Method and device for generating toll information in a road-toll system

• US 9,269,197 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Van Haperen, Peter, Kersten, Jan, Tijink, Jasja
• Primary Examiner(s): EPSTEIN, BRIAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/900,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,964 Days
• Field of Search: 705/13, 340/928, 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G

Abstract

A method for generating toll information for vehicle devices in a road-toll system with a toll center and geographically distributed radio beacons. The method includes providing a set of location data of toll-requiring geo-objects from the respective local environment of a beacon in this beacon, recording a sequence of position data of a vehicle device in this vehicle device, if the aforementioned vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of a beacon: receiving the location-data set from this beacon in the vehicle device, comparing the position-data sequence with the received location-data set in the vehicle device in order to generate toll information therefrom, and if the above-mentioned vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of a beacon: transmitting the toll information from the vehicle device via the beacon to the toll center. The invention further relates to a vehicle device, a beacon and a monitoring device for such a road-toll system.

Claims

1. A method for generating toll information from movements of vehicle devices in a road-toll system that comprises at least one toll center and a plurality of connected, geographically distributed beacons for short-range radio communication with the vehicle devices, the method comprising:

providing, in a memory of a first beacon of the geographically distributed beacons, a first set of location data of one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects, other than the first beacon, in a local environment of said first beacon;

providing, in the memory of the first beacon, a second location data set of one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects in a local environment of a second beacon of the geographically distributed beacons, the second location data set also stored in a memory of the second beacon and being different from the first location data set;

recording, in a vehicle device, a sequence of position data of said vehicle device;

when said vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of said first beacon, receiving the first and second location-data sets from said first beacon in the vehicle device;

comparing the position-data sequence with the received location-data sets in the vehicle device for geographical similarity to generate toll information therefrom; and

when said vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of the first beacon or the second beacon, transmitting the toll information from the vehicle device via the first beacon or the second beacon to the toll center.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said local environment of the first beacon is larger than its transmitting/receiving range.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position data is acquired and recorded with a satellite-navigation receiver of the vehicle device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the short-range radio communication between vehicle device and the first beacon takes place according to the DSRC, WAVE or WLAN standard.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first location data set further includes fee information utilized for generation of the toll information.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first location-data set further includes checksums or hash functions to verify its currentness, validity or completeness.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generated toll information is location-anonymized.

8. A vehicle device for a road toll system comprising:

a satellite-navigation receiver for generating a sequence of position data;

a first memory for storing the position-data sequence;

a short-range transceiver for radio communication with a first beacon of a plurality of geographically distributed beacons when the vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of said first beacon; and

a second memory for holding at least two location data sets of one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects, other than the first beacon, in the environments of the first beacon and one or more adjacent beacons, the at least two location data sets including a first location data set of one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects, other than the first beacon, in a local environment of the first beacon, and including a second location data set of one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects in a local environment of a second beacon;

wherein one or more of said at least two location data sets is received by the short-range transceiver from said first beacon,

wherein the vehicle device is configured to;

compare the stored position-data sequence with the received one or more of said at least two location data sets of said one or more stationary toll-requiring geo-objects for geographical similarity to generate toll information therefrom, and to

transmit said toll information via the short-range transceiver to said first beacon or the second beacon when the vehicle device is in the transmitting/receiving range of said first beacon or the second beacon.

9. The vehicle device according to claim 8, wherein the second memory is a ring buffer, which holds only the most recently received location-data set or sets.

10. The vehicle device according to claim 8, wherein the second memory holds fee information received with the at least two location-data sets, which is utilized by the vehicle device to generate the toll information.

11. The vehicle device according to claim 8, wherein the short-range transceiver is one or more of the group consisting of a DSRC, WAVE and WLAN transceiver.