High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane enforcement

• US 7,786,897 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2007
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: JAI Pulnix, Inc. (JAI A/S)
• Original Assignee: JAI Pulnix, Inc. (JAI A/S)
• Inventors: Alves, James Francis
• Primary Examiner(s): La; Anh V
• Application Number:
  US11/656,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20080175438A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/917, 340/539.1, 340/906, 340/919, 340/928, 340/933, 340/936, 340/937, 701/200, 701/201, 701/207, 701/209, 382/105, 382/104
• US Class Current: 340/937
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules

Abstract

An HOV enforcement system comprises roadside imaging units connected over a network to a central processing center. The roadside imaging units include Ethernet cameras with integrated vehicle detectors, night-time lighting, and image servers. The central processing center includes a central server with license plate reading and vehicle matching software, storage and databases, and review staff to issue bills and citations.

Claims

1. A traffic lane enforcement system, comprising:

a digital-camera providing for a vehicle image and a passenger image of a vehicle passing by in a controlled traffic lane;

an adaptive glare control filter with polarized lenses that can be positioned in front of the camera to reduce sun glare in said vehicle and passenger images;

a sun position calculator providing for a sun glare calculation and connected to control the adaptive-glare control filter;

an illumination subsystem providing for nighttime illumination of said vehicle;

a light sensor for controlling the illumination subsystem and exposure data to the camera according to ambient light conditions;

a vehicle image processor for analyzing said vehicle image to determine the vehicle'"'"'s identity;

an occupant image processor for analyzing said passenger image to determine how many occupants there are in the vehicle; and

a traffic lane enforcement controller for receiving information from the vehicle image processor and occupant image processor for determining there from if the vehicle'"'"'s identity and number of passengers requires further enforcement action.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

trigger device connected to control when the camera takes said vehicle and passenger images, and including a laser ranging subsystem.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an output device for communicating if the traffic lane enforcement controller determines that further enforcement action or billing is required, the output device including at least one of a network adaptor, wireless transceiver, or removable storage device to communicate file records based on said vehicle'"'"'s identity and number of passengers detected.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a central processing center for receiving a video data tag (VDT) record from the traffic lane enforcement controller, and for issuing lane control violations or tolls based on a human operator'"'"'s assessment of each received VDT record.

5. A roadside lane-violation enforcement unit, comprising:

a light sensor for measuring ambient lighting conditions;

a flash illuminator controlled by the light sensor and providing for non-visible spectrum illumination of vehicles passing by in a controlled traffic lane;

a sun-position calculator;

filter-wheel activator connected to a set of polarizing filters controlled by the sun-position calculator;

a digital camera for producing a vehicle image and a passenger image for a vehicle passing by and that have glare removed by said polarizing filters;

a find plate processor for locating an area of said vehicle image that includes a license plate;

a vehicle fingerprint (FP) processor for identifying a type of vehicle imaged by the camera;

a license plate reading (LPR) processor for extracting a license plate status from said vehicle image and then for indexing into a vehicle registration database;

a face detector for identifying areas that include a human face in said passenger image, and for gauging their positions relative to the vehicle;

a tag image and video data tag (VDT) processor for packaging up each vehicle record in a VDT packet for storage and/or transmission;

a high mileage vehicle (HMV) matching processor for consulting the vehicle type recognized and the vehicle registration database to see if a vehicle appearing in a controlled lane should be disregarded; and

a folder for storing VDT packets for transmission to staff for verification and analysis.

6. An automated method of traffic lane use enforcement, comprising:

electronically triggering a video camera positioned for recording a video image of a vehicle passing by in a controlled traffic lane with lane enforcements for high occupancy vehicles;

recognizing a license plate from said video image with a find plate processor and a license plate reading processor;

determining a vehicle type from said video image with a vehicle fingerprint processor;

detecting, locating, and counting human faces from said video image with a face detector; and

analyzing information derived by the find plate processor, license plate reading processor, vehicle fingerprint processor, and face detector regarding a license plate, vehicle type, and counted number of faces and packaging each set up in a video data tag (VDT) record with a tag image and VDT processor for later determining any high occupancy lane enforcement violations.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving said VDT record at a central processing center from a network transmission medium for VDT packets; and

inspecting by staff at a review console and issuing of lane control violations or tolls based on a assessment of each VDT record a central processing center with a bill/fine issuer with an output for a bill-citation.