JP2022052136A - Toll collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a toll collection system that allows vehicles to reliably pass through toll booths on toll roads and improves the speed at which the vehicles pass through the toll booths to a level where the vehicles do not need to merge into separate vehicle lanes.SOLUTION: A toll collection system includes: a toll charging system 11 that links a toll booth on a toll road, a vehicle passing through the toll booth, and a user, and charges the toll to a user's credit card; a dedicated application software 12 that is installed on a first mobile terminal, and transmits personal information and toll booth information to the toll charging system 11 when the user's personal information and credit card information are registered and the vehicle with the first mobile terminal passes through the tool booth; and a vehicle information acquisition system 13 that is Installed at the toll booth, recognizes the vehicle's license plate number and transmits the toll booth information linking at least the license plate number to the toll booth to the toll charging system 11.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a toll collection system.

Electronic toll collection system (ETC: Electronic Toll Collection System (registered trademark)) ("automatic toll collection system") that automatically pays tolls electronically while the vehicle is running at the tollhouse on the toll road. Also called) is installed.

In this electronic toll collection system, the wireless communication device installed at the tollhouse and the on-board unit mounted on the user's vehicle perform wireless communication to perform electronic payment of the toll. In this way, the occurrence of traffic congestion can be effectively suppressed by performing the toll settlement without hindering the running of the vehicle by wireless communication (see Patent Document 1 below).

JP-A-2015-133022

Congestion occurs on toll roads due to deceleration at tunnels, slope-changing locations, confluences, and tollhouses. Deceleration in tunnels, places where gradients change, and confluences can be expected to be mitigated by the practical application of autonomous driving. In particular, when a truck enters the overtaking lane on an uphill, the degree of deceleration is large and congestion is likely to occur, so automatic driving of the truck needs to be applied preferentially.

Further, the speed limit when passing through the ETC gate is set to 20 km / h, and this deceleration causes traffic congestion. Vehicles that cannot pass through the ETC gate due to forgetting to insert the card, poor contact, expiration date, etc. frequently occur, so if you do not request that the speed at the time of entering the gate be sufficiently reduced, a collision accident may occur. It is difficult to relax this speed limit.

In other words, deceleration at tollhouses cannot be resolved unless the automatic driving rate reaches 100% and collision accidents do not occur, and it is thought that this will be realized in the distant future. In addition, in order to compensate for the deceleration when passing through the ETC gate, multiple ETC gates are prepared at the tollhouse, but distributed merging of convoys occurs before and after the tollhouse, which also contributes to the occurrence of traffic congestion. ..

In view of such a problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide a toll collection system capable of alleviating the degree of deceleration at a tollhouse and preventing the occurrence of traffic congestion.

The toll collection system according to the first aspect of the present invention is
A tollhouse on a toll road, a vehicle that has passed through the tollhouse, and a toll collection system that links the user and charges the user's credit card.
When the personal information of the user and the card information of the credit card are registered in the first mobile terminal and the vehicle having the first mobile terminal passes through the toll booth, at least the personal information and the said Dedicated application software that sends toll office information to the toll collection system,
It is equipped with a vehicle information acquisition system installed at the tollhouse, which recognizes the number of the vehicle and transmits at least the tollhouse information associated with the number and the tollhouse to the toll collection system.
The toll collection system is characterized in that the association is performed based on the dedicated application software and each of the information received from the vehicle information acquisition system.

More preferably
The vehicle information acquisition system is
Front photography means for photographing the front license plate provided in front of the vehicle, and
A rear photography means for photographing a rear license plate provided at the rear of the vehicle is provided.
When any one or more of the front license plate and the rear license plate cannot be photographed, it is characterized by transmitting to that effect to the toll collection system.

More preferably
The dedicated application software is
A screen on which a vehicle registration can be applied is displayed on the first mobile terminal, and when the user applies for vehicle registration from the screen, the first notification that the user has applied for vehicle registration is collected. It is sent to the system
The toll collection system is
When the first notification is received from the first mobile terminal, the second notification that the user has applied for vehicle registration is transmitted to the second mobile terminal of the user in the vehicle verification of the vehicle, and then the second notification is sent. Upon receiving the third notification of whether or not the vehicle can be registered from the second mobile terminal, the first mobile terminal is characterized by transmitting a vehicle registration completion notification or a vehicle registration failure notification.

According to the toll collection system according to the present invention, a vehicle can surely pass through a tollhouse on a toll road, the speed at the time of passing through the tollhouse is improved to a level at which decentralized confluence of convoys is unnecessary, and fraud is committed. Can be prevented.

It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the charge collection system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic front view explaining the structure of the vehicle information acquisition system in the Example of this invention. It is a schematic side view explaining the structure of the vehicle information acquisition system in the Example of this invention.

Hereinafter, the toll collection system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings in the examples.

In this embodiment, by combining the following two techniques, it is possible to reliably pass through and prevent fraud. In the following, the case of entering and exiting the toll road will be collectively referred to as "passing".
-Identification of the driving position using GPS information of mobile terminals such as smartphones.
-The number of the vehicle passing through the tollhouse is specified by the configuration that changed the conventional automatic number plate recognition (N system).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a toll collection system according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the toll collection system 1 includes a toll collection system 11, a dedicated application software 12, a vehicle information acquisition system 13, and a vehicle verification information management server 14 as main configurations. Further, the mobile terminal 2 in FIG. 1 refers to a smartphone, a tablet, or the like.

The dedicated application software 12 is installed in the mobile terminal 2 in advance, and personal information of the user and card information of the user's card (hereinafter referred to as user information) are registered. The registered user information is transmitted to the charge collection system 11. The "card" here refers to the credit card of the user who pays the toll road fee.

Further, the dedicated application software 12 can display a screen on the mobile terminal 2 at which an application for vehicle registration can be made. When the user applies for vehicle registration from the screen, a notification that "the user has applied for vehicle registration" is transmitted from the mobile terminal 2 to the toll collection system 11.

Then, the dedicated application software 12 (hereinafter referred to as user application software) installed in the mobile terminal 2 of the user (which may be the same as the user) for vehicle verification of the vehicle, and the user and user for vehicle verification of the vehicle. If they are the same, the user application software is the same as the dedicated application software 12), and when the information that "the user has applied for vehicle registration" is received from the toll collection system 11, it is possible to select whether or not to register the vehicle. Screen is displayed, and the selection result by the user is transmitted from the mobile terminal 2 to the toll collection system 11.

Further, the dedicated application software 12 has a mobile terminal 2 in which the dedicated application software 12 is installed, that is, a vehicle on which (driving) a user having the mobile terminal 2 has passed through the tollhouse F on the toll road. At that time, the following information (hereinafter referred to as specific information) is transmitted to the toll collection system 11.
-A unique identifier for identifying the user registered in the dedicated application software 12 (user's personal information is also acceptable)
-The name of the tollhouse that passed, the time stamp at the time of passage, and the GPS coordinates (preferably, only the GPS information used to determine the name of the tollhouse that passed by the dedicated application software 12 is transmitted).

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the vehicle information acquisition system 13 is installed in the tollhouse F and includes a front photographing means 31, a rear photographing means 32, and a processing means 33.

The front photographing means 31 is a camera provided in front of the vehicle passing through the toll booth F (hereinafter referred to as a front license plate) and a camera for photographing the driver's face, and the rear photographing means 32 is the rear of the vehicle. It is a camera that shoots the license plate (hereinafter referred to as the rear license plate) provided in.

The processing means 33 recognizes the vehicle number from the image data taken by the shooting means 31 and 32, and associates the recognized number, the time stamp at the time of shooting (recognition), and the tollhouse name of the tollhouse F. Information (hereinafter referred to as tollhouse information) is generated and transmitted to the toll collection system 11.

However, it is conceivable that the vehicle is not provided with a license plate. At this time, since the license plate cannot be photographed by the front photographing means 31 and the rear photographing means 32, the processing means 33 adds the information that the license plate cannot be photographed to the toll office information and transmits the information to the toll office collection system 11. (Either the front license plate cannot be photographed, the rear license plate cannot be photographed, or the front license plate and the rear license plate cannot be photographed).

Further, although not shown, the vehicle information acquisition system 13 may be provided with an auxiliary camera capable of identifying a two-wheeled vehicle from the shape of a vehicle approaching the tollhouse F.

It is desirable that a roof be installed above the tollhouse F in order to prevent shooting from failing due to heavy rain or snow.

On the other hand, the toll collection system 11 includes a communication control means 21, a linking means 22, a charge billing means 23, a registration means 24, a determination means 25, a tollhouse information storage means 26, and a user information storage means 27.

The communication control means 21 communicates with the mobile terminal 2, the vehicle information acquisition system 13, the vehicle verification information management server 14, the theft report management system 15, the rental car reservation system 16, and the rental car management system 17, respectively. Hereinafter, for the sake of simplicity, the fact that the communication control means 21 is used in each communication will be omitted.

The tollhouse information storage means 26 stores tollhouse information received from the vehicle information acquisition system 13, and the user information storage means 27 stores user information and specific information received from the mobile terminal 2. It is a thing.

The linking means 22 links the tollhouse F, the vehicle that has passed through the tollhouse F, and the user based on the tollhouse information, the specific information, and the user information.

The fee billing means 23 charges a fee for the card of the card information included in the user information stored in the user information storage means 27 based on the vehicle and the user linked by the linking means 22. The billed amount is calculated based on the name of the tollhouse, the number (to determine the vehicle type classification), and the passing time.

The passing time is a time stamp (received from the dedicated application software 12 and the vehicle information acquisition system 13) at the time of passing through the tollhouse.

The registration means 24 notifies from the mobile terminal 2 on which the dedicated application software 12 is installed that "the user has applied for vehicle registration", and the image data of the license plate of the corresponding vehicle taken by the user with the mobile terminal 2 or the like. Upon receipt, the vehicle verification information management server 14 is requested to inquire about vehicle verification information. After that, the vehicle verification information received from the vehicle verification information management server 14 is stored in the user information storage means 27.

Then, the toll collection system 11 notifies the mobile terminal on which the user application software (which may be the same as the dedicated application software 12 as described above) is installed, that the user has applied for vehicle registration. After that, the mobile terminal 2 receives a notification of whether or not the vehicle can be registered.

The registration means 24 stores this notification in the user information storage means 27, and notifies the mobile terminal 2 in which the dedicated application software 12 is installed that the vehicle registration is completed (the user application software notifies the vehicle registration permission). (When received) or a vehicle registration failure notification (when a notification of vehicle registration refusal is received from the user application software) is sent.

However, if the vehicle for which the user has applied for vehicle registration has a registered number (that is, the vehicle is stored in the user information storage means 27), the vehicle verification information is sent to the vehicle verification information management server 14. The user can grasp the vehicle verification without asking for the inquiry.

However, it is possible that the vehicle is a rental car or an unmanned rental car. The registration means 24 receives a notification that "the user has applied for vehicle registration" from the mobile terminal 2 in which the dedicated application software 12 is installed, and image data of the rental car number plate taken by the user by the mobile terminal 2 or the like. Then, the image data is transmitted to the rental car reservation system 16 and the inquiry of the personal information of the contractor of the rental car is requested.

After that, when the registration means 24 receives the notification from the rental car reservation system 16 that the contractor has personal information, the registration means 24 sends a vehicle registration completion notification to the mobile terminal 2 (dedicated application software 12) and the rental car management system 17, and makes a contract. Upon receiving the notification that there is no personal information of the person, the notification that the vehicle cannot be registered is transmitted to the mobile terminal 2 (dedicated application software 12).

The determination means 25 determines whether or not the tollhouse information received by the toll collection system 11 from the vehicle information acquisition system 13 and stored in the tollhouse information storage means 26 includes information that the license plate cannot be photographed. Based on this, determine if there is a problem. This point will be described in detail below.

a: If the tollhouse information does not include information that license plate photography is not possible, it is judged that there is no problem. If there is no problem, the billing means 23 processes the bill as usual. The same applies to the following.

b: If the front license plate cannot be photographed, the presence or absence of the original front license plate of the vehicle model is determined based on the information of the number recognized from the rear license plate (by the processing means 33).

Then, if it is determined that the vehicle passing through the tollhouse F is a vehicle type without a front license plate (for example, a two-wheeled vehicle), it is determined that there is no problem. On the other hand, if it is determined that the vehicle model has a front license plate, it is determined that there is no problem if the user information is acquired (if it is stored in the user information storage means 27), and the user information is acquired. If not (if it is not stored in the storage means 27 such as user information), the following processing in the case of "cannot acquire user information" is performed.

When "user information cannot be acquired", the determination means 25 requests the theft report management system 15 to inquire about the theft report, and then receives a notification from the theft report management system 15 of the presence or absence of the theft report.

If the theft has been reported, the billing process of the billing means 23 is stopped, a warning notification is generated, and this is displayed on the screen. The display can be confirmed by the manager (worker) of the toll collection system 11, and the manager (worker) who has confirmed the display reports to the police. At that time, the image data of the driver's face taken by the forward photographing means 31 can be used.

In addition, if the theft has not been reported, the toll billing means 23 causes the user for vehicle verification to charge the charge instead of the user who was driving the vehicle that passed through the tollhouse F, and the vehicle is verified. If the above user responds to the request, it is judged that there is no problem. On the other hand, if the user in the vehicle verification rejects the request, a warning notification is generated and displayed on the screen. The manager (worker) who confirms the display reports to the police.

c: If the rear license plate cannot be photographed, it is judged that there is no problem if the user information is acquired (if it is stored in the storage means 27 such as user information), and if the user information is not acquired (user information). (If it is not stored in the equal storage means 27), the above-mentioned processing in the case of "cannot acquire user information" is performed.

d: If the front license plate and the rear license plate cannot be photographed, a warning notification is immediately generated and displayed on the screen. The manager (worker) who confirms the display reports to the police.

However, the administrator (worker) may manually perform all the processes by the determination means 25 described above (in that case, it is not necessary to generate a warning notification).

When the vehicle verification information management server 14 is requested to inquire about vehicle verification information from the registration means 24 of the toll collection system 11, it detects vehicle verification information such as a user of the corresponding vehicle number and charges this vehicle verification information. It is transmitted to the collection system 11. Then, the vehicle verification information is stored in the user information or the like storage means 27.

The vehicle verification information management server 14 may directly communicate with the dedicated application software 12 installed in the mobile terminal 2, but in consideration of security, it is desirable to go through the toll collection system 11.

The theft report management system 15 is owned by the police and stores the theft report of the vehicle. Then, when the toll collection system 11 (determination means 25) requests an inquiry of the theft report, the theft report of the corresponding vehicle is detected, and if it can be detected, the notification that the theft report has been made and the said The information of the theft report is transmitted to the charge collection system 11. If it cannot be detected, a notification that there is no theft report is sent to the toll collection system 11.

The rental car reservation system 16 is owned by the rental car shop and stores the personal information of the rental car contractor. Then, when the rental car reservation system 16 is requested by the registration means 24 of the toll collection system 11 to inquire the personal information of the contractor of the corresponding vehicle (as a rental car), the car rental reservation system 16 performs the detection processing of the personal information of the contractor and the contractor. Notification of the presence or absence of personal information of the contractor, and if there is personal information of the contractor, the information is transmitted to the fee collection system 11. In addition, when the rental car return process is completed, the contractor's registration is automatically deleted along with the contractor information.

The rental car management system 17 is owned by the rental car shop and controls the engine of the unmanned rental car. The engine of the unmanned rental car is locked in the initial state, and the rental car management system 17 unlocks the engine by remote control when the vehicle registration completion notification is received from the registration means 24 of the toll collection system 11.

Alternatively, instead of locking the engine in the initial state, when the rental car management system 17 receives a vehicle registration completion notification from the registration means 24 of the toll collection system 11, a "number" is displayed on the display, speaker, etc. in the car of the unmanned rental car. It may be controlled by remote control so as to output a guidance such as "Please take a picture of the plate and apply for registration."

When renting a rental car, the rental car reservation system 16 is used, and when renting an unmanned rental car, the rental car reservation system 16 and the rental car management system 17 are used.

The above is the description of the configuration of the toll collection system 1. Hereinafter, the flow of processing using the toll collection system 1 will be roughly described.

A. Identification of passing vehicles and billing method 1. The user installs the dedicated application software 12 on the mobile terminal 2, registers the user information in advance, and when the vehicle passes through the tollhouse F, the mobile terminal 2 transmits the specific information to the toll collection system 11.

2. 2. The vehicle information acquisition system 13 installed in the tollhouse F transmits the tollhouse information to the toll collection system 11 when the vehicle passes through the tollhouse F.

3. 3. In the linking means 22 of the toll collection system 11, the vehicle and the user are linked based on the user information, the tollhouse information, and the specific information.

4. The charge billing means 23 of the charge collection system 11 charges the user's registration card. However, if the specific information of multiple users is detected in one vehicle (for example, when traveling with a family or traveling with multiple people in a company-owned vehicle), the representative registrant (user for vehicle verification) Charge the fee to the registration card of (The dedicated application software 12 may have a function to temporarily switch the representative registrant).

B. Unauthorized use detection logic 1. The front photography means 31 and the rear photography means 32 of the vehicle information acquisition system 12 photograph the front license plate and the rear license plate of the vehicle passing through the tollhouse F, and the processing means 33 recognizes the number based on the photographed image and charges. It is transmitted to the toll collection system 11 as location information. If the license plate cannot be photographed, a message to that effect will be sent in addition to the tollhouse information.

2. 2. In the toll billing means 23 of the toll collection system 11, it is determined whether or not there is a problem based on whether or not the tollhouse information includes information that the license plate cannot be photographed. Depending on the judgment result, one of the processing of billing as usual, billing the user for vehicle verification, or generating a warning notification is performed.

C. Vehicle registration method 1. The user installs the dedicated application software 12 on the mobile terminal 2 and registers the user information.

2. 2. The license plate of the vehicle that the user wants to register is photographed by the mobile terminal 2 or the like, and the image data is transmitted to the registration means 24 of the toll collection system 11 together with the application for vehicle registration. The registration means 24 notifies the user application software that "the user has applied for vehicle registration", and when the user on vehicle verification permits the registration, the registration is completed.

When the vehicle is a rent-a-car, when the user rents a car, the license plate is photographed by the mobile terminal 2 or the like, and the image data is transmitted to the charge collection system 11. Registration is permitted when the personal information of the user included in the user information registered in the dedicated application software 12 and the personal information of the rental car user match. Then, the registration is automatically deleted when the vehicle is returned.
The above is the description of the flow of processing using the toll collection system 1.

The GPS of the smartphone used in this embodiment rarely misidentifies the position and the traveling place (misidentifying as a down road while traveling on a highway, etc.). In addition, the radio waves of smartphones are in good reception around the toll road.

Further, as the front photographing means 31 and the rear photographing means 32 used in the vehicle information acquisition system of this embodiment, those adopted in the N system in the section of the highway limited to 100 km / h are used. Further, since an infrared camera is used for the front photographing means 31 and the rear photographing means 32 and a special paint is used for the number of the car, the number can be read without any problem even at night or the like.

Further, by installing a roof above the tollhouse F, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the number cannot be read by the vehicle information acquisition system 13 during heavy rain or snowfall.

Further, in this embodiment, if the dedicated application software 12 has an automatic payment function such as convenience store payment or Pay-easy payment, the information related to the automatic payment function is used instead of the card information of the credit card, and the automatic payment is made. You can make the feature billed.

Further, in this embodiment, the dedicated application software 12 may be installed not in the mobile terminal 2 but in an in-vehicle telematics terminal such as a car navigation system. In this case, the user's personal information shall include the contact information for notifying the payment information of the charge (mobile number, e-mail address, etc. (pre-registration is required). Application for vehicle registration only in the vehicle Therefore, it is not necessary to notify the user for vehicle verification when applying for vehicle registration. In addition, multiple people may be registered. In that case, the dedicated application software 12 is used for the in-vehicle telematics terminal. The current driver can be selected on the displayed screen.

In this way, in this embodiment, since the ETC card is not required on the toll road, the vehicle can surely pass through the tollhouse, so that the ETC gate is also unnecessary and the speed at the time of passing through the tollhouse is increased. Since the decentralized merging of vehicle lines can be improved to an unnecessary level, it is possible to prevent traffic congestion and fraud.

The present invention is suitable as a toll collection system.

1 Toll collection system 11 Toll collection system 12 Dedicated application software 13 Vehicle information acquisition system 14 Vehicle verification information management server 15 Theft report management system 16 Rent-a-car reservation system 17 Rent-a-car management system 21 Communication control means 22 Linking means 23 Toll billing means 24 Registration means 25 Judgment means 26 Toll office information storage means 27 User information storage means 31 Front shooting means 32 Rear shooting means 33 Processing means

Claims (3)

A tollhouse on a toll road, a vehicle that has passed through the tollhouse, and a toll collection system that links the user and charges the user's credit card.
When the personal information of the user and the card information of the credit card are registered in the first mobile terminal and the vehicle having the first mobile terminal passes through the toll booth, at least the personal information and the said Dedicated application software that sends toll office information to the toll collection system,
It is equipped with a vehicle information acquisition system installed at the tollhouse, which recognizes the number of the vehicle and transmits at least the tollhouse information associated with the number and the tollhouse to the toll collection system.
The toll collection system is a toll collection system characterized in that the association is performed based on the dedicated application software and each of the information received from the vehicle information acquisition system. The vehicle information acquisition system is
Front photography means for photographing the front license plate provided in front of the vehicle, and
A rear photography means for photographing a rear license plate provided at the rear of the vehicle is provided.
The toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein when any one or more of the front license plate and the rear license plate cannot be photographed, that fact is transmitted to the toll collection system. The dedicated application software is
A screen on which a vehicle registration can be applied is displayed on the first mobile terminal, and when the user applies for vehicle registration from the screen, the first notification that the user has applied for vehicle registration is collected. It is sent to the system
The toll collection system is
When the first notification is received from the first mobile terminal, the second notification that the user has applied for vehicle registration is transmitted to the second mobile terminal of the user in the vehicle verification of the vehicle, and then the second notification is sent. The fee according to claim 1, wherein when the third notification of whether or not the vehicle registration is possible is received from the second mobile terminal, a vehicle registration completion notification or a vehicle registration failure notification is transmitted to the first mobile terminal. Receipt system.

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