Toll road charge collection system using artificial satellite, charge collecting machine, and charge collecting method
First Claim
1. A toll road charge collection system comprising:
- a driver license card capable of storing in advance a driver identification code as well as data relating to a driving license, etc.;
a reading device for reading storage data from the driver license card;
an information output device for outputting latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data defining a position of a vehicle, obtained using an artificial satellite, together with time data obtained from a clock;
a vehicle traveling position history data storage device for storing vehicle traveling position data corresponding to a traveling vehicle position history of the vehicle based on the latitude data, longitude data, altitude data and time data outputted from the information output device;
a road data storage device for storing in advance road names, locations and altitudes as well as data necessary to calculate a toll road traveling charge;
a charge calculation device for specifying in which toll road traveling section the vehicle has traveled and calculating a traveling charge based on memory contents of the vehicle traveling position history data storage device and memory contents of the road data storage device; and
a charge collection processing device for collecting the toll road traveling charge calculated by the calculation device by automatic payment through an account of a financial institution set by a toll road traveling person in advance, based on the driver identification code read by the reading device.
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Abstract
A toll road charge collection system comprises a vehicle (7) having an on-vehicle machine (11, 130) mounted thereon, an artificial satellite (1), and a system data center (20). The on-vehicle machine (11, 130) receives radio signal from the artificial satellite (1), and calculates the latitude, the longitude, and the altitude as the vehicle position according to the received radio signal. Latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data indicating the traveling vehicle position history are stored in an external storage unit (46) as a time-series log file, and transmitted to the system data center (20), where the data are stored/accumulated in a storage unit (63) for each vehicle. In the system data center (20), a toll road section in which the vehicle (7) has traveled is determined according to the toll road path position data including the latitude data, the longitude data, and the altitude data indicating the traveling vehicle position history transmitted from the vehicle (7) and stored/accumulated in a database. The traveling charge is calculated for each person traveling on the toll road according to the traveling charge data specified for each route section, and the charge is collected by the automatic payment through an account of a financial institution (25) set by the toll road traveling person in advance.
77 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A toll road charge collection system comprising:
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a driver license card capable of storing in advance a driver identification code as well as data relating to a driving license, etc.;
a reading device for reading storage data from the driver license card;
an information output device for outputting latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data defining a position of a vehicle, obtained using an artificial satellite, together with time data obtained from a clock;
a vehicle traveling position history data storage device for storing vehicle traveling position data corresponding to a traveling vehicle position history of the vehicle based on the latitude data, longitude data, altitude data and time data outputted from the information output device;
a road data storage device for storing in advance road names, locations and altitudes as well as data necessary to calculate a toll road traveling charge;
a charge calculation device for specifying in which toll road traveling section the vehicle has traveled and calculating a traveling charge based on memory contents of the vehicle traveling position history data storage device and memory contents of the road data storage device; and
a charge collection processing device for collecting the toll road traveling charge calculated by the calculation device by automatic payment through an account of a financial institution set by a toll road traveling person in advance, based on the driver identification code read by the reading device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A charge collecting machine in a MPU of a vehicle, the charge collecting machine comprising a position information output device for outputting latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data calculated based on radio signal received from artificial satellites and a navigation feature for determining a vehicle traveling path, the charge collecting machine comprising a reading device for reading data from a driver license card storing a driver identification code as well as data relating to the driver license, a communication device for transmitting the driver identification code read by the reading device and latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data of the vehicle outputted from the position information output device together with the time data to the system data center, and a navigation feature for determining the most appropriate vehicle traveling path at the time by analyzing information based on the position information from the position information output device, information in the vehicle navigation feature based on the vehicle traveling path to the destination, road congestion state information obtained by the road congestion state analyzing device.
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16. A charge collecting machine to be mounted on a vehicle, the unit comprising a driver license card storing in advance a driver identification code and data relating to the driver license, a reading device for reading storage data from the driver license card, an information output device for outputting altitude data, longitude data, and altitude data defining a vehicle position obtained from an artificial satellite together with time data obtained from a clock, and a transmission device for transmitting the data read by the reading device and the data from the information output device as time-series accumulation/storage data to a system data center that performs a road charge collection process.
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17. A road charge collecting method comprising steps of:
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reading storage data from a driver license card storing in advance a driver identification code as well as data relating to the driver license;
outputting latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data defining a vehicle position obtained using artificial satellites, etc. together with time data obtained from a clock;
storing vehicle traveling position history data indicating a vehicle traveling position history based on the outputted latitude data, longitude data, altitude data and time data;
determining whether the vehicle has traveled in a toll road based on the stored latitude data, longitude data, altitude data and time data, and a nationwide all-road database designed to have three-dimensional data including latitude data, longitude data, and altitude data defining locations of toll roads; and
determining a traveling charge based on data regarding a toll road section in which it is determined the vehicle has traveled and a toll road traveling charge according to a vehicle type registered in advance, transmitting the charge collection data to a financial institution together with the driver identification code read by the reading device, and collecting the toll road traveling charge by automatic payment through an account of the financial institution.
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Specification