Method for continuous detection of a persons presence on public transportation

• US 9,251,391 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2014
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SKIDATA AG (Thales SA), EM Microelectronic - Marin SA (The Swatch Group AG)
• Original Assignee: SKIDATA AG (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Egli, Charles, Maupas, Fabien, Prevost, Oliver, Surkau, Reinhard, Fer, Francois, Piret, Eric, Fournier, Jean-Claude
• Primary Examiner(s): St Cyr, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US14/451,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20150090786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 546 Days
• Field of Search: 235/384, 235/385, 235/462.46, 235/472.02
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10425 the interrogation device being arranged for interrogation of record carriers passing by the interrogation device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/10 together with the recording, indicating or registering of other data, e.g. of signs of identity
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

A method for continuous determination of a person'"'"'s presence in a public transport conveyance is proposed, where a customer medium comprising an RF transceiver is assigned to the person, where at least one reading device per passenger compartment or car is provided for data communication with the customer media in the conveyance, which is connected to a computer serving as an on-board unit for the purpose of data communications, where these are also connected to each other in the case that several reading devices are provided, where an on-board unit serving as the main on-board unit is assigned to a passenger compartment or car if several passenger compartments or cars are present, and the other passenger compartments or cars are assigned to on-board units serving as secondary on-board units, which are connected to the main on-board unit for the purpose of data communication, where the customer medium is in a “sleep” mode upon entering the transport in order to keep energy consumption as low as possible.

Claims

1. A method for continuous determination of the presence of a person in a public transport conveyance, wherein a customer medium comprising an RF transceiver is assigned to the person;

wherein at least one reading device per passenger compartment or car is provided for data communication with the customer media in the conveyance, each reading device being connected to a computer serving as an on-board unit for the purpose of data communications and, in the case where several reading devices are provided, such reading devices are connected to each other;

wherein an on-board unit serving as the main on-board unit is assigned to a passenger compartment or car if several passenger compartments or cars are present;

wherein other passenger compartments or cars are assigned to on-board units serving as secondary on-board units that are connected to the main on-board unit for the purpose of data communication;

wherein the customer media are in a “

sleep”

mode upon entering the conveyance in order to keep energy consumption as low as possible, said method comprising the following steps;

a) sending a “

wake-up signal”

via the on-board unit of the passenger compartment at regular intervals, which is sequentially emitted by all reading devices, which are connected to the on-board unit;

b) receiving the wake-up signal from customer medium and activating the customer medium if a wake-up signal is recognized as valid;

the customer medium then leaves the sleep mode and goes into an active mode;

c) sending data for the calculation of a session ID from the customer medium which is sent from at least one reading device and transmitted to the on-board unit in the passenger compartment via the bus system, through which at least one reading device is connected to the on-board unit, and transmitting a time stamp to the customer medium by at least one reading device;

d) when a session ID exists, sending a media information from the customer medium;

e) receiving the media information via at least one reading device and completing the received information with the reading device ID and forwarding this information to the on-board unit;

f) processing the media information in the on-board unit and sending an acknowledgement containing a new time stamp;

g) receiving the acknowledgement from the customer medium and transition of customer media into an idle mode;

h) transitioning the customer medium into the active mode after a predetermined time interval until the next contact and transmitting the media information to the on-board unit via the at least one reading device, wherein said time interval until the next contact is dynamically adapted;

i) repeating the steps e) through h) until media information is not received by any reading device, whereby the person who is assigned to the customer medium is detected as having left the transport, and the customer medium enters the sleep mode, whereby, if the customer medium has entered the sleep mode, such medium can again be detected and registered only with a renewed wake-up signal; and

j) creating a series of datasets, including at least the earliest timestamp of the customer medium, the identity of the customer medium, the ID number of the reading device via which the signal from the customer medium is received, wherein the series of datasets begins with the first reception of the media information and ends with the last reception of media information, wherein the process is continued after a new detection and registration and wherein a log of the locations of a customer medium in the vicinity of certain reading devices as a function of time is created on the basis of the datasets.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, if the customer medium does not receive any acknowledgement of the on-board unit within a predetermined time period, the media information is sent again, and wherein the customer medium enters the “

sleep”

mode if the customer medium does not receive any acknowledgement of sending media information from the on-board unit after a predetermined number of attempts after a respective predetermined period of time.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the event that the customer medium enters the “

sleep”

mode, the customer medium can only be detected with a new wake-up signal, whereby a wake-up signal can be processed only in the “

sleep”

mode.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a customer medium in a time interval of the duration until the next contact is considered to be stationary and, for each time interval, a most probable location of a customer medium is determined in relation to the reading devices, which have received the signals from the customer medium in the respective time interval, so that a trail of the most probable movement of a customer medium in a vehicle is determined over a series of time intervals, and wherein the most probable location of a customer medium is determined by the average location information of several time intervals, such that the location of such customer medium can be determined from the consideration of the most probable locations, whether the customer medium is more inside or outside the vehicle.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in the event the conveyance comprises several passenger compartments or cars, each on-board unit generates each compartment'"'"'s or car'"'"'s own datasets, and wherein the individual datasets of the on-board units per customer media are transmitted to the main on-board unit, where they are merged into a single dataset per customer medium.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the local location information relating to a customer medium are connected with the global location information of the conveyance as a function of time, so that an overall route for the customer medium is determined, and wherein, if a large number of locations along the route indicate a high probability that the customer medium stayed in the conveyance, a regular passenger ride in this conveyance is assumed to have occurred.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the local location information relating to a customer is linked with the global location information of the conveyance over time intervals of equal duration.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the location coordinates of the conveyance are taken as a function of time and are allocated time intervals for the detection of the global location data of the transport along a route, and wherein the length of time intervals is determined by the type of trip, type of conveyance and/or the traffic condition.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein for each trip of the conveyance, location information is stored which are assigned to time intervals segmented along distances;

wherein the closing of the doors of a conveyance is the starting signal for a trip, and wherein the collection of global location information for a trip ends upon arriving at a station, which is recognized by the opening of at least one door of the conveyance when the conveyance comes to a standstill.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the location information is obtained via GPS, wherein information from wireless stations in railway stations or depots or stations is used for the case that no GPS signals are available, and wherein a trip is interpolated between the respective GPS locations in the case that a longer time has elapsed between two GPS signals.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein location information is alternatively determined based on GSM networks or inertial navigation equipment or in addition to the wireless information.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the customer medium includes the medium'"'"'s own power supply.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the customer medium is charged with energy via an HF-pulse, and then operates autonomously for a predetermined time.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the “

wake-up signal”

is included in the HF-pulse.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein at regular predetermined time intervals an RF signal is emitted by at least one reading device in order to energize the customer media with energy within reach.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein, after transmission of the data to calculate a session ID by the customer medium, which are received by at least one reading device and are sent to the on-board unit in the passenger compartment via the bus system by which the at least one reading device is connected with the on-board unit, in the next step a mutual authentication between the on-board unit and the customer medium is carried out and this customer medium in the on-board unit is marked as known and authenticated;

wherein such authentication is not deleted in the case of a transition from the active mode to the idle mode; and

wherein the authentication is deleted in the case of a transition to the sleep mode, whereby the customer medium is detected and registered only with a renewed wake-up signal subsequent to a renewed mutual authentication if the customer medium has entered the sleep mode.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, after completion of the mutual authentication, the communication between the on-board unit and the customer medium occurs as encrypted and is optionally marked, whereby the encryption and signature are different for each customer medium and whereby the re-registration features a new, different encryption and possible marking after a re-authentication.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein, after the reception of the media information via at least one reading device, this information is supplemented by the signal strength with which the signal has been received by the reading device and by the duration of the signal in the event of communication in a high GHz range, before such information is forwarded to the on-board unit, whereby this information is included in the generated datasets.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein, after processing the media information in the on-board unit, the acknowledgement containing a new time stamp includes the duration until the next contact by the customer medium.