; the mobile computing device determining a toll based on the distance traveled in the at least one toll lane; and in response to determining the toll, the mobile computing device sending a message to a toll service server indicating the toll so that the toll service server can manage the toll to a toll account associated with the vehicle.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments including the concepts of the claimed invention and, together with the description, further serve to explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a system schematic of a geo-location payment system for vehicular applications, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustration of a method for continuously implementing a high accuracy GPS device algorithm for HOV lanes, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a position polygon map used to specify position polygons corresponding to physical lanes (traffic lanes), according to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustration of a method for high accuracy GPS data file tracking preparation back-end algorithm, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a position polygon map illustrating a temporary deviation from a prescribed HOV/toll lane due to an obstacle, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustration of a method of alerting an operator of a vehicle in a prescribed HOV/toll lane of the presence of a deviation in the prescribed HOV/toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustration of a method for transmitting HOV/toll lane data to reduce battery consumption at a cellular telephone device, in accordance with some embodiments;

fig. 8 is a flow diagram illustration of a method for determining a toll for either an HOV or a toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a continuing flow diagram illustration of the method of FIG. 8, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a street having a prescribed physical parking space and a prescribed virtual location polygon corresponding to the physical parking space for a parking application, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustration of a method of operating a parking application using a position polygon, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 12 is a plan view of a public street or roadway to which a private street or roadway is connected, where the private roadway is specified using location polygons to avoid road use fees for vehicles on the private roadway, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a method for determining road usage fees for vehicles traveling on both public and private roadways, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustration of a method for using location polygons in a drive-through retail distribution arrangement, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 15 is a graphical illustration of output and/or position detection data of an inertial measurement unit in a vehicle making a left-right lane change, for determining whether the vehicle has changed to an HOV lane or a toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 16 is a traffic diagram illustrating a lane change of a vehicle to a motorway detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection data, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 17 is a traffic diagram illustrating a lane change of a vehicle from a fast lane to an exit lane detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection data, according to some embodiments; and

fig. 18 is a flow diagram illustration of a method of determining when a vehicle enters or leaves an HOV lane or toll lane based on inertial measurements and/or position determinations, according to some embodiments.

Detailed Description

A system for identifying the position of a vehicle is disclosed in which a mapping of the physical space in which the vehicle may travel and/or park is specified by a position polygon describing the geo-location coordinates of its corresponding physical space. Rather than relying on the exact position determined by the satellite positioning system, the position is mapped to a position polygon to account for errors in the position determination. Any position mapped to a given position polygon means that the vehicle (inferred by the position of the device used to determine the position) is at the position corresponding to the position polygon. Thus, travel along a particular lane of a multi-lane roadway may be determined and tracked. This allows, for example, toll collection for use of multi-occupant vehicle lanes, as well as assessment of whether the vehicle crossed an HOV lane boundary by improperly entering or exiting the HOV lane. In other applications, the position polygon may be used for such parking applications: wherein the location polygon identifies a particular parking space for a regular parking or for a drive-up delivery parking at a retail location. The location polygon may be used to distinguish between private roadways and public roadways to determine road usage fees.

Furthermore, the use of positional polygons to specify roadway features (such as toll lanes, HOV lanes, and parking spaces) allows these features to be dynamically specified on existing physical roadways. This allows, for example, the immediate creation of additional HOV lanes or toll lanes, the designation of one or more lanes as non-toll lanes (e.g., in the case of emergency evacuation), the rearrangement of lanes due to temporary conditions (such as construction, accident), the dynamic creation and designation of parking spaces, etc. This is particularly useful when used in conjunction with high precision satellite positioning systems, such as GPS L5 signals. Furthermore, this is useful in conjunction with a connected autonomous driving vehicle that may be designed to follow and take advantage of such dynamically prescribed roadway characteristics.

Fig. 1 is a system schematic of a geo-location payment system 100 for vehicular applications, according to some embodiments. System 100 represents an overview of a system that can dynamically define a virtual area, which corresponds to a physical location: the vehicle may be driven at the physical location for which the operator of the vehicle is charged a toll or other monetary fee for driving within the defined areas. There are a variety of mobile toll applications for vehicular use, and this disclosure focuses on both travel and parking applications. The system 100 illustrates a driving application (as opposed to a parking application) in which a roadway 102 made up of

multiple lanes

104, 106, 108, 110 for travel in the same direction passes through a toll point 128 (e.g., portal-real or virtual) and may include a multi-occupant vehicle (HOV) lane, which offers toll discounts to encourage carpools. In some implementations, one or more of the

lanes

104, 106, 108, 110 may be a non-toll lane. Typically, HOV lanes are reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants (including the driver), and in some applications, the discount may correspond to the number of occupants. For example, in some locations, if there are four or more occupants, the toll will be 100% off. Vehicle 112 is shown traveling in HOV lane 104 and vehicle 114 is shown traveling in non-HOV lane 108, where both

vehicles

112, 114 are approaching a toll point 128.

The toll is paid electronically in response to the vehicle passing a toll point, such as toll point 128. In some implementations, the fee may be charged via an application on a mobile device (such as cellular telephone device 116) that may be present in the vehicle 112. The cellular telephone device 116 may be communicatively linked to a toll transponder 118 that interacts with a portal or similar toll reader. In some embodiments, the toll points 128 may be toll portals that include toll readers on individual lanes or on HOV express lanes only. The toll reader transmits radio signals in a narrow pattern (narrow pattern) on its respective lane which, when received by the toll transponder 118, causes the toll transponder 118 to respond by transmitting its unique identifier back to the reader. The toll institution operating the charging point 128 then bills the toll fee to the account associated with the identifier of the charging transponder 118. In some embodiments, the toll responder 118 may be generally in a sleep state until the communicatively linked cellular telephone device 116 (or similar mobile device) detects the proximity of the toll point 128 and wakes up or otherwise activates the toll responder 118. The unique identifier provided by the charge responder 118 may be provided to the charge responder 118 by the cellular telephone device 116. Thus, if the charge responder 118 is stolen, it cannot be used to charge the owner's toll account.

To manage toll accounts, a user of the cellular telephone device 116 can use the cellular telephone device to run a toll application to connect to a toll service server or web service 124 by communicating through a cellular infrastructure 120 connected to a wide area network 122(WAN), such as the internet. The billing service server 124 may maintain account information including transaction records and user account balances. The user may access the user's bank 126 to transfer funds to the billing service server 124 on a regular or irregular basis as desired. When the user's vehicle (e.g., vehicle 112) passes a toll point, such as toll point 128, the user's account will be debited by the toll amount and a transaction record is generated to reflect the toll charge and balance adjustments. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other forms of access may be used to manage toll accounts at the toll service server 124, including using a personal computer connected to a data network or equivalent device further connected to the WAN 122. In addition, the cellular telephone device 116 may include other forms of communication, including wireless local area network connection (also referred to as "Wi-Fi") and Bluetooth.

The cellular telephone device 116 may also include a positioning system (such as GPS) for determining its location. The use of GPS by mobile devices is widespread and widespread worldwide and is used for a variety of location-based applications, including navigation, travel routes, mapping, and many others. To verify that the vehicle 112 is within the HOV lane 104, the tolling system defines a position polygon defined by position coordinates. The position polygon is a virtual object corresponding to the real area. For example, a plurality of rectangles (such as rectangle 130) may be defined on HOV lane 104. When the cellular telephone device determines its location, it may compare the location to a known location polygon provided by a service, such as a fee-based service. If the determined location is within the boundaries of the location polygon, it may be reasonably determined that the cellular telephone device is in the physical area corresponding to the location polygon. In addition, many cellular telephone devices sold today also include inertial measurement systems, including multi-dimensional accelerometer arrays and electronic compasses, which can be used to determine movement and changes in movement and direction, and can be used to enhance position determination and facilitate faster position determination.

In the case of the present example, the cellular telephone device 116 may receive the set of polygon definitions from the premium service server 124 and compare its determined location to a set of prescribed location polygons. The location polygon definitions may be used to specify toll lane maps, parking space maps, public/private roadway maps, etc., and these may be transmitted as map files to the cellular telephone device 116. The position determination may have some error because the car 112 in which the cellular telephone device 116 is located is moving. However, the error will be small enough that the car 112 will still fall within the position polygon 130 while traveling in the lane 104, indicating that the car is within the lane 104, and therefore the toll charged through the toll collection point 128 will be based on the number of occupants of the vehicle 112, with any applicable discounts. If the vehicle 112 does not have the required number of occupants to meet the HOV lane, the fine may be assessed in the same manner as the toll is collected.

Alternatively, the lane 104 may be a toll lane, such as a express lane. By limiting the use of the lane 104 to toll-paying users, while the

lanes

106, 108, 110 remain free, fewer people will use the lane 104, thereby causing traffic to flow faster and/or with fewer interruptions. Fees based on distance traveled in the toll lane 104 may be assessed like tolls. To enable the toll lane 104, a series of positional polygons may be specified along the portion of the toll lane 104 that will be used as the toll lane. The cellular telephone device 116, using a suitable toll application, may track the presence of the vehicle 112 in the toll lane 104 and a corresponding fee for the distance traveled in the toll lane 104 may be determined. Likewise, just as the cellular telephone device 116 can determine when its location is within the location polygon that specifies the toll lane 104, it can also determine when to exit the toll lane by no longer appearing within the location polygon that specifies the toll lane 104. One of the advantages of specifying an HOV lane or toll lane by a position polygon is that the route of the lane can be dynamically changed by simply using a position polygon corresponding to the active route of the HOV/toll lane.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustration of a method 200 of implementing an HOV lane using a high accuracy GPS device algorithm, according to some embodiments. Specifically, the method 200 is an overview of a general method for billing for HOV/toll lane usage tolls and determines when and how much to charge the user for travel in the HOV lane or toll lane. As a preliminary matter, assume that the vehicle includes a cellular telephone device that has been installed and is executing a toll application consistent with the present disclosure. Further, the user of the cellular phone device has established a toll account with a toll service party operating the toll service server, and the cellular phone device is able to communicate with the toll service server over the data network as a result of running the toll application. Additionally, it may be assumed that the cellular telephone device is using a high accuracy GPS signal (e.g., the L5 signal) for location determination. As one of the tasks performed by the toll application, in step 202, data including a position polygon defining the position of an area (such as an HOV/toll lane) is acquired and downloaded from a toll service server or equivalent. As mentioned with respect to fig. 1, the location polygon is specified by location coordinates (e.g., at the vertices of the polygon), which allows the cellular telephone device to use its satellite positioning system to determine whether it is inside the location polygon, i.e., within a physical area corresponding to the area specified by the location polygon.

In step 204, the cellular telephone device may begin to determine its current location using its satellite positioning system. This action should be repeated at intervals sufficient to ensure that the cellular telephone device can detect when it is within the prescribed positional polygon. In some embodiments, the monitoring may be continuous, or the monitoring rate may be increased as the location of the cellular telephone device indicates that it is approaching one or more prescribed location polygons.

In step 206, the cellular telephone device may determine whether, for example, the direction of travel and the route of travel indicate that it is approaching a prescribed HOV lane or toll lane. The toll lane may be specified by a positional polygon corresponding to a boundary of an actual physical traffic lane specified as the toll lane. In step 208, the cellular telephone device may compare the current location of the cellular telephone device with a prescribed HOV/toll lane data file that includes one or more prescribed location polygons corresponding to the physical location of the traffic lane designated as an HOV/toll lane. In this regard, in this process, the cellular telephone device should make the position determination at its maximum rate to ensure that the time in the HOV/toll lane is accurate.

In step 210, the cellular telephone device may determine, based on the comparison of step 208, whether the cellular telephone device and, by inference, the vehicle in which it is located are within the HOV/toll lane. If the position coordinates determined in step 210 are outside the prescribed position polygon of the HOV/toll lane, then no toll is charged as shown in step 212 (and the method may return to step 210).

If the location determination and comparison in step 210 indicates that the location is within a prescribed toll polygon corresponding to an HOV/toll lane, then in step 214, the distance traveled may be monitored and recorded to determine the toll to be charged. Once it is determined that the vehicle is in the HOV/toll lane, the method may proceed to step 216 (step 216 may be a repeat of step 210), where in step 216 the cellular telephone device monitors the location to determine where the vehicle has left the prescribed HOV/toll lane based on a comparison of the location to a location polygon that specifies the HOV/toll lane location. Step 216 may be repeated as long as the position determination continues to fall within the prescribed position polygon.

When the position determined in step 216 indicates that the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane, then in step 218 it may be determined whether the HOV/toll lane has ended or whether the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane before the HOV/toll lane ends. If the HOV/toll lane ends, i.e., the vehicle remains on the lane but no more HOV/toll charges are applied, the toll charges are stopped in step 224 and a final total toll can be calculated and applied to the user account. Any discount for multiple occupants may be applied to the final toll charge.

If it is determined in step 218 that the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane in advance, in some cases there may be a fine assessed for early exit from the HOV/toll lane. In step 220, the method 200 determines whether leaving the HOV/toll lane before the HOV/toll lane ends violates the HOV/toll lane rules. If there is a rule prohibiting early exit from HOV/toll lane, then in step 222 the violation is evaluated, which may include additional fees. If no rules apply, the charging may be stopped simply by proceeding to step 224.

Fig. 3 is a position polygon map 300 for specifying a position polygon corresponding to a physical roadway, according to some embodiments. The traffic lane is shown here defined between a left lane boundary 302 and a right lane boundary 304, wherein the flow of traffic moves along the traffic lane in the direction of arrow 305. The left lane boundary is shown in solid lines indicating that the traffic lane may be the innermost or leftmost traffic lane of a multi-lane, bi-directional roadway in north america. The adjacent lane that would be present on the right side is not shown. A plurality of

positional polygons

306, 308, 310 are defined along the roadway. Each positional polygon is defined by three or more sides and three or more vertices. For example, the position polygon 306 is defined as a

rectangle having sides

312, 314, 316. Vertices are formed at corners, such as

corners

320, 322. The vertices may be specified by geo-location coordinates, and lines between the vertices may be assumed. Thus, any position defined by a line between vertices of a position polygon (such as position polygon 306) is within position polygon 306, and thus assumed to be within a lane of travel.

As shown here, the position polygons 306, 308, 310 are shown with a distinct separation between each other and away from the

boundaries

302, 304 of the roadway, simply to clearly illustrate the position polygons. In fact, the position polygons will abut each other if they do not overlap each other and may extend to the

edges

302, 304 of the traffic lane. As long as the traffic lane remains relatively straight, the positional polygon will extend. If the lane departure exceeds a threshold distance, a new position polygon may be specified. Thus, the position polygon 308 is defined if the lane of the row changes direction slightly from the region corresponding to the position polygon 306, and the position polygon 310 is similarly defined if the lane of the row changes direction again. The same type of criteria is used to map positional polygons along curves, turns, curves, etc.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustration of a method 400 for high accuracy GPS data file tracking preparation back-end algorithm, according to some embodiments. In particular, the method 400 illustrates an embodiment for creating/specifying positional polygons corresponding to real physical features on roadways, such as HOVs and toll lanes. At start 402, method 400 may prepare a data file or record that will include prescribed positional polygons for given roadway characteristics (such as HOV/toll lanes). The map may be created from, for example, high-resolution satellite photographs, survey maps, certified traffic maps, and other sources having reliable, accurate location information.

At step 404, a starting point of the HOV/toll lane may be identified, including a lane width between two latitude and longitude coordinate points that will form the vertices of the position polygon, and an initial demarcation of the prescribed position polygon. Generally, the lane of traffic is assumed to continue in a straight direction, and therefore, in step 406, the method 400 looks for the lane of traffic's deviation from a straight line from the initial vertex/coordinate. If the deviation from the straight line exceeds a threshold (e.g., 30 centimeters), a new vertex may be specified in step 408, where new coordinates may be entered to indicate the end of one position polygon and the beginning of another position polygon. In step 410, the method 400 determines whether the end of the specified HOV/toll lane has been reached, and if so, the method 400 proceeds to step 412 where the data file is completed and ready for distribution in step 412. The completed data file will include position data sets that specify one or more position polygons corresponding to the physical positions of the lanes of traffic on the roadway. These position polygons may be used, for example, in method 200 to determine a toll to be charged for travel in an HOV/toll lane.

Fig. 5 is a position polygon map 500 illustrating a temporary deviation from a prescribed HOV/toll lane due to an obstacle, in accordance with some embodiments. The roadway is bounded on a left side 502 and a right side 504 and includes a plurality of lanes of

traffic

506, 508, 510, 512, where the flow of traffic moves in the direction of arrow 505. The lane of travel 506 is defined as an HOV/toll lane and the location polygon 514 is used by a toll application on a user device (e.g., a cellular telephone device or similar computing device used in a vehicle). Generally, the position polygon 514 continues along the lane of travel 506, but in this example, an obstacle such as a faulty vehicle 518 blocks the lane of travel 506. As a result, the position polygon 514 is substantially interrupted and continues in the second portion 516 on the other side of the vehicle 518. Since leaving the HOV/toll lane may be a violation, a temporary location polygon may be specified to allow vehicles in the traffic lane 506 to bypass the faulty vehicle 518 using the adjacent traffic lane 508. For example,

position polygons

520, 522, 524 may be specified around the faulty vehicle 518, which would be considered to specify temporary HOV/toll lane deviations. Note that

polygons

520 and 524

overlap polygon sections

514, 516, indicating that the position polygons need not be exclusive. Similarly, adjacent rectangular polygons 526 near or abutting or overlapping position polygon 514/516 may be used instead.

When using temporary location polygons, notifications may be pushed from the server to users near the event. In some cases, a cellular telephone device controlled by the toll application may receive notifications, or periodically check for such notifications, and upon detecting such notifications, download temporary location polygon maps for use in ensuring that the vehicle has not exited the HOV/toll lane by bypassing the faulty vehicle (or other obstacle) 518.

Similarly, a toll user that does not enter the HOV/toll lane 506 (such as a user traveling in the travel lane 508) will not be charged a toll or violation fee for traveling through the

temporary location polygons

520, 522, 524, or 526. By being designated as temporary position polygons, they will only apply to vehicles that previously entered the polygon 514. However, if the vehicle subsequently enters the polygonal portion 516, the vehicle may be considered to have entered the HOV/toll lane and any violation or surcharge charges may be applied. Those skilled in the art will observe that this is a flexible way to virtually and quickly set up HOV/toll lanes without being limited by infrastructure costs.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustration of a method 600 of alerting an operator of a vehicle in a prescribed HOV/toll lane of a deviation in the prescribed HOV/toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments. Method 600 begins when there is an obstacle (or construction) blocking the prescribed HOV/toll lane such that a temporarily prescribed route around the obstacle is required (as in the example shown in fig. 5). Thus, in step 602, the positions of obstacles are collected at the back-end server, and a map around the obstacles is selected. The position of the obstacle can be reported from and need not be as precise as the roadway edges or lane demarcation. A start point and an end point may be selected and it may generally be assumed that a vehicle in a congested lane will switch to the nearest uncongested lane to bypass an obstacle. Personnel working at or communicating with the backend may select areas that need to be bypassed for reference to create temporary location polygons. Once the temporary location polygons are created, they may be transmitted to a vehicle (e.g., a cellular telephone device or similar onboard device) in step 604. Alternatively, a notification may be sent to allow those devices to request data when needed.

Once the temporary location polygon that routes around the obstacle is received, in step 606, the type of vehicle may be determined as to whether the vehicle is an autonomously driven vehicle (e.g., autonomous driving) (step 610) or a non-autonomously driven vehicle (step 608). It may be assumed that the autonomous driving vehicle is connected to a cellular phone device or similar device, and even such a device may be integrated into the autonomous driving vehicle. When the vehicle is a non-autonomously driven vehicle driven by a user having a connection with a cellular telephone device, or when the vehicle is an autonomously driven vehicle, step 618 is entered after step 614 and the vehicle may indicate to the user that a temporary route is being followed to avoid an obstacle. Otherwise, steps 612 to 616 are followed and the cellular telephone device will alert the user by, for example, vibrating an internal component (e.g., steering wheel) or sounding an audible alarm through the vehicle's audio system. In some embodiments, voice prompts or commands may also be issued through the vehicle's audio system.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustration of a method 700 for transmitting HOV/toll lane data to reduce battery consumption at a cellular telephone device, in accordance with some embodiments. At start 702, the back end server has created a map specifying the HOV and the location polygons of the toll lanes (which include the location coordinates). The location polygon data may be sent to the user's cellular telephone device operating the toll application. In step 704, the user device may process the HOV and toll lane data to create a reference file. The reference file is essentially a graph of the coordinates of the placement location polygon such that the determined location readings can be compared to the reference file to quickly determine whether the determined location is within or outside the area specified by the reference file. In step 706, the user device begins monitoring its location and comparing the location to coordinates in a reference file. In step 708, the current (or most recent) set of coordinates is compared to a reference file. If the location is outside of any HOV lane or toll lane, then in step 710 the user device may send an indication to the back-end server that the device is outside of any HOV lane or toll lane and reduce cell battery consumption by reducing the GPS transmission rate. If the location is within the coordinates mapped by the reference file in step 708, the device will continue to track the location in step 712.

Fig. 8 is a flow diagram illustration of a method 800 for determining a toll for either an HOV or a toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments. In particular, the method 800 is applicable to conventional GPS operation (i.e., not the L5 signal). Conventional cellular telephone devices have a GPS chipset that uses L1 GPS signals, which L1 GPS signals are less accurate than L5 signals. Further, in some embodiments, the cellular telephone device may be wirelessly connected to a toll transponder device via the PAN, which is also read by a toll reader in a portal at the toll location. A position polygon may be used, but some adjustment is necessary in view of the inherent inaccuracy of the L1 signal. A position polygon is defined for longer extensions before and after the toll position to ensure correct detection of approaching and passing the toll position. Instead of using a long polygon of a length determined by the straightness or curve of the roadway, a plurality of position polygons of selected length may be used. When using a long position polygon, the cellular telephone device tracks its travel through the position polygon. The shorter position polygons are used for statistical averaging by calculating the number of position polygons through which the vehicle appears to travel. Due to the inherent inaccuracy of the L1 signal, it appears that the vehicle has traveled through most of the positional polygons, although not necessarily all of the positional polygons along the lane to which the positional polygons correspond.

The method 800 begins with the cellular telephone device routinely monitoring its location in step 802. The position determination may be made at relatively large time intervals, for example 5 to 10 seconds or more. Once position monitoring is initiated, in step 804, the method 800 determines whether the current position is within a threshold distance from the toll location (e.g., toll portal) based on whether the current position has entered a space corresponding to any of a plurality of initial position polygons specified along a roadway ahead of the toll location. Once the vehicle's location is found to be very close to the plurality of initial location polygons, the method proceeds to step 806, where the cellular telephone device (or the device making the location determination) activates the toll RFID of the toll transponder in step 806, and the rate of GPS location determination may be increased in step 808. In step 810, the method 800 determines whether an HOV lane entry (approching) is present in addition to the toll location. The HOV lane may be a lane passing through the toll location that provides a toll discount for the qualified vehicle. If there is an HOV lane through the toll location, method 800 proceeds to another section ("a") shown in fig. 9. When there is no HOV lane in the toll location, the method proceeds to steps 814 and 816 to determine when the vehicle has passed the toll location by continuing to monitor the location (i.e., generating a new location determination). Once the vehicle appears to have passed the toll position, the method proceeds to step 818 where it is determined whether the vehicle has passed a position that falls within the prescribed position polygon before and after the toll position in step 818. In this example, there may be a total of sixteen positional polygons. If the vehicle location has passed all location polygons before and after the toll location, the toll is collected in step 822 and the toll transponder may be turned off in step 824, and the less active location monitoring mechanism is then resumed in step 828.

However, if it is determined in step 818 that the determined position of the vehicle passes through less than all of the position polygons, the method alternatively proceeds to step 820, where it is determined whether a threshold number (e.g., a majority) of the position polygons have been passed. If the vehicle has passed the minimum number of position polygons, it is assumed that the vehicle has indeed passed the toll location. If the vehicle has passed less than a minimum number of position polygons specified before and after the toll location along the roadway that passes the toll location, it may be that the vehicle has passed only near the toll location (e.g., on a side road or other adjacent roadway that does not charge a toll fee), then the method proceeds to step 826, where no toll fee is charged in step 826, but a flag may be set on the account for further inquiry, such as checking a photograph record at the toll location to see if the vehicle has indeed passed the toll location, as is common.

FIG. 9 is a continuing flow diagram illustration of the method in FIG. 8, according to some embodiments. Specifically, at point "a" 812, there is a special HOV lane passing through the toll location. There are some features of these HOV lanes that pass through the toll location that can be used in low accuracy GPS conditions to detect if the vehicle is entering and using the HOV lanes. For example, in many places, the HOV lane is a special lane that starts before the toll location as a branch of the leftmost (rightmost in the uk or uk traditional) traffic lane. After passing the toll location, the HOV traffic may merge back into the regular traffic lane. Thus, a deviation may be detected. Furthermore, the flow of traffic on the HOV lane is typically moving faster than the flow of traffic on the other lanes when passing through the toll location, particularly if there is a parking and toll booth paid at the toll location.

Thus, to help determine whether the vehicle is entering an HOV lane (or any special lane), in step 902, the toll application on the user's cellular telephone device may access real-time traffic data from other traffic-related applications, such as Google location, place intelligence (Waze), and similar applications where other users share their traffic data, including current speed and location. In step 904, the method determines whether the vehicle has entered an initial position polygon specified before the toll location. The method iteratively loops through

steps

904 and 906 until the vehicle enters and passes the initial position polygon. In step 908, the vehicle speed or lane speed of the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is compared to the speeds of other vehicles in adjacent lanes, assuming such information is available in step 902. If the vehicle is traveling faster than the nearby vehicle, it may be assumed that the vehicle is using a special lane or an HOV lane and proceed to

steps

912 and 914. Step 912 is an optional step that may be used to enhance detection of entry into a special lane or HOV lane based on inertial measurements provided by, for example, an accelerometer unit in the cellular telephone device if the cellular telephone device includes such a unit. For example, in step 916, the cellular telephone device may detect acceleration as the vehicle passes the location polygon before the toll location. In addition, in step 918, the rate of angular change may also be monitored (assuming the cellular telephone device is not moving within the vehicle). If it is determined in step 920 that the angular rate of travel is to the left (or to the right in the uk or a traditional country in the uk), the method may proceed to step 922. In step 922, the number of standard lanes and HOV lanes and the general direction of the roadway are examined to determine whether the angular rate of change is consistent with a lane change to an HOV lane or consistent with remaining along a prescribed lane of travel. In step 924, if the comparison of step 922 indicates a lane change to a special lane or HOV lane, then the method proceeds to step 914, if step 912 is skipped or not applicable. In step 914, a toll is charged to the user based on the HOV status of the vehicle (e.g., number of occupants). From step 914, the method proceeds to step 926, where the method monitors whether the vehicle has passed the last position polygon beyond the toll position in step 926, and if so, in step 928, the method resumes normal position determination operation as in step 928. Also, the GPS bearing difference may be used to detect lane-to-lane changes by detecting peaks and valleys of the respective lane changes to the right or left, as shown in fig. 15.

Fig. 15 is a graphical illustration 1500 of the output of an inertial measurement unit in a vehicle making a left-right lane change for determining whether the vehicle has changed to an HOV lane or toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments. For comparison, assume that the same oriented cellular telephone device or other device performing inertial sensing is used for both

graphs

1502, 1504. In a first graph 1502, the inertial sensor output may indicate a lane change to the left, and in a second graph, the inertial sensor output may correspond to a lane change to the right. The

vertical axes

1506, 1508 indicate the magnitude of the inertial change. In this example, a positive transition indicates a change to the left, while a negative transition indicates a change to the right. In both graphs, time increases towards the right side of the page. In real applications, the inertial measurement system can dynamically identify "left" and "right" based on the direction of gravity and by sensing forward motion. Thus, a cell phone device placed face down may initially determine the left-right direction relative to its orientation, and may recalibrate the left-right direction after flipping. The curves plotted on each graph indicate the overall magnitude of the change in direction, e.g., as indicated by the accelerometer output. Similarly, the graphical illustration 1500 may be derived from position data calculated for GPS time azimuth difference (GBDT) in degrees, and may be derived from position detection data provided by a cellular telephone.

In the graph 1502, there is initially a positive shift 1510 coinciding with left travel, followed by a negative shift 1512 coinciding with right travel, as is the case with a left lane change. In graph 1502, a negative offset follows a positive offset, but there may be a delay between them, such as would occur if the vehicle crossed multiple lanes. Likewise, in the graph 1508, there is first a negative offset 1514 and then a positive offset 1516, which is consistent with a lane change to the right. The combination of these outputs with the use of position polygons may allow a determination of whether a vehicle is driving into (or out of) a particular lane of travel that may result in a toll or other fee.

Fig. 16 is a traffic diagram illustrating a lane change of a vehicle to a motorway detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection, according to some embodiments. The highway is comprised of two HOV lanes 1602 and a plurality of conventional toll lanes 1604. Vehicle 1606 is shown entering a highway. The vehicle 1606 may cross the conventional toll lane 1604 to reach the HOV lane 1602. Lane crossings may be detected based on position and/or inertial measurements. A series of polygons starting with polygon 1608 and ending with polygon 1610 may represent lane crossing points detected by the inertial measurement system. For clarity, the figure is shown as being compact, and the actual lane crossing may occur over a relative distance much greater than that presented in the figure. The inertial detection may be performed by an output of an inertial measurement system output similar to the graph 1502 with one or more instances of a positive offset followed by a negative offset. The duration between positive and negative excursions and the number of instances of positive and negative excursion pairs can be used to count the number of lanes crossed. The rate of change of the offset may also be used to estimate the lane change rate. Thus, the determination of the lane change may be used to determine that the vehicle 1606 has crossed the conventional toll lane 1604 and is in the HOV lane 1602, which may be confirmed by position detection, including using a position polygon corresponding to the position of the highway lane.

Fig. 17 is a traffic diagram 1700 illustrating lane changes of a vehicle from an HOV lane and a highway to an exit lane detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection, according to some embodiments. Similar to the diagram 1600, here the vehicle 1706 is initially located in one of the HOV lanes 1702 and spans multiple conventional toll lanes 1704 to exit the highway. A lane change indicated by a series of polygons beginning with polygon 1708 and ending with polygon 1710 indicates a series of lane changes that may occur when the vehicle 1706 safely reaches the exit from the HOV lane 1702. A lane change may be detected as shown in graph 1504 where there is a negative offset followed by a positive offset.

Fig. 18 is a flow diagram illustration of a method 1800 for determining when a vehicle enters or leaves a roadway including one or more HOV lanes or toll lanes based on inertial measurements and/or position determinations, according to some embodiments. The method 1800 may be used in the context of fig. 16-17 to determine lane changes of a vehicle on a roadway, and use inertial measurement systems or position azimuth difference data with outputs such as those shown in fig. 15. At start 1802, a cellular telephone device may begin monitoring position and inertial outputs (e.g., signals output by an inertial measurement system). In step 1804, it is determined whether the vehicle has entered the highway, which may be done using a prescribed location polygon as described herein. In step 1806, it may be determined whether an HOV lane is present ahead, and if not, normal toll location monitoring is followed in step 1808.

However, if it is determined in step 1806 that there is an HOV lane ahead, then in step 1810, the output of the inertial measurement system may be monitored to detect a lane change by looking for an offset indicating a left or right movement. Alternatively or in combination, GPS position information may be determined to derive a change in direction. In step 1812, the method 1800 looks for an indication of a lane change in the output of the inertial measurement system. If a lane change is indicated, the direction of the lane change (left or right) is determined in step 1814. The lane count may be used to indicate the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling. The lane count may be a variable maintained in memory by the cellular telephone device. Thus, the lane count is increased in step 1816 for a lane change traveling to the left, and the lane count is decreased in step 181 for a lane change traveling to the right. The lane count is maintained in step 1820. In step 1822, it is determined whether the vehicle has crossed enough lanes to be in the HOV lane, and whether the vehicle has passed a position polygon corresponding to an HOV or fast lane entrance. In step 1824, the method 1800 determines whether the vehicle has crossed an exit, and if not, monitoring continues (return to step 1810). If the vehicle has crossed enough lanes to be in the HOV lane in step 1822, it is determined in step 1828 whether the last lane crossing occurred before or at a location corresponding to an entrance position polygon of a set of position polygons that specifies the HOV lane. If not, it means that the vehicle has incorrectly entered the HOV lane, and the violation may be evaluated in step 1828. If the vehicle does correctly enter the HOV lane, two actions are taken. First, in step 1836, a toll may be collected. Next, in step 1832, the method monitors to ensure that the vehicle is properly left in the HOV lane by determining whether the vehicle has shifted lanes to the right before passing the positional polygon indicating the HOV lane endpoint. If a right-going lane-change has occurred, and this occurs before the vehicle passes the location specified by the exit location polygon in step 1832, then the violation may be evaluated in step 1834. If the exit position polygon is passed before the right-hand travel lane change, the HOV lane monitoring process ends in step 1838. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that while a flow diagram is intended to suggest a linear flow, various blocks/steps may represent processes that may occur in parallel. For example, in step 1828 and step 1832, the method 1800 may still detect the lane change in step 1810 and increase or decrease the lane count 1820.

The use of position polygons may be applied to many other applications besides toll collection and HOV lane monitoring. Some other applications contemplated herein include parking, road use charging, and retail drive-up distribution. Other applications within the scope of the disclosed embodiments will also occur to those skilled in the art.

Fig. 10 is a plan view 1000 of a street having a prescribed physical parking space and a prescribed virtual position polygon corresponding to a real (physical) parking space for a parking application, in accordance with some embodiments. The street may include a first lane of traffic 1002 and a second lane of traffic 1004. As shown,

lanes

1002 and 1004 have opposite traffic flows, but they may also have the same traffic flow direction. Along both sides of the street are a number of defined parking spaces (such as parking spaces 1006). As is known, individual parking spaces may be physically delimited by, for example, stripes of paint on the roadway surface. The position coordinates of the respective parking spaces are mapped such that the positions of the respective parking spaces may actually be represented by one or more position polygons, such as position polygons 1008-1014 shown overlaid on parking space 1006. In a parking application, the vehicle position in any of prescribed position polygons 1008-1014 may be used to assume that the vehicle is in a physical parking spot corresponding to position polygons 1008-1014, and so may other parking spaces and their corresponding position polygons. In the case of a parking garage (parking spaces may be present on multiple levels of the parking garage), the position coordinates may include an altitude component.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart illustration of a method 1100 of operating a parking application using a position polygon, in accordance with some embodiments. Method 1100 may operate in the context of the plan shown in fig. 10, where in fig. 10 parking spaces are physically specified and mapped with respect to their coordinates, and location polygons are specified for use by a toll application or parking application to determine whether a vehicle is in a specified parking space. A local map or a map near the vehicle location specifying parking spaces in an area around the vehicle location may be loaded. Thus, in step 1102, method 1100 begins looking for a match to a specified parking space by comparing a vehicle location determined by a GPS on a cellular telephone device in the vehicle, for example, to a location polygon corresponding to the specified parking space near the vehicle location. In step 1104, the method 1100 determines whether the vehicle is parked in the prescribed parking spot by determining that the vehicle is no longer moving and that the vehicle position is within the prescribed position polygon. In step 1106, method 1100 may optionally determine whether the user has a valid parking or toll account (if not, method 1100 causes the user to be notified in step 1108). In step 1110, the parking or toll application may communicate with the back-end server to arrange for payment of a parking fee from the user account, and may activate an indicator in the vehicle or cellular telephone device to indicate that the vehicle has parked properly and will accept payment to avoid the parking violation. In

steps

1112 and 1114, the amount of time the vehicle is parked in the parking space is monitored, and when the vehicle leaves the parking space in step 1114, then a parking fee or parking fee is assessed in step 1116 based on the amount of time spent in the parking spot. The parking spaces mapped by the position polygons may be public or private parking spaces (e.g., parking garages). For example, because the location of a parking space is already specified and known, using a location polygon and the described system eliminates the need for a user to enter a particular parking space number.

Fig. 12 is a plan view of a public street or roadway 1202 to which private streets or roadways 1208 are connected, where the private roadways are specified using location polygons to avoid road use fees for vehicles on the private roadways, according to some embodiments. The common roadway 1202 may include one or more lanes of traffic (such as opposing lanes of traffic 1204, 1206). In some jurisdictions, it is contemplated that vehicle owners will be charged with road usage fees or road usage taxes for traveling on public roadways. Traditionally, the tax is collected indirectly by imposing a tax on the fuel (e.g., gasoline/petroleum). However, in recent years, vehicle technologies of an engine that is fuel-efficient, a hybrid engine that uses an electric motor in combination with an internal combustion engine, and an electric vehicle have reduced the revenue that is generally collected as a fuel tax. Therefore, road use fees are being considered and implemented in some places. However, driving on private roadways should not be included in public road usage fees. Thus, the private roadway 1208 can be mapped and have a plurality of positional polygons 1210 specified corresponding to the private roadway 1208. No road use fees are incurred when the vehicle is within any position polygon specified for the private roadway, and the road use fees are incurred only when the vehicle is located on the public roadway 1202 (which may also be specified by the position polygon). Alternatively, it is conceivable that only the bus lane may be specified by the position polygon, and that no road use fee is incurred as long as the vehicle is not on the bus lane position polygon.

Fig. 13 is a method 1300 for determining road usage fees for vehicles traveling on both public and private roadways, according to some embodiments. Road use fees may be collected by traffic authorities or other governmental agencies. Using the model of fig. 12 as an example, in step 1302, location polygon data for private and/or public roadways is loaded for at least the area around the initial location of the cellular telephone device or vehicle. The location polygon provides a map of the area that is included as a private roadway and a public roadway. Private roadways are not used to determine road usage fees. In step 1304, the road usage tolling application monitors the current location of the vehicle and the total miles (or other units of distance) driven is recorded. In step 1308, the method 1300 determines, based on the location polygon (or the absence of such a location polygon), whether the current location indicates that the vehicle is currently on a public road or a private road. In step 1310, the distance units traveled on the private roadway are recorded, and in step 1312, the road usage charge may be calculated based on the distance traveled only on the private roadway. Although shown here as a subtraction operation, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a simple accumulator may also be maintained that is incremented only when the vehicle is traveling on a bus lane to determine the distance traveled on the bus lane.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart illustration of a method 1400 for using location polygons in a drive-through retail distribution arrangement, according to some embodiments. The method 1400 is used at a retail location having a parking lot or similar area into which vehicles may be driven and parked. Parking spaces may be mapped with respect to their location coordinates and specified by location polygons at the back-end server, as in the example given above with respect to toll locations, parking spaces and road usage fees. In step 1402, the location polygon data for the retail location may be loaded into a cellular telephone device or equivalent device, and the cellular telephone device may then begin monitoring its location and comparing its location to the location of the retail location in step 1404. In step 1406, the method 1400 determines whether the vehicle is approaching a retail location. In step 1408, the cellular telephone device, upon detecting sufficient proximity to the retail location, may issue a prompt or notification indicating that the retail location is nearby. In step 1410, the cellular telephone device may prompt the user as to whether the user wants to place an order (or has placed an order). If the user wishes to place an order for a retail location, the user may place the order and pay using a cellular telephone device in step 1412. In step 1414, the method 1400 determines whether the vehicle is parked in one of the retail outlet's prescribed parking spaces. In step 1416, when the vehicle is located in a designated or prescribed parking spot of a retail location, the cellular telephone device may transmit the geographic location coordinates of the vehicle or identify the parking space, such as by a parking space number associated with a position polygon specifying the parking space. In step 1418, the retail personnel may deliver the ordered merchandise to the vehicle as indicated by the parking information associated with the order.

The method 1400 may be used for a variety of retail services, including food services, pharmaceuticals, and other goods. It is also contemplated that a person may place an order prior to arriving at a retail location, rather than placing the order at the time of parking or at a retail location, and that detection of a vehicle in a parking space at the retail location may automatically trigger a message to be sent to the retail location that includes, for example, an order number, the name of the person placing the order, and the current parking location where the person is located. In response to receiving the message, the retail location may verify the identity of the order and the person placing the order and deliver the goods to the person at the indicated parking space.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of the present invention.

The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. Unless otherwise indicated, details of well-known elements, structures, or processes that are necessary to practice the described embodiments and that will be well known to those of skill in the art are not necessarily shown and should be assumed to be present.

The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.

Moreover, in this document and in the documents of the related art, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms "comprises," "comprising," "has," "having," "includes," "including," "contains," "containing," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, elements recited as "comprising," "having," "including," or "containing" do not preclude the presence of additional like elements in processes, methods, articles, or apparatus that comprise, have, include, or contain the recited elements. The terms "a" and "an" are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms "substantially", "approaching", "about" or any other variation thereof are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1%, and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term "coupled," as used herein, is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is "configured" in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.

It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more general-purpose or special-purpose processors (or "processing devices"), such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, custom processors, and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and unique stored program instructions, including both software and firmware, that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the methods and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), in which individual functions or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches may be used.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, ROMs (read-only memories), PROMs (programmable read-only memories), EPROMs (erasable programmable read-only memories), EEPROMs (electrically erasable programmable read-only memories), and flash memories. Moreover, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of developing such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.

Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the specification as part of the original disclosure, and even if claims were to be excised during the prosecution of the application, each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter. Further, subject matter that is not shown should not be presumed to be necessarily present, and in some cases it may be necessary to define the claims by using a negative limitation that is only supported by the claims by not showing the subject matter that is disclaimed in such negative limitation.

Claims

1. A method of effecting toll lane toll charging for a multi-lane roadway having at least one toll lane and at least one non-toll lane, the method comprising the steps of:

loading, at a mobile computing device running a toll application, a toll lane map file from a remote server operated by a traffic authority, the toll lane map file specifying the at least one toll lane on the multi-lane roadway on which a vehicle containing the mobile computing device is traveling;

the mobile computing device determining that the vehicle has entered the at least one toll lane based at least in part on receiving a signal by a satellite positioning receiver in the mobile computing device, the mobile computing device determining location information to compare to the toll lane map file based on the signal, and further based on inertial measurements made by the mobile computing device;

after determining that the vehicle is within the at least one toll lane, the mobile computing device determines that the vehicle has left the at least one toll lane based at least in part on other location information obtained by the satellite positioning receiver of the mobile computing device receiving other signals, the mobile computing device comparing the other location information to the toll vehicle map file, and further based on other inertial measurements made by the mobile computing device;

in response to determining that the vehicle left the at least one toll lane, the mobile computing device, by executing the toll application, determines a distance traveled in the at least one toll lane by determining a point at which the vehicle entered the at least one toll lane to a point at which the vehicle left the at least one toll lane;

the mobile computing device determining a toll based on the distance traveled in the at least one toll lane; and

in response to determining the toll, the mobile computing device sends a message to a toll service server indicating the toll so that the toll service server can manage the toll to a toll account associated with the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the vehicle has entered the at least one toll lane further comprises:

receiving, at the mobile computing device, real-time traffic data for the roadway;

the mobile computing device comparing a current speed of the vehicle to lane speeds of various lanes of the roadway based on the real-time traffic data; and

as a result of the comparison, determining whether the speed of the vehicle is indicative of the vehicle being in the at least one toll lane or a non-toll lane of the at least one non-toll lane.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

after determining that the vehicle has entered the at least one toll lane, receiving a toll lane map update comprising a provisional polygon prescribed on a non-toll lane of the roadway indicating a deviation of a portion of the at least one toll lane; and

indicating the deviation of the at least one toll lane to an operator of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle to which the mobile computing device is connected, the step of indicating the deviation comprising at least one of vibrating an interior component of the vehicle and playing an audible alert.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the audible alert comprises a voice command through an audio system of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the vehicle is a non-autonomous driving vehicle, the step of indicating the deviation comprising at least one of vibrating the mobile computing device and playing an audible alert at the mobile computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one toll lane comprises a multi-occupant vehicle (HOV) lane, the step of determining a toll fee further being based on a number of occupants in the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the toll lane map defines the at least one toll lane as a series of polygons, each polygon in the series of polygons having geolocation coordinates indicative of a location of the polygon on the roadway, wherein the step of determining that the vehicle has entered the at least one toll lane is performed by comparing a current location of the vehicle with the geolocation coordinates of the polygons in the series of polygons.