VEHICLE TRAFFIC AND VEHICLE RELATED TRANSACTION CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20160203651A1
• Filed: 08/20/2014
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intelligent Imaging Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intelligent Imaging Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: HEATH, Brian, KO, Tse Young (Fred), MOFFORD, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 10,817,968 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

A location enabled mobile wireless device and central system cooperate to provide traffic control such as vehicle inspection site services and toll station services. Traffic control information such as vehicle inspection site information and toll station information is independently processed by a third party provider and sent to the central system. The mobile wireless device monitors its location and sends location and vehicle related information to the central system. The central system compares data from the third party provider and the mobile wireless device. The mobile wireless device or the central system take an action based on the comparison, such as toll payment or vehicle inspection site operations.

Claims

1. A method of vehicle traffic control, the method comprising:

partially enabling a central processing system connected to a telecommunications network, in which the central processing system operates when fully operating by receipt of location signals sent from a mobile wireless device carried by a vehicle and the central processing system sending signals to the mobile wireless device in response to the signals from the vehicle, the central processing system being operated for an economically interested party related to the vehicle freely without subscription in a state of operation less than the fully operating state;

monitoring the movement of the vehicle;

computing savings that would have been achieved had the vehicle been using and following signals from the central processing system; and

upgrading the free operation of the central processing system to a subscription service with full operation.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the central processing system comprises a vehicle clearance system, in which the vehicle clearance system operates by receiving a first dataset at the central processing system from a mobile wireless device upon the mobile wireless device entering a pre-defined geographic area at a vehicle inspection site, the mobile wireless device being carried by a vehicle and the first dataset including location data obtained by monitoring a location of the mobile wireless device and vehicle related information, comparing at least a portion of the first dataset with a second dataset from a third party provider, the second dataset including rule-based data, including safety data, related to the movement of vehicles along roads, and sending a signal to the mobile wireless device indicative of whether the vehicle is permitted to bypass the vehicle inspection site.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the central processing system comprises a toll payment system that, when fully functional, provides payment of a toll when the vehicle enters a defined geographic area corresponding to a toll station.

4. A method of vehicle movement control, comprising:

while a mobile wireless device is being carried in a moving vehicle, periodically obtaining a location of the mobile wireless device;

comparing the location to a set of stored geographic areas;

when the location of the mobile wireless device is within any one of the set of geographic areas, communicating vehicle related information and vehicle location information to a central processing system that comprises a traffic control system for determining whether an action should be taken, in which the traffic control system is initially provided to a user without subscription;

monitoring the movement of the vehicle;

computing savings that would have been achieved had the vehicle been using and following signals from the traffic control system; and

upgrading the traffic control system to a subscription service.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the traffic control system comprises a vehicle clearance system for vehicle inspection sites.

6. The method of claim 4 in which the traffic control system comprises a toll payment system.

7. A method of vehicle traffic control using a central processing system connected to a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

receiving a first dataset at the central processing system from a mobile wireless device upon the mobile wireless device entering a pre-defined geographic area at a vehicle inspection site, the mobile wireless device being carried by a vehicle and the first dataset including location data obtained by monitoring a location of the mobile wireless device and vehicle related information;

comparing at least a portion of the first dataset with a second dataset from a third party provider, the second dataset including rule-based data, including safety data, related to the movement of vehicles along roads; and

sending a signal to the mobile wireless device indicative of whether the vehicle is permitted to bypass the vehicle inspection site, the signal causing a graphical sign to be displayed on the mobile wireless device instructing the vehicle whether to bypass the vehicle inspection site or not.

8. The method of claim 7 in which receiving the first dataset comprises downloading from the mobile wireless device to the central processing system the first dataset containing the location data and vehicle related information through a web service.

9. The method of claim 7 in which the second dataset is obtained by the central processing system downloading, from the third party provider to the central processing system using a web service, a file containing the second dataset.

10-17. -17. (canceled)