Method and system for registering tickets

• US 20020140553A1
• Filed: 03/11/2002
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens VDO Automotive AG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens VDO Automotive AG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Wenger, Bruno, Cronimund, Christoph, Brandli, Willi, Schreppers, Reto, Rebsamen, Aldo, Salzgeber, Gerard, Bachtiger, Rolf
• Granted Patent: US 7,143,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00

Abstract

A method and a system for registering tickets includes defining a waking zone with a transceiver unit having a transmitting unit, defining a registration zone with a registration transceiver unit, providing tickets having a processor, a memory, a ticket receiver, and a ticket transceiver for communicating between the waking zone and the tickets, transmitting a first information unit from the transmitting unit to the ticket receiver of a ticket located in the waking zone, activating the ticket transceiver of the ticket located in the waking zone with an item of information contained in the first information unit, at a beginning of ticket registration, setting up a bi-directional communication between the registration transceiver unit and a ticket transceiver of a ticket located in the registration zone through additional information units, and registering ticket presence to establish a service to be used or a defined presence.

Claims

1. A method for registering tickets, which comprises:

defining a waking zone and associating the waking zone with at least one transceiver unit disposed in the waking zone, the transceiver unit having a transmitting unit;

defining a registration zone and associating the registration zone with a registration transceiver unit and the waking zone;

providing tickets having;

a processor module;

a memory module;

at least one ticket receiving module; and

at least one ticket transceiver module for communicating between the waking zone and the tickets;

transmitting a first information unit from the transmitting unit to a ticket receiving module of a ticket located in the waking zone;

activating, with the processor module, the ticket transceiver module of the ticket located in the waking zone with an item of information contained in the first information unit;

at a point in time determined by a beginning of a ticket registration, setting up a bi-directional communication between the registration transceiver unit and a ticket transceiver module of a ticket located in the registration zone through additional information units, and registering a presence of the ticket at least once to establish at least one of a service to be used and a defined presence.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additional information units include second and third information units.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the second and third information units include at least information concerning a location of the ticket and at least one of a date and a time, and which further comprises storing the information in at least one of:

an area of the memory module of the ticket; and

a data bank associated with at least one of the group consisting of an onboard computer, a remote computer system, and the registration transceiver unit.

4. The method according to claim 3, which further comprises:

defining a plurality of registration zones; and

carrying out the registration step by registering a presence of a ticket only for all tickets located in the registration zone having received an identical item of information associated with at least one of the registration zones concerning the location and the date and time.

5. The method according to claim 3, which further comprises:

providing a fixed ticket transmitting locational information fields;

attaching a receiving unit to a vehicle; and

transmitting the information concerning the location with the locational information fields from the fixed ticket through the receiving unit to the registration transceiver unit utilizing the third information unit.

6. The method according to claim 3, which further comprises:

based upon the information concerning the location, transmitting a virtual journey section number in the second information unit to the tickets located in the registration zone and changing the journey section number for each section of a journey by a counting increment; and

comparing the journey section number stored on the ticket with a current journey section number to determine if the ticket was correctly registered in previous sections of the journey.

7. The method according to claim 6, which further comprises intermittently activating the ticket transceiver module of the ticket.

8. The method according to claim 7, which further comprises establishing an activation timepoint of the ticket transceiver module with at least one of the group consisting of:

an item of information in the first information unit; and

an item of information in the second information unit.

9. The method according to claim 8, which further comprises determining the activation timepoint of the ticket transceiver module with a random generator.

10. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second information unit includes at least one of:

information identifying the ticket; and

personal information fields identifying a person assigned to the ticket; and

which further comprises acknowledging a reception of the third information unit by transmitting a further second information unit to the respective ticket.

11. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises selecting a frequency of the transmitting unit to form a field of the waking zone as a near field.

12. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises selecting a frequency of the registration transceiver unit to form a field of the registration zone as a far field.

13. The method according to claim 11, which further comprises selecting a frequency of the registration transceiver unit to form a field of the registration zone as a far field.

14. The method according to claim 2, which further comprises:

transmitting the first information unit from a writing/reading device to the ticket, the first information unit indicating one of an entitlement to use of a service and an identification; and

setting up bi-directional communication between the writing/reading device and the ticket with the third information unit by activating the ticket transceiver module of the ticket located in the waking zone with the item of information contained in the first information unit.

15. The method according to claim 7, which further comprises:

monitoring the intermittent activation of the ticket transceiver module with a timing element; and

if the ticket transceiver module is permanently activated, switching off the ticket transceiver module after a fixed time.

16. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises carrying out the setting up and registering steps by commencing bi-directional communication with the tickets through a registration transceiver unit lying within a registration area and performing a first registration in accordance with one of a state of the ticket and a pre-history of the communication both within a randomly determined respective time interval.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one ticket transceiver module of the ticket is a first ticket transceiver module and the tickets each have a second ticket transceiver module;

and which further comprises;

defining a passing zone associated with a stationary transceiver unit, the second ticket transceiver module setting up one of unidirectional and bi-directional communication with the stationary transceiver unit; and

granting access to the zone and registering a presence of a ticket in accordance with data stored in one of the group consisting of;

a memory area of the memory module; and

a data bank of a computer system associated with the second ticket transceiver module.

18. The method according to claim 17, where the tickets each have a third ticket transceiver module;

and which further comprises;

providing an issuing machine having a fourth transceiver unit, the third ticket transceiver module setting up bi-directional communication with the fourth transceiver unit, and

storing at least one of personal-information fields identifying a person and personal-information fields associated with a person in an area of the memory module.

19. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises identifying registrations of the tickets by attributes and performing actions, dependent on the attributes, selected from the group consisting of:

only acknowledging presence of the tickets; and

indicating use of a service requiring payment.

20. The method according to claim 19, which further comprises:

establishing the attributes with the issuing machine through a communication with the third ticket transceiver module; and

on an output module of the ticket, displaying, dependent upon the attributes, one of the attributes and a given item of information.

21. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises registering the ticket for one of authorizing transportation, authorizing entry to an exhibition, and authorizing entry in a protected zone.

22. A system for registering tickets at a given location including a waking zone and a registration zone for establishing at least one of a service to be used and a defined presence, comprising:

tickets each having;

a processor module;

a memory module connected to said processor module;

at least one receiving module connected to said processor module; and

a ticket transceiver module;

at least one transceiver unit for communicating with said receiving module, said transceiver unit including;

a transmitting unit disposed in the waking zone for communicating with said receiving module;

a transceiver unit disposed in the registration zone, said transceiver unit setting up bi-directional communication with said ticket transceiver module when a respective one of said tickets is located in the registration zone;

a data bank coupled to said transceiver unit; and

at least one of said transceiver unit and said processor module being programmed to register a presence of said tickets in at least one of the waking zone and the registration zone as ticket records in a respective one of said data bank and said memory module.

23. The system according to claim 22, including an onboard computer and a remote computer system, said data bank being disposed in at least one of the group consisting of:

said transceiver unit;

said onboard computer; and

said remote computer system.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein:

communication between said tickets and said transceiver unit is at a given frequency through a given transmission method; and

said transmitting unit and said transceiver unit are connected to said onboard computer through a radio link at said given frequency and applying said given transmission method.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein:

said tickets each have a second ticket transceiver module; and

a third transceiver unit communicates with said second ticket transceiver module.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein:

said tickets each have a third ticket transceiver module; and

an issuing machine has a fourth transceiver unit communicating with said third ticket transceiver module.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein:

said issuing machine is a portable inspection unit having;

a display displaying said ticket records; and

a slot for receiving at least one ticket;

said transmitting unit and said transceiver unit communicate with said inspection unit.

28. The system according to claim 22, including:

a receiving unit associated with the registration zone;

a fixed ticket transmitting locational information concerning

a given location with information fields to said receiving unit; and

said receiving unit coupled to at least one of said transmitting unit and said transceiver unit for supplying the locational information thereto.

29. The system according to claim 22, wherein:

at least one information unit is transmitted to said tickets indicating one of an entitlement to use of a service and an identification; and

a writing/reading device has;

a ticket recording device;

a processor system connected to said ticket recording device;

a receiving antenna and a receiving amplifier connected to said receiving antenna and to said processor system, said receiving antenna inductively coupling to said tickets; and

a transmitting antenna and a transmitting amplifier connected to said transmitting antenna and to said processor system, said transmitting antenna electromagnetically coupling with said tickets.

30. A method for registering tickets to establish at least one of a service to be used and a defined presence, which comprises:

providing tickets each having a processor module, a memory module, at least one receiving module, and at least one transmitting module;

defining a registration zone and associating the registration zone with a registration transceiver unit for communicating with the tickets, the registration transceiver unit having a transmitting unit and a receiving unit;

transmitting a first information unit from the transmitting unit to the receiving module of tickets located in the registration zone;

activating, with the processor module, the transmitting module contained on the ticket with an item of information contained in the first information unit to cause transmission of a further information unit to the receiving unit of the registration transceiver unit; and

upon receiving the further information unit, registering a respective presence of tickets at least once as a ticket record.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the first and further information units include at least information concerning at least one of location, date, and time, and which further comprises storing the information in at least one of:

an area of the memory module; and

a data bank associated with at least one of the group consisting of an onboard computer, a remote computer system, and the receiving unit.

32. The method according to claim 31, which further comprises:

based upon the information concerning the location, transmitting a virtual journey section number in the first information unit to the tickets located in the registration zone and changing the virtual journey section number for each section of the journey by a counting increment; and

comparing the journey section number stored on the ticket with a current journey section number to determine if the ticket was correctly registered in previous sections of the journey.

33. The method according to claim 30, which further comprises determining the activation timepoint of the transmitting module with a random generator.

34. The method according to claim 30, which further comprises selecting a frequency of the transmitting unit to form a field in the registration zone as a near field.

35. The method according to claim 30, which further comprises selecting a frequency of the transmitting module to form a field in the registration zone as a far field.

36. The method according to claim 30, which further comprises:

transmitting the first information unit from a writing/reading device to the ticket, the first information unit indicating one of an entitlement to use of a service and an identification; and

setting up bi-directional communication between the writing/reading device and the ticket with the further information unit by activating the transmitting module contained on the ticket with the item of information contained in the first information unit to cause transmission of the further information unit to the receiving unit of the registration transceiver unit.

37. The method according to claim 36, which further comprises:

coupling the writing/reading device to a network; and

only enabling the transmission of the entitlement to use of a service, contained in the first information unit, to the ticket if the entitlement has been validated beforehand through the network.

38. The method according to claim 37, which further comprises:

at least one of pushing the ticket into the writing/reading device and placing the ticket onto the writing/reading device;

transmitting the first information unit to the ticket by an inductive coupling; and

transmitting the further information unit to the writing/reading device by an electromagnetic coupling.

39. The method according to claim 30, which further comprises registering the ticket for one of authorizing transportation, authorizing entry to an exhibition, and authorizing entry in a protected zone.

40. A system for registering tickets at a given location including a waking zone and a registration zone for establishing at least one of a service to be used and a defined presence, comprising:

tickets each having;

a processor module;

a memory module connected to said processor module;

at least one receiving module connected to said processor module; and

at least one transmitting module;

at least one transceiver unit for communicating with said tickets, said transceiver unit disposed in the registration zone and including;

a receiving unit disposed in the registration zone; and

at least one transmitting unit communicating with said receiving module and said transmitting module, said transmitting unit disposed in the registration zone;

a data bank coupled to said receiving unit; and

a presence of said tickets located in the registration zone being registered as ticket records in at least one of said memory module and said data bank by a first information unit transmitted to said tickets and a further information unit transmitted from said tickets to said receiving unit.

41. The system according to claim 40, wherein said transmitting unit transmits at a frequency to form a field in the registration zone as a near field.

42. The system according to claim 40, wherein said transmitting module transmits at a frequency to form a field in the registration zone as a far field.

43. The system according to claim 41, wherein said transmitting module transmits at a frequency to form a field in the registration zone as a far field.

44. The system according to claim 40, wherein:

at least the first information unit is transmitted to said tickets indicating one of an entitlement to use of a service and an identification; and

a writing/reading device has;

a ticket recording device;

a processor system connected to said ticket recording device;

a receiving antenna and a receiving amplifier connected to said receiving antenna and to said processor system, said receiving antenna inductively coupling to said tickets; and

a transmitting antenna and a transmitting amplifier connected to said transmitting antenna and to said processor system, said transmitting antenna electromagnetically coupling with said tickets.