Charging system which carries out data processing for fee payment

• US 6,845,362 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2001
• Issued: 01/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Furuta, Yasuyuki, Terada, Haruhiko, Aoki, Yasuyuki, Kakihara, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/984,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20020049630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 705/13, 705/417, 340/928, 340/932.2, 340/993, 701213-217, 342/357.08, 342/357.12, 342/357.13, 702/94, 702/95
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries

Abstract

A charging system which carries out position confirmation of a moving body at a place where there is a radio wave blocked facility, and which carries out automatic detection of GPS antenna blockage for avoiding charging. The charging system includes a GPS positioning device for recognizing a vehicle position, a vehicle speed pulse measuring device for dead reckoning navigating, a monitor device which generates information expressing a current position by using these, and a charging processing which judges whether or not a recognized current position is within a charge area and which carries out data processing for charging. The monitor includes a simple map database which includes positions of facilities or geographical features at which GPS positioning is impossible, and when GPS positioning is impossible, the facility or geographical feature corresponding to the current position is detected, and that position is made to be a current position.

Claims

1. A charging system comprising:

a GPS positioning device for detecting a position of a moving body;

a monitor device which, by using the GPS positioning device, generates information expressing a ground position of the moving body; and

a charging processing device which, by using the information generated by the monitoring device, judges whether or not the ground position is within a charge region, and if the charging processing device judges that the ground position is within a charge region, the charging processing device carries out data processing for charging the moving body, wherein the monitor device has simple data including at least absolute positions and configurations of facilities or geographical features which make it impossible to receive a GPS positioning signal, and when it is impossible to receive the GPS positioning signal, by the information generated by the monitoring device which was generated before it became impossible to receive the GPS positioning signal, the monitor device detects, from the simple data, a facility or geographical feature which made it impossible to receive the GPS positioning signal at a current time, and changes the detected absolute position of the facility or the geographical feature to the information generated by the monitoring device and makes the information generated by the monitoring device be the current ground position of the moving body and the information includes data expressing positions of both ends of a radio wave blocked interval of a facility or a geographical feature.

2. A charging system according to claim 1, wherein the charging processing device has a storage device which stores:

a plurality of identifying information for identifying a moving body, which identifying information relate to the moving body;

a plurality of charging information which relate to the charge region; and

a plurality of moving history information which relate to movement of the moving body.

3. A charging system according to claim 2, wherein the information for identifying a moving body includes reserve fund information relating to the moving body, and the reserve fund information holds a current amount which allows the moving body to pay a charge of the charging system.

4. A charging system according to claim 3, further comprising a reading and writing device for reading and writing reserve fund information in the storage device.

5. A charging system according to claim 4, wherein when the charging processing device judges, by the monitor device, that the moving body is passing through a charge region, the charging processing device updates the reserve fund information of the storage device by using the reading and writing device.

6. A charging system according to claim 1, further comprising a communications device for communicating with a reporting station which carries out management of the charging system.

7. A charging method comprising:

detecting a position of a moving body;

generating information expressing a ground position of the moving body, by using the position of the moving body which was detected;

judging, by using the information expressing a ground position, whether or not the ground position is within a charge region, and in a case in which it is judged that the ground position is within the charge region, carrying out data processing for charging the moving body in accordance with travel through the charge region,

wherein, when it is impossible to receive a GPS positioning signal, by the information expressing a ground position generated before GPS positioning became impossible, a facility or geographical feature which is a cause of GPS positioning impossibility at a current time, is detected from simple data including at least absolute positions and configurations of facilities or geographical features which made it impossible to receive the GPS positioning signal, and the detected absolute position of the facility or the geographical feature is changed to the information expressing a ground position and the information expressing a ground position is made to be the current ground position of the moving body.