VEHICLE LANE DISCRIMINATION IN AN ELECTRONIC TOLL COLLECTION SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A vehicle position determination system for determining a position of a moving vehicle having a transponder in a multi-lane roadway, the transponder being configured to transmit a probable lane response signal which is based on the number of instances the transponder has received a transmission from one or more communication sources, the vehicle determination system comprising:
- two or more roadway antennas for receiving the probable lane response signal from the transponder, the roadway antennas having partially overlapped coverage zones, each roadway antenna having a unique identifier associated therewith; and
a controller configured to cause each roadway antenna to periodically transmit its unique identifier.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle position determination system for determining the position of a moving vehicle in a multi-lane roadway. Two or more roadway antennas each periodically transmit an identifier that is associated with and unique to the antenna to a transponder located in the moving vehicle. As the moving vehicle passes through the coverage zone of the antennas, the transponder counts the number of times that it receives each unique identifier and reports this information to a roadside controller. Based on this information, the roadside controller can determine a probable location of the moving vehicle. The vehicle location information can be provided to an imaging system to discriminate between transponder and non-transponder equipped vehicles.
29 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A vehicle position determination system for determining a position of a moving vehicle having a transponder in a multi-lane roadway, the transponder being configured to transmit a probable lane response signal which is based on the number of instances the transponder has received a transmission from one or more communication sources, the vehicle determination system comprising:
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two or more roadway antennas for receiving the probable lane response signal from the transponder, the roadway antennas having partially overlapped coverage zones, each roadway antenna having a unique identifier associated therewith; and a controller configured to cause each roadway antenna to periodically transmit its unique identifier. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A transponder for a vehicle position determination system for tracking the position of a moving vehicle in a multi-lane roadway, the vehicle positioning system having at least two or more roadway antennas having partially overlapped coverage areas, each roadway antenna having a unique identifier associated therewith, each roadway antenna periodically transmitting its unique identifier, the transponder comprising:
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a transponder antenna for receiving the unique identifier from at least one roadway antenna and transmitting a probable lane response signal to at least one roadway antenna; memory for storing at least one counter, each counter being associated with one of the identifiers; and a controller configured to increment the counter associated with one of the identifiers in response to the receipt of that identifier by the transponder antenna; wherein the controller is configured to cause the transponder antenna to transmit the probable lane response signal to the roadway antennas, wherein the probable lane response signal is based on an accumulated value in each counter. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of determining a position of a moving vehicle having a transponder in a multi-lane roadway, the multi-lane roadway having two or more roadway antennas having partially overlapped coverage zones, each roadway antenna having a unique identifier associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving from any one of the roadway antennas an RF trigger signal and its associated unique identifier; incrementing a counter associated with the unique identifier in response to the receipt thereof; generating a probable lane response signal based upon the value in the counter associated with each unique identifier; and transmitting the probable lane response signal to at least one of the roadway antennas. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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Specification