Smart road-toll-system

• US 8,285,731 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Titan Intelligence Technology Limited
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Debast, Claude, Peeters, Michaël Michel Patrick, Motte, Stefaan
• Primary Examiner(s): Spieler, William
• Application Number:
  US12/958,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20110131238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 678 Days
• Field of Search: 707/754, 707/756, 705/13
• US Class Current: 707/754
• 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 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions

Abstract

A road pricing smart client and method for a road pricing system enabling the removal of information from the positioning data describing the itinerary which suggest private data such as travelling speed and itinerary of the originator of the data. Accordingly, the smart client and method is configured to re-sample the original positioning points of the route into equidistant sections, remove timing information from the positioning data, slice the re-sampled route into slices shaped as those provided by other road users by employing a common “virtual grid”. By transmitting the slices in randomized order with an arbitrary delay, coherence of slices corresponding to formerly neighboring portions of the itinerary, are not correlated anymore. However, there is still enough information provided to the toll system to send an excerpt of the fee database allowing the smart pricing client or method to calculate the occurred fees.

The main advantage of the smart client and method is that it delegates in a secure and privacy-preserving way the costly operations to the external toll server proxy. Thus, storage of digital maps in the client is not required, and tariff updates are only transmitted when necessary in a way that preserves privacy. Finally the data transmitted by the smart client can be preprocessed and compressed in order to remove all unnecessary personal information, thereby reducing the bandwidth requirements on the telecommunication network. Further, the proposed solution enables to raise statistics on road usage, i.e. traffic appearance by road-section without endangering privacy of the individual road users.

Claims

1. A method in a mobile apparatus for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, the method comprising:

processing in the mobile apparatus positioning data representing a route taken by the mobile apparatus in the traffic infrastructure by

a) re-sampling the positioning data,

b) generating bundles of re-sampled positioning data, and

c) re-arranging the generated bundles.

2. A method according to claim 1,

wherein the step of re-sampling comprises transforming the positioning data recorded at equidistant points in time into positioning data corresponding to equidistant points in space.

3. A method according to claim 1,

wherein generating an individual bundle of the re-sampled positioning data comprises

analyzing said re-sampled positioning data with respect to districts defined by a predetermined grid, the districts being cells of a predetermined, standardized virtual grid in a system of geographic coordinates, and

creating the bundle as comprising those re-sampled positioning data lying in a same district.

4. A method according to claim 1,

wherein the step of re-arranging the generated bundles comprises at least one of:

shuffling said bundles, and

shifting of each of said bundles, with respect to a time.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the bundles include at least some bundles of more than one particular trip.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising

delaying the re-arranged bundles by a predetermined time period, before transmission to an external entity for valuating a characteristic of the usage of the traffic infrastructure.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the time period is one of at least a single day and multiple trips.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising

removing a time information associated with each of the positioning data and optionally replacing said time information by a common time period information for all positioning data of one bundle serving for enabling associating a predetermined fee table to a route the positioning data belong to.

9. A method according to claim 1,

wherein the positioning data are determined with satellite navigation.

10. A method in a stationary apparatus for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, the method comprising:

i) receiving positioning data from a mobile apparatus, which positioning data is processed by a method according to claim 1;

ii) matching by said stationary apparatus the information contained in said bundles with a database containing information, representing said traffic infrastructure,

iii) determining at least one of a partial route taken and a certain position passed by said mobile apparatus

iv) associating at least one predetermined route criterion with said partial route or said certain position in said route, and

v) transmitting the at least one predetermined route criterion to said mobile apparatus.

11. A method according to claim 10,

wherein in the associating step further information on time-dependency of the at least one predetermined route criterion is associated with said partial route or said certain position.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein the information includes map information.

13. A method comprising:

receiving at least one transmitted predetermined route criterion associated by said mobile apparatus;

receiving positioning data from the mobile apparatus, which positioning data is processed by a method according to claim 1;

matching by a stationary apparatus the information contained in said bundles with a database containing information representing said traffic infrastructure,

determining at least one of a partial route taken and a certain position passed by said mobile apparatus

associating at least one predetermined route criterion with said partial route or said certain position in said route, and

transmitting the at least one predetermined route criterion to said mobile apparatus, and

valuating said partial route by said at least one received predetermined route criterion.

14. A mobile apparatus for a system for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, the apparatus comprising:

positioning means configured to estimate positioning data of a traffic infrastructure user in a mobile apparatus;

processing means configured to execute at least steps a) to c) of the method according to claim 1; and

transmitting means configured to transmit the re-arranged positioning data to a stationary apparatus of said system.

15. A mobile apparatus according to claim 14,

wherein the positioning data are determined with satellite navigation.

16. A stationary apparatus for a system for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, comprising:

receiving means configured to receive positioning data sent by a mobile apparatus according to claim 14,

processing means configured to execute the steps of;

matching by said stationary apparatus the information contained in said bundles with a database containing information, representing said traffic infrastructure,

determining at least one of a partial route taken and a certain position passed by said mobile apparatus, and

associating at least one predetermined route criterion with said partial route or said certain position in said route, and

transmitting means configured to transmit the at least one predetermined route criterion to said mobile apparatus.

17. A stationary apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein the positioning data are determined with satellite navigation.

18. A system for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, in particular roads, the system comprising:

at least one stationary apparatus for a system for valuating at least one characteristic of usage of traffic infrastructure, comprising;

receiving means configured to receive positioning data sent by a mobile apparatus according to claim 14,

processing means configured to execute the steps of;

matching by said stationary apparatus the information contained in said bundles with a database containing information, representing said traffic infrastructure,

determining at least one of a partial route taken and a certain position passed by said mobile apparatus, and

associating at least one predetermined route criterion with said partial route or said certain position in said route, and

transmitting means configured to transmit the at least one predetermined route criterion to said mobile apparatus,

and at least one said mobile apparatus,

wherein communication between the stationary apparatus and the mobile apparatus is configured such that a communication path, at least partially, comprises at least one of

an anonymous channel,

a server providing network address translation between the stationary apparatus and the mobile apparatus,

a network with an onion router,

an intermediate mix and forward proxy using user datagram protocol packets with forged source IP, and

a peer-to-peer network, using other mobile apparatus to relay the data of an mobile apparatus.

19. A nontransitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer program code which when executed on a processor causes the processor to perform the steps of claim 1.