Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
  • G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
  • G07B15/06—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
  • G07B15/063—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station

Definitions

• the dominant medium of communication is that based on microwave technology.
• One of the more important application areas is information exchange involving vehicles in traffic. In this case the communication occurs with the aid of a debiting device in the vehicle and a stationary roadside unit, or rather its antennas.
• the information exchange comprises in part an automatic debiting of charges, for instance for road tolls and parking charges. There are two principal methods of handling these charges, although a combination of both can also be employed: debiting an account either in advance or afterwards.
• the account associated with the vehicle, the user of the vehicle or the person who has authorized the user to use the account is identified by means of an identity (ID), unique for the debiting device, which is sent to the roadside unit, which in turn supplies the information to the central system which handles the said account. Normally, even information on the time at which the debiting operation occurred as well as the amount charged are sent from the roadside unit to the central system.
• ID identity
• ICC Smart Card
• the combination involves the transaction which is carried out in a Smart Card being used only to give the driver of the vehicle immediate confirmation that the charge has been debited as well as the amount charged.
• the "real" transaction occurs via the central system in the account which is coupled to the card. In the event of uncertainty due to discordance between the account and the Smart Card, it is the status of the account which is valid.
• ICC card
• Taxi cars and certain commercial traffic Many taxi drivers do not own the cars they drive, but either are employed to drive or hire for their own business the taxi owner's cars. Similarly, many lorry drivers do not own the vehicles they drive. In these cases it is often desirable that the charges that have accumulated, for example when using toll roads, are debited to the haulier and not the owner of the vehicles. It should be possible for the haulier to use his own card for payment of charges via the debiting device associated with the vehicle (al).
• the invention according to the said aspect involves, together with the point in time for the event requiring the payment of a charge and the amount charged, not only sending the identity of a debiting device associated with the vehicle to the central system, but also sending another identity in the form of the identity of an identity carrier coupled to a user of the vehicle to the central system, where the identity carrier is composed of, for example, an ICC card. Consequently, an identity carrier of one's choice can be used.
• the identity carrier By allowing the identity of the vehicle's debiting device to constitute a guarantee that the charge can be debited, no security is required for the identity carrier, which can, for example, be a card of one's choice.
• Figure 1 shows a general view of a system for the automatic collection of tolls for vehicles where the method according to the aspect of the invention is applicable.
• the surveillance equipment at a toll station on a multi-lane road is illustrated in the figure.
• Figure 2 shows an example of how a debiting device associated with the vehicle, a roadside unit and a central system can be constructed, as well as communication between these units.
• the surveillance equipment in the system comprises a debiting device in the vehicle Nl, N2 and a roadside unit 3.
• the debiting device consists of:
• the first communication device (1) may consist of a transponder for the local communication (2) by means of microwaves, or analogous devices which utilize transmission media other than microwaves, such as ultrasound, light inductive transmission etc.
• DSRC Dedicated Short Range Communication
• UWB waves Ultra Wide Band radio
• ultrasound infrared light
• a first processor (5) for calculation and/or subtraction of tolls and for guiding the communication between the vehicle's inner units and the outside world
• a storage unit (6) for storage of data, such as the user identity associated with the vehicle, and tariffs, etc for calculation of said tolls.
• the user identity may consist of a vehicle identity, a purse identity or a transponder identity, a reader (13) for reading and debiting of an identity carrier 14, exemplified here as a smart card.
• the physical toll station (4) comprises:
• a roadside unit (3) which has a second communication device (16) for the local communication (2) with a first communication device (1) in one of the aforesaid vehicles VI, V2, video equipment (17a- 17c) as well as suitable lighting equipment for reproduction of characteristic features of the vehicle Nl, V2, such as the number plate, and for detection of the vehicle's physical shape, including necessary image processing equipment (18) with OCR functionality (Optical Character Recognition) for identification of registration number or equivalent features, a second processor (19) in the roadside unit (3) for determination of the position of the vehicles VI and V2 within the physical toll station, based on information from measurements with the aid of a) the local communication (2) between the first communication device (1) in the vehicle VI, V2 and the second communication device (16) in the roadside unit (3), b) information from the image processing equipment (18) as well as c) by correlation of the positions obtained from measurements carried out with the help of both communication devices (1, 16) and information from the image processing equipment (18), - a storage unit (20) in the roadside unit (3) for storage of data relating
• the central system C includes the requisite equipment in the form of a third processor (23), a central storage unit (24), a SAM (Security Application Module) (25), communication equipment (26) for communication (22) with the toll station's 4 communication equipment (21), from where transmission (22) of data from the roadside unit (3) to the central system is effected.
• a third processor 23
• a central storage unit 24
• a SAM Security Application Module
• communication equipment for communication (22) with the toll station's 4 communication equipment (21), from where transmission (22) of data from the roadside unit (3) to the central system is effected.
• an identity carrier 14 coupled to a user of the vehicle is employed. It is recommended for simplicity sake that the identity carrier be comprised of some kind of card, such as a charge card or credit card.
• the identity carrier for the type examples a-c mentioned in the introduction is described below, where the corresponding solutions according to the aspect of the invention are referred to by al-cl, a2- c2 (the references a, b, c refer to the examples of debiting described in the section "State of the art" above).
• the identity carrier 14, in the case where it is comprised of a smart card, is inserted into the vehicle's VI, V2 debiting device 10, whereby the debiting device's reader 13 can read the identity of the identity carrier 14.
• information on charges debited can be transferred to the passenger's receipt of payment, (bl) and (b2) Being able to subsequently transfer information on collected toll charges and other charges, allows, in the case of the rental car, the car rental firm to pay for the card, since it is now possible to transfer the charges levied onto the invoice on return of the vehicle.
• the automatic debiting system can naturally be employed in many situations other than in the collection of tolls. Examples of such include payment for services or goods at so called “drive in” or “drive through” establishments.

Landscapes

• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Devices For Checking Fares Or Tickets At Control Points (AREA)
• Hardware Redundancy (AREA)
• Traffic Control Systems (AREA)
• Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
• Eye Examination Apparatus (AREA)
• Threshing Machine Elements (AREA)
• Other Investigation Or Analysis Of Materials By Electrical Means (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=20410612

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (10)

Families Citing this family (8)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1998
  • 1998-03-17 SE SE9800917A patent/SE514814C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1999
  • 1999-02-23 WO PCT/SE1999/000242 patent/WO1999048052A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1999-02-23 CN CN99804057A patent/CN1129094C/zh not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-02-23 KR KR1020007009750A patent/KR20010041564A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1999-02-23 EP EP99910896A patent/EP1064620A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1999-02-23 AU AU29657/99A patent/AU750065B2/en not_active Expired
  • 1999-02-23 BR BR9908814-2A patent/BR9908814A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1999-03-17 MY MYPI99000999A patent/MY124703A/en unknown
  • 1999-04-27 TW TW088106691A patent/TW381238B/zh active
• 2000
  • 2000-09-18 NO NO20004646A patent/NO320788B1/no not_active IP Right Cessation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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