ONBOARD UNIT FOR A ROAD TOLL SYSTEM

• US 20110161140A1
• Filed: 10/13/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Original Assignee: Kapsch TrafficCom AG (Datax Handelsgmbh)
• Inventors: Polt, Michael, Nagy, Oliver, Güner, Refi-Tugrul, Schrödl, Sören
• Application Number:
  US12/903,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20110161140A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/12 Mirror assemblies combined with other articles, e.g. clocks
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera

Abstract

An onboard unit for a road toll system including: at least one transceiver for transmitting toll-relevant data to transceiver stations for forwarding to a central processing unit of the road toll system; at least one camera, which is directed towards a passenger compartment of a vehicle carrying the onboard unit and can create at least one image recording of at least one section of the passenger compartment; and an evaluation unit connected down-line of the camera that detects and counts the passengers of the vehicle in the image recording.

Claims

1. An onboard unit for a road toll system, comprising:

at least one transceiver for transmitting toll-relevant data to transceiver stations for forwarding to a central processing unit of the road toll system

at least one camera, which is directed towards a passenger compartment of a vehicle carrying the onboard unit and can create at least one image recording of at least one section of the passenger compartment and

an evaluation unit connected down-line of the camera that detects and counts the passengers of the vehicle in the image recording.

2. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the transceiver transmits the number of passengers to the central processing unit.

3. The onboard unit according to claim 2, wherein the transceiver also transmits the image recording to the central processing unit.

4. The onboard unit according to claim 3, wherein the evaluation unit obscures the detected passengers of the vehicle in the image recording before transmission thereof.

5. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the onboard unit contains a memory for archiving the image recording and/or the number of passengers.

6. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein it can be fastened in the region of the windscreen of the vehicle and the camera is arranged on its rear side remote from the windscreen.

7. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein at least one further camera is directed towards the vehicle environment in front of the vehicle.

8. The onboard unit according to claim 7, wherein an evaluation unit, which detects license plate numbers of other vehicles in the image recording, is connected down-line of the further camera.

9. The onboard unit according to claim 8, wherein the evaluation unit obscures the detected license plate number in the image recording.

10. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the camera creates one or more image recordings in each case at periodic, predefined or random instants in time.

11. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the camera creates at least one image recording in response to a request received via the transceiver.

12. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the onboard unit has an object detector, which upon detection of a given object in the vicinity of the vehicle causes the camera to record an image.

13. The onboard unit according to claim 12, wherein the object detector is an RFID or DSRC detector for wireless recognition of an RFID or DSRC object.

14. The onboard unit according to claim 12, wherein the object detector is an optical detector for detecting the presence of a visible object in the environment of the vehicle.

15. The onboard unit according to claim 14, wherein the optical detector detects the presence of an object that may be remaining stationary in a moving environment of the vehicle.

16. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the onboard unit contains an acceleration sensor, which in the event of an acceleration exceeding a threshold causes the camera to record an image.

17. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the onboard unit contains a satellite navigation receiver to provide the image recording with the location and time data of its creation.

18. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the transceiver is a DSRC, WAVE or mobile communications transceiver.

19. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the further camera is configured for infrared light.

20. The onboard unit according to claim 1, wherein the camera is formed by a time of flight camera.

21. A method for the passenger number-dependent application of a toll to a vehicle by means of an onboard unit according to claim 1, comprising:

creating an image recording of a passenger compartment of the vehicle by means of the camera of the onboard unit;

detecting and counting the passengers of the vehicle by means of the evaluation unit of the onboard unit; and

in the onboard unit, calculating a toll as a function of the number of passengers.

22. A method for the passenger number-dependent application of a toll to a vehicle by means of an onboard unit according to claim 2, comprising:

creating an image recording of a passenger compartment of the vehicle by means of the camera of the onboard unit;

detecting and counting the passengers of the vehicle by means of the evaluation unit of the onboard unit;

transmitting the number of passengers to a central processing unit by means of the transceiver of the onboard unit; and

in the central processing unit, calculating a toll as a function of the received number of passengers.