Electronic Toll Management

• US 20140074567A1
• Filed: 09/12/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Hedley, Jay E., Thornburg, Neal Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,240,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2240/00 Transportation facility access, e.g. fares, tolls or parking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/30 Transportation; Communications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

Identifying a vehicle in a toll system includes accessing a set of toll transaction entries. Each entry in the set designates a toll transaction between a vehicle and the toll system and includes a transaction descriptor and a transaction time stamp. A series of toll transaction pictures is accessed. The series includes a plurality of pictures, each of which is associated with a picture time stamp. A toll transaction entry is identified from the set as a violation transaction entry based on the transaction descriptor. A toll transaction picture is selected from the series. The transaction time stamp of the violation transaction is compared, using a processing device, with the picture time stamp of the selected toll transaction picture. The selected toll transaction picture is identified as a violation picture corresponding to the violation transaction entry based on a result of the comparison.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method of detecting a vehicle transacting with a toll system, the method comprising:

detecting, using a sensor of a lane transaction system, a first vehicle transacting with a toll system;

in response to detecting, using the sensor of the lane transaction system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, generating a first vehicle lane transaction entry, the first vehicle lane transaction entry designating a toll transaction between the first vehicle and the toll system and being associated with a first vehicle transaction time stamp generated by a clock of the lane transaction system for the toll transaction between the first vehicle and the toll system;

storing the first vehicle lane transaction entry in a lane transaction entry data store, the lane transaction entry data store being configured to store lane transaction entries that designate toll transactions between vehicles and the toll system and that are associated with transaction time stamps generated by the clock of the lane transaction system for the toll transactions between the vehicles and the toll system;

detecting, using a sensor of an image acquisition system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, the sensor of the image acquisition system being different from the sensor of the lane transaction system;

in response to detecting, using the sensor of the image acquisition system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, generating, using an image capture device of the image acquisition system, a first vehicle picture of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system and generating, using a clock of the image acquisition system, a first vehicle picture time stamp for the first vehicle picture, the clock of the image acquisition system being different from the clock of the lane transaction system;

storing the first vehicle picture in a vehicle image data store, the vehicle image data store being configured to store toll transaction pictures that are associated with picture time stamps generated by the clock of the image acquisition system; and

identifying the first vehicle picture and the first vehicle lane transaction entry as corresponding to a same toll transaction by matching the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein matching the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry comprises matching the first vehicle picture time stamp with the first vehicle transaction time stamp.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying the first vehicle and billing a user associated with the first vehicle a toll fee based on the matching of the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the lane transaction entries being associated with the transaction time stamps comprises the lane transaction entries including the transaction time stamps.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the same toll transaction comprises a violation transaction.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the first vehicle picture time stamp includes a time of day at which the image acquisition system records, using the clock of the image acquisition system based on a detection of the first vehicle by the sensor of the image acquisition system, occurrence of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, and

the first vehicle transaction time stamp includes a time of day at which the lane transaction system separately records, using the clock of the lane transaction system based on a separate detection of the first vehicle by the sensor of the lane transaction system, a same occurrence of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein matching the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry comprises:

selecting a group of the toll transaction pictures stored in the vehicle image data store;

selecting a group of the lane transaction entries stored in the lane transaction entry data store; and

matching the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry by associating the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein associating the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries comprises associating, on a one-to-one basis, multiple of the toll transaction pictures of the group of the toll transaction pictures with multiple of the lane transaction entries of the group of the lane transaction entries.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein associating the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries comprises associating, on a one-to-one basis, each toll transaction picture in the group of toll transaction pictures with each lane transaction entry in the group of lane transaction entries.

11. A system comprising:

a lane transaction entry data store configured to store lane transaction entries that designate toll transactions between vehicles and a toll system and that are associated with transaction time stamps generated by a clock of a lane transaction system for the toll transactions between the vehicles and the toll system;

a vehicle image data store configured to store toll transaction pictures that are associated with picture time stamps generated by a clock of an image acquisition system;

the lane transaction system that includes a sensor and a clock, and that is configured to;

detect, using the sensor of the lane transaction system, a first vehicle transacting with the toll system,

in response to detecting, using the sensor of the lane transaction system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, generate a first vehicle lane transaction entry, the first vehicle lane transaction entry designating a toll transaction between the first vehicle and the toll system and being associated with a first vehicle transaction time stamp generated by the clock of the lane transaction system for the toll transaction between the first vehicle and the toll system, and

store the first vehicle lane transaction entry in the lane transaction entry data store;

the image acquisition system that includes a sensor, an image capture device, and a clock, the sensor of the image acquisition system being different from the sensor of the lane transaction system and the clock of the image acquisition system being different from the clock of the lane transaction system, the image acquisition system being configured to;

detect, using the sensor of the image acquisition system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system,

in response to detecting, using the sensor of the image acquisition system, the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, generate, using the image capture device, a first vehicle picture of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system and generate, using the clock of the image acquisition system, a first vehicle picture time stamp for the first vehicle picture, and

store the first vehicle picture in the vehicle image data store; and

a processing device configured to identify the first vehicle picture and the first vehicle lane transaction entry as corresponding to a same toll transaction by matching the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing device is configured to match the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry by matching the first vehicle picture time stamp with the first vehicle transaction time stamp.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to identify the first vehicle and bill a user associated with the first vehicle a toll fee based on the matching of the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the lane transaction entry data store being configured to store lane transaction entries that are associated with transaction time stamps comprises a lane transaction data store being configured to store lane transaction entries that include the transaction time stamps.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the same toll transaction comprises a violation transaction.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the first vehicle picture time stamp includes a time of day at which the image acquisition system records, using the clock of the image acquisition system based on a detection of the first vehicle by the sensor of the image acquisition system, occurrence of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system, and

the first vehicle transaction time stamp includes a time of day at which the lane transaction system separately records, using the clock of the lane transaction system based on a separate detection of the first vehicle by the sensor of the lane transaction system, a same occurrence of the first vehicle transacting with the toll system.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing device being configured to match the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry comprises the processing device being configured to:

select a group of the toll transaction pictures stored in the vehicle image data store;

select a group of the lane transaction entries stored in the lane transaction entry data store; and

match the first vehicle picture with the first vehicle lane transaction entry by associating the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing device being configured to associate the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries comprises the processing device being configured to associate, on a one-to-one basis, multiple of the toll transaction pictures of the group of the toll transaction pictures with multiple of the lane transaction entries of the group of the lane transaction entries.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing device being configured to associate the group of the toll transaction pictures with the group of the lane transaction entries comprises the processing device being configured to associate, on a one-to-one basis, each toll transaction picture in the group of toll transaction pictures with each lane transaction entry in the group of lane transaction entries.

20. A method of identifying a vehicle in a toll system, the method comprising:

accessing a set of lane transaction entries, each entry in the set designating a toll transaction between a vehicle and the toll system and including a transaction descriptor and a transaction time stamp generated by a first clock;

accessing a series of toll transaction pictures, the series including a plurality of pictures, each of which is associated with a picture time stamp generated by a second clock that is different from the first clock;

identifying, using a computer processor, a lane transaction entry from the set as a violation transaction entry based on the transaction descriptor;

selecting a group of lane transaction entries from among the set of lane transaction entries based on the time stamp of the violation transaction entry;

selecting a group of toll transaction pictures from the series of toll transaction pictures based on the selected group of toll transaction entries and at least one of the time stamps of the series of toll transaction pictures; and

identifying a lane transaction picture from the group of toll transaction pictures as a violation picture corresponding to the violation transaction entry by associating the group of lane transaction entries with the group of toll transaction pictures.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein associating the group of lane transaction entries with the group of toll transaction pictures comprises:

matching a first picture of the group of toll transaction pictures with a first lane transaction entry of the group of lane transaction entries, and

matching a second picture of the group of toll transaction pictures with a second lane transaction entry of the group of lane transaction entries.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first picture is a picture of a first transaction between a first vehicle and the toll system in a lane of the toll system and the second picture is a picture of a second transaction between a second vehicle and the toll system in the lane of the toll system, the second transaction occurring after the first transaction.

23. The method of claim 20,

wherein the first clock is an internal clock of a lane transaction system and the second clock is an internal clock of an image acquisition system, and

further comprising:

generating, using the first clock and in response to detection of transacting vehicles by a sensor of the lane transaction system, the transaction time stamps of the set of lane transaction entries, and

generating, using the second clock and in response to separate detection of transacting vehicles by a sensor of the image acquisition system that is different from the sensor of the lane transaction system, the picture time stamps of the series of toll transaction pictures.