Mobile enforcement reader

• US 20060044161A1
• Filed: 08/18/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vertex Aerospace, LLC
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Feldman, Ira R., Patno, Brian E., Moosie, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,382,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/933
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• 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 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence

Abstract

A mobile enforcement reader (MER) includes an antenna, a reader coupled to receive signals from the antenna and a control/display unit (CDU) coupled to the reader. The CDU selects a receive direction and processes signals provided thereto from the reader. When the MER and a transponder are in proximity, the MER interrogates the transponder and receives information related to toll payment. The MER allows enforcement officials to monitor payment by single occupancy vehicle (SOV) traffic for use of high occupancy traffic (HOT) lanes.

Claims

1. A mobile enforcement reader (MER) for reading signals from a transponder, said MER comprising:

an antenna;

a reader coupled to receive signals from said antenna; and

a control/display unit (CDU) coupled to said reader and in response to signals from said reader, said CDU provides an output signal having information concerning the transponder, said CDU for selecting an antenna receive direction and for processing transponder signals provided thereto from the said reader.

2. The MER of claim 1 wherein said CDU selects an antenna receive direction.

3. The MER of claim 1 wherein said CDU provides a visual indication of a direction of a detection zone.

4. The MER of claim 1 wherein said reader reads from the transponder at least one of:

a Transponder ID;

a location of the last toll point;

a time of the last toll point that data was collected from; and

agency data including the agency and vehicle classification.

5. The MER of claim 4 wherein in response to said reader reading agency data including the agency and vehicle classification, the reader processes the date to determine if transponder agency data is on an approved agency list.

6. The MER of claim 1 further comprising an exception list processor and wherein in response to said reader reading the transponder ID, said exception list processor compares the transponder ID to an exception list comprising a list of transponder IDs.

7. The MER of claim 1 further comprising a dynamic read zone circuit for adjusting at least one of a size and a shape of a MER read zone.

8. The MER of claim 7 wherein the dynamic read zone circuit is provided as a MER squelch circuit.

9. The MER of claim 1 further comprising a transponder class data store.

10. The MER of claim 9 wherein the transponder class data store has stored therein a value indicating that the MER belongs to one or more of a plurality of classes in a transponder classification scheme.