METHOD AND ON-BOARD UNIT FOR SIGNALING TOLL TRANSACTIONS IN A ROAD TOLL SYSTEM

• US 20130144687A1
• Filed: 11/26/2012
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Smely, Dieter
• Application Number:
  US13/684,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20130144687A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/06 Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G

Abstract

A method and an on-board unit for signaling toll transactions in a road toll system with geographically distributed radio beacons, carrying out toll transactions with passing on-board units of vehicles. In the on-board unit, it is verified in the course of a toll transaction between an on-board unit and a radio beacon whether a toll transaction dates back longer than a given time span, and if so, an acoustic signal is emitted by the on-board unit, and if not, no acoustic signal is emitted by the on-board unit.

Claims

1. A method for signaling toll transactions in a road toll system with geographically distributed radio beacons carrying out toll transactions with passing on-board units of vehicles, the method comprising:

in the course of a toll transaction between an on-board unit and a radio beacon, verifying whether a toll transaction stored last in the on-board unit together with a timestamp dates back longer than a given time span;

if so, emitting an acoustic signal by the on-board unit, and if not, no acoustic signal is emitted by the on-board unit; and

storing a current toll transaction together with a current timestamp in the on-board unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the given time span is preset as a function of the geographical distance of the radio beacon to radio beacon located next and a measured speed value of the on-board unit.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said verification is conducted in the radio beacon, by the radio beacon reading out the stored timestamp from the on-board unit, comparing the readout timestamp with the current timestamp of the current toll transaction, and sending a request to the on-board unit to emit the acoustic signal according to comparing.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said verification is conducted in the on-board unit by comparing the current timestamp of the current toll transaction with the stored timestamp of the stored toll transaction.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising setting the on-board unit to a power saving mode between toll transactions.

6. A method for signaling toll transactions in a road toll system with geographically distributed radio beacons carrying out toll transactions with passing on-board units of vehicles, the method comprising:

in the course of a toll transaction between an on-board unit and a radio beacon, verifying whether a timer contained in the on-board unit has expired;

if so, emitting an acoustic signal by the on-board unit, and if not, no acoustic signal is emitted by the on-board unit; and

resetting the timer to the start of its running time.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising emitting an acoustic signal by the on-board unit after expiration of the timer.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein in said timer reset, a running time is set as a function of the geographical distance of the radio beacon to a radio beacon located next and a measured speed value of the on-board unit.

9. The method according to claim 6, Wherein said verification is conducted in the on-board unit.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the on-board unit is set to a power saving mode between toll transactions.

11. An on-board unit for signaling toll transactions in a road toll system comprising:

a control unit and a transceiver for carrying out toll transactions with radio beacons which are passed by the onboard unit along its way;

an acoustic signal transmitter for signaling completed toll transactions; and

a timer running over a running time which can be reset to the start of said running time by every toll transaction, wherein the control unit is configured to verify, in the course of a toll transaction, whether the timer has expired, and if so, to trigger the signal transmitter to emit an acoustic signal.

12. The on-board unit according to claim 11, wherein the timer, once expired, triggers the signal transmitter to emit an acoustic signal.

13. The on-board unit according to claim 12, wherein the running time of the timer is controlled by a measured value of the speed of the on-board unit.

14. The on-board unit according to claim 13, wherein the running time of the tinier is controlled by location information received by the on-board unit from a radio beacon in the course of a toll transaction.

15. The on-board unit according to claim 14, wherein the on-board unit is set to a power saving mode between toll transactions, in which only the transceiver and the timer are supplied with power.