JP2846128B2 - Toll collection device for toll roads - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toll collection device applied to a toll road toll collection system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as toll collection systems for toll roads, there are a system for determining a toll according to a traveling distance, and a system in which a toll is constant according to a traveling distance.

In the toll collection system that determines a toll based on the mileage, toll gates are provided at entrances and exits of toll roads, and at the toll gate entrance, a magnetic card on which toll gate information and vehicle type information are recorded is issued. It is a general method to read the magnetic card entrance information at the tollgate exit and calculate the fee.

In a toll collection system in which the toll is constant regardless of the mileage, the entrance of the toll road is a free pass, the toll is collected at the exit of the toll road, and a receipt is issued. Is commonly practiced. In the conventional toll collection systems as described above, it is assumed that the vehicle stops at a tollgate.

[0005]

In the toll collection system as described above, it is necessary to stop once at the entrance or the exit of the tollgate, and to collect cash.

For such a system, AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identifi) is used as a toll collection system for toll roads that can achieve cashless tolls and unmanned toll gate entrances and exits, and that can pass nonstop.
cetion) method has been proposed. In the AVI system, an onboard device is mounted on a vehicle of a toll road user, and a roadside device capable of reading wireless information from the onboard device is installed at an entrance of a toll road or at a predetermined position, and the onboard device is mounted. When the vehicle travels on a toll road on which a road machine is installed, information from the on-vehicle device is read by the road machine, a toll collection process is performed at the center, and tolls are collected at a later date.

[0007] In order to realize such a system, it is necessary to record vehicle type information in the vehicle-mounted device and determine a fee based on this information. In this case, fraud by the user is conceivable. In other words, it is conceivable that an in-vehicle device having a low toll is improperly mounted and an attempt is made to pass at a lower toll.
Therefore, it is necessary to prevent such illegal use by the user. In addition, it is necessary to register a personal identification number or the like in the vehicle-mounted device, and it is necessary to check this personal identification number.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is possible to collect a toll without stopping vehicles at a tollgate on a toll road. The exit can be unmanned,
An object of the present invention is to provide a toll road toll collection device that can reliably prevent fraud by a user.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is mounted on a vehicle utilizing toll road, Nan with vehicle type information of the vehicle
On- board unit equipped with storage means for storing bar plate information and wireless communication means, and on-road unit provided with a wireless communication means provided at a tollgate on a toll road and performing wireless communication with the on-board equipment mounted on the passing vehicle And provided at the tollgate, passing
Vehicle type discrimination that detects the height and length of the vehicle and determines the vehicle type
A device, a license plate reader installed near the roadside machine, which reads and recognizes license plate information of passing vehicles, and vehicle type information determined by the vehicle type determination device.
And the number read by the license plate reading device.
Member plate information and sent from the on-board unit to the road unit
Comparing means for comparing and comparing the incoming vehicle type information and license plate information, and when the coincidence signal is output from the comparing means, the in-vehicle device is determined to be legitimate, and traffic on the toll road for the passing vehicle is determined. It is characterized by comprising means for permitting, and means for performing toll collection processing based on information sent from the on-vehicle device.

[0010]

[0011]

According to the above configuration, it is possible to perform vehicle confirmation and toll collection processing while the vehicle is traveling. Therefore, the vehicle can travel on the toll road without stopping at the toll gate on the toll road,
Service time improves. In addition, the user does not have to bring cash, and there is no need to arrange a toll collection member at the tollgate on the toll road.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a device layout of the present invention. A is a vehicle, 11 (11-a, 11-b) and 12
(12-a, 12-b) are first and second vehicle separators. 11-a is composed of a group of light emitters of the photoelectric tube, and 11-b is composed of a group of light receivers of the photoelectric tube.
In 1-a, 11-b), an optical screen is formed at right angles to the traveling direction of the vehicle. 12-a and 12-b are 1
Similarly to 1-a and 11-b, a light screen is formed at right angles to the traveling direction of the vehicle A by a group of light emitting and receiving devices of the photoelectric tubes, respectively. The first vehicle separator 11 is installed on the front side of the traveling direction of the vehicle A, and the second vehicle separator 12 is installed on the rear side of the traveling direction of the vehicle A. .

Reference numeral 13 (13-a, 13-b) denotes a vehicle height detector which detects the vehicle height of the passing vehicle and uses the detection signal as a vehicle type discriminating element.
a, 13-b. 14 (14-a, 14-
b) is a vehicle length detector which detects the vehicle length of the passing vehicle,
Like the vehicle height detector 13, the detection signal is used for a vehicle type discriminating element, and the light emitting and receiving devices (14-a, 14-
formed in b).

Reference numeral 15 denotes a license plate reader.
Reads license plate information of passing vehicles. The license plate information read by the reading device 15 is compared with the license plate information in the on-vehicle device information written in the on-vehicle device described later. 16 is a road machine,
A signal from the on-vehicle device described later is received by the on-road device antenna 16-a, and the information on the on-vehicle device is read. 17 (17-
a, 17-b) are circuit breakers that open a bar for blocking a vehicle that can be passed by a passing vehicle.

18 (18-a, 18b) is 11 (11
-A, 11-b) and 12 (12-a, 12-b) are third vehicle separators having the same functions. That is, 18
-A is a group of light emitters of the photoelectric tube, 18-b is a group of light receivers of the photoelectric tube, and is a group of light and light receivers of the present photoelectric tube. The light screen is formed at right angles to the traveling direction of the vehicle A. A completes the passage, so that the barriers 17-a,
Lower the 17-b bar.

FIG. 2 shows a system block diagram of the present invention. The first vehicle separator includes a phototube projector group 22, 23, 24, 25, and a phototube receiver group 26, 2.
7, 28, and 29. Second vehicle separator 12
Are light emitter groups 211, 212, 213, 214 of photoelectric tubes
And photodetector groups 215, 216, 217, 218 of photoelectric tubes
It consists of.

Reference numeral 219 denotes an OR gate circuit, which is a photodetector group 26, 27, 28, 2 of the photoelectric tubes of the first vehicle separator 11.
9 outputs a detection signal of vehicle passage to the forward / rearward discrimination circuit 221 if any of the signals 9 has transmitted the detection output signal. 220
Is an OR gate circuit, and if any of the phototube photodetector groups 215, 216, 217, and 218 of the second vehicle separator 12 has transmitted the detection output signal, the forward / reverse determination circuit 22
Send a vehicle passage detection signal to 1

The forward / reverse determining circuit 221 determines the order of the output signals from the OR gate circuits 219 and 220,
The OR gate circuit 219 determines whether the vehicle is moving forward or backward.
From the OR gate circuit 220
Is transmitted, it is determined that the vehicle detected by this detection signal has advanced, and is output to the vehicle type determination unit 232 as a vehicle passage signal.

The light projector 13-a and the light receiver 13-b of the vehicle height detector 13 detect the height of the passing vehicle and determine the vehicle type.
32. Floodlight 14- of vehicle length detector 14
a and the light receiver 14-b detect the length of the passing vehicle and send it to the vehicle type discriminating unit 232.

Reference numeral 226 denotes a vehicle photographing camera of the license plate reading device 15, which is installed at a position where a license plate of a passing vehicle can be photographed. The license plate reader 15 photographs the license plate of the passing vehicle with the vehicle photographing camera 226, processes the photographed image, and sends out a coded signal to the vehicle type determination unit 232.

Reference numeral 228 denotes an A / D converter.
The analog signal is converted to a digital signal in order to take the video signal from 6 into the image memory 229. Then, the image memory 229 sequentially stores the digital signal from the A / D converter 228 for each frame.

Reference numeral 230 denotes a reading device, which receives a vehicle detection signal from the forward / reverse determination circuit 221 and sends one frame image of the image memory 229 to the character recognition device 231. The character recognition device 231 recognizes the characters on the license plate, and converts the coded character signal into the vehicle type determination unit 2.
32. The vehicle type discriminating unit 232 includes a vehicle height signal from the light receiver 13-b of the vehicle height detector 13, a vehicle length signal from the light receiver 14-b of the vehicle length detector 14, and a license plate from the character recognition device 231. Based on the information, the vehicle type is determined, and the determined vehicle type signal is sent to the comparator 243.

The road unit 16 wirelessly receives a signal from an on-vehicle unit to be described later by a road unit antenna 16-b and decodes the signal content. Reference numeral 235 denotes a transmission / reception switching circuit,
6 transmits a signal to the on-vehicle device, the amplification circuit 236
Is transmitted to the antenna 16-a, and when the signal from the on-vehicle device is received, the antenna 1 of the road device 16 is used.
The signal from 6-a is input to the amplifier circuit 236. 237
Denotes a modulation circuit, which modulates a signal transmitted from the roadside device 16 to the on-vehicle device and outputs the modulated signal to the amplifier circuit 236. A demodulation circuit 239 demodulates the signal from the vehicle-mounted device amplified by the amplification circuit 238 and outputs the signal to the transmission / reception switching circuit 240.

The transmission / reception switching circuit 240 switches the operation mode of the CPU 241 depending on whether a signal is received from the vehicle-mounted device or a signal is transmitted from the road device to the vehicle-mounted device. The CPU 241 controls transmission and reception of signals of the roadside device 16. Reference numeral 246 denotes a memory circuit.
(Specifically, an on-vehicle device signal transmission request signal) to be transmitted from the device to the on-vehicle device.

Reference numeral 245 denotes a recognition circuit for recognizing "vehicle type information" and "license plate number information" from the vehicle-mounted device. A comparison circuit 243 compares and compares the vehicle type information and license plate information of the vehicle determined by the vehicle type determination unit 232 with the vehicle type information from the vehicle-mounted device recognized by the recognition circuit 242 and the license plate information. If so, a match signal is output to circuit breaker 17. Circuit breaker 17
Is a coincidence signal (breaker open signal q) from the comparison circuit 243.
Then, raise the bar of the circuit breaker.

The third vehicle separator 18, like the first vehicle separator 11 and the second vehicle separator 12, is composed of a group of light and light receivers of photoelectric tubes. A breaker closing signal p is sent to the machine 17.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a front view and a side view showing an example of the external configuration of the vehicle-mounted device 30 according to the present invention. A display unit 32 and a keypad 33 are provided on the front surface of the vehicle-mounted device body 31, a card insertion slot 34 is formed on the upper surface, and a transmission / reception antenna 35 is built in the back surface. The display unit 32 displays information received from the road unit 16 installed at the entrance of the toll road or in the middle of the toll road and information to be transmitted to the road unit 16. Keypad 3
Numeral 3 consists of numeric keys from 0 to 9 and various function keys for inputting a personal identification number. The card insertion slot 34 is capable of inserting various cards such as a bank card and a credit card.
An IC card in which C (integrated circuit) is incorporated is applicable. The transmission / reception antenna 35 is an antenna for performing data transmission between the on-vehicle device 30 and the road device by wireless communication means.

FIG. 4 is a control block diagram in this embodiment. 416 is a main control unit of the vehicle-mounted device 30. In-vehicle device 3
0 and the IC card 415 are connected by a contact point 41 to exchange data and supply power. Switching circuit 4
2 controls switching of the transmission operation and the reception operation of the transmission / reception antenna 35, and the signal from the on-road unit 16 received by the transmission / reception antenna 35 is amplified by the amplification circuit 43 via the switching circuit 42. After being demodulated by the demodulation circuit 44, it is given to the transmission / reception control circuit 45. The transmission / reception control circuit 45 has a function of transmitting a signal from the road device 16 to the CPU 46 and a function of transmitting a signal from the CPU 46 to the transmission / reception antenna 35. The signal transmitted from the CPU 46 of the transmission / reception control circuit 45 is
7 and amplified by the amplifier circuit 48, and then transmitted from the transmitting / receiving antenna 35 via the switching circuit 42 to the
Sent to The CPU 46 controls the exchange of data between the in-vehicle device 30 and the IC card 415 and between the in-vehicle device 30 and the road device 16. Data received from the in-vehicle device 30 to the road device 16 is temporarily stored in the memory 49. You.
Reference numeral 410 denotes a read / write control circuit, which is an IC card 4
15 and a function of taking in information from the in-vehicle device 30 from the memory 49.
And a function of sending the information to the IC card 415 via the.
Reference numeral 411 denotes a battery serving as a power supply for driving the vehicle-mounted device 30 and the IC card 415.

On the other hand, the IC card 415 is a normal IC card and includes a CPU 412, a memory 413, and a transmission / reception interface 414 for transmitting / receiving data to / from the vehicle-mounted device 30.

FIG. 5 shows an example of data contents of the memory 413 in the IC card. Reference numeral 51 denotes a data area for toll collection information. For example, on a toll road in multiple sections with different tolls depending on the traveling distance, it is a data area for temporarily storing entrance tollgate information sent from the vehicle-mounted device 30. Reference numeral 52 denotes a charge collection history, which stores a history such as the date and time when the charge was collected. 53 is vehicle type information, 54
Is license plate information. Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

In FIG. 1, a traffic vehicle A enters a tollgate entrance of a toll road and receives a first vehicle separator 11 (11).
-A, 11-b), the position shown in FIG.
The detection signal is output from any of the light receivers 26 to 29 of the vehicle separator 11 in the above, and is sent as a passing signal to the forward / rearward determination circuit 221 via the OR gate circuit 219.

Next, the passing vehicle passes through the second vehicle separator 12 (1
2-a, 12-b), a detection signal is output from any of the light receivers 215 to 218 of the vehicle separator 12, and a passing signal is sent to the forward / reverse determination circuit 221 via the OR gate circuit 220. Sent as The forward / reverse determination circuit 221 determines that the passing vehicle A has advanced, and sends it as a vehicle detection signal to the vehicle type determination unit 232 and the reading device 230 of the license plate reading device 15.
Next, the detection signals of the vehicle height detector 13 and the vehicle length detector 14 are transmitted from the light receivers 13-b and 14-b to the vehicle type discrimination unit 232, and are used as vehicle type discrimination elements.

On the other hand, the vehicle photographing camera 226 photographs the license plate number of the passing vehicle. This camera 226
Is sent to an A / D converter 228, where it is digitally converted and converted to an image memory 229.
Is stored for one frame. Since the vehicle detection signal has been sent from the forward / reverse determination circuit 221, the reading device 230 sends an image of one frame obtained by capturing the license plate to the character recognition device 231. Character recognition device 231
Cuts out the character portion of the license plate portion, recognizes it, encodes the license plate number and symbol, and sends it to the vehicle type discriminating section 232. Next, an operation when the vehicle A equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 30 according to the present embodiment passes through the position where the road device 16 is installed will be described.

The toll road user inserts the IC card 415 from the IC card insertion slot 34 before entering the toll road. Then, although not shown, if the IC card 415 is inserted until the card insertion is detected by the back contact sensor, the electrode of the vehicle-mounted device 30 and the electrode portion of the IC card 415 come into contact with each other, and become electrically conductive. Data can be exchanged between each other. Further, card ejection is suppressed by a lock mechanism (not shown).

In this state, the toll road user inputs a password unique to the user from the keypad 33. Then, the personal identification number information is temporarily stored in a predetermined area of the memory 49 under the control of the CPU 46. Thereafter, the vehicle receives an inquiry signal from the road device 16 to the on-vehicle device 30.

That is, the inquiry signal is stored in the memory circuit 246 of the roadside device 16, and the modulation circuit 237 is operated by the operation of the CPU circuit 241 and the transmission / reception switching circuit 240.
And modulated. Further, the inquiry signal is input to the amplification circuit 236 by the switching circuit 235, amplified, and sent from the antenna 16-a to the antenna 35 of the vehicle-mounted device 30.

In the in-vehicle device 30, the switching circuit 42 is controlled to be switched to the amplification circuit 43, so that the inquiry signal from the roadside device 16 is amplified by the amplification circuit 43 and demodulated by the demodulation circuit 44. Further, the transmission / reception circuit 45 enters a reception state, and inputs the inquiry signal to the CPU 46. The read / write control circuit 410 sends an inquiry signal to the IC card 415 by the operation of the CPU circuit 46. The inquiry signal is sent to the CPU 4 via the contact section 41 and the interface 414.
Reach 12.

The operation of the CPU 412 causes the IC card 415
The IC card information (charge collection information, vehicle type information, license plate information) stored in the memory 413 of the vehicle-mounted device 30 is taken into the CPU 46 of the vehicle-mounted device 30 via the transmission / reception interface 414, the contact portion 41, and the read / write control circuit 410. The signal is further modulated by the modulation circuit 47 via the transmission / reception control circuit 45 and amplified by the amplification circuit 48, and then transmitted from the transmission / reception antenna 35 to the road device 16 by the operation of the switching circuit 42. The password information temporarily stored in the memory 49 of the on-vehicle device 30 is read out by the operation of the CPU 46, and thereafter, the transmission / reception antenna 3
5 is transmitted to the antenna 16-a of the on-road unit 16. The signal received by the antenna 16-a is transmitted to the switching circuit 235.
Is input to the amplification circuit 238 via the
9 and demodulated. Then, the vehicle type information and the license plate information of the vehicle-mounted device 30 are sent to the recognition circuit 242 by the operation of the CPU 241.

The vehicle type information and license plate information of the vehicle A identified by the vehicle type discriminating section 232 are compared and collated with the vehicle type information and license plate information of the vehicle by a comparison circuit 243. Signal q)
Is sent to the breaker 17. After that, the traffic of the vehicle goes on,
When the passage through the third vehicle separator 18 is completed, the vehicle separator 1
8 transmits a circuit breaker closing signal p to the circuit breaker 17, and the circuit breaker 1
7 is closed.

[0041]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(A) The vehicle can travel on the toll road without stopping at the toll gate on the toll road, and the service time is improved. In addition, the user does not need to bring cash, and it is of course not necessary to arrange a toll collection member at the tollgate on the toll road.

(B) A vehicle type discriminating device is installed at the toll booth,
Since the vehicle type determined by the vehicle type determination device is compared with the vehicle type of the in-vehicle device, it is possible to prevent fraud by the user.

(C) The license plate number of the vehicle is registered in the personal identification number registered in the vehicle-mounted device, and a license plate reader is installed at the toll booth to check the license plate number. The security effect of the vehicle-mounted device can be enhanced by comparing and comparing the license plate number read by the device with the license plate number of the vehicle-mounted device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a device layout diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an external configuration diagram of an in-vehicle device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an in-vehicle device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of memory contents in an IC card.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 12, 18: first to third vehicle separators, 14: vehicle length detector, 15: license plate reader, 16: road machine, 17: breaker, 22 to 25, 211 to 214: photoelectric tube projector Group, 26 to 29, 215 to 218: phototube receiver group, 30: onboard unit, 31: onboard unit, 32: display unit, 33: keypad, 34: card slot, 35: transmitting / receiving antenna, 415: IC card.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. The vehicle is mounted on a vehicle that uses a toll road.
Of the vehicleStore license plate information along with vehicle type information
Storage meansAnd an on-vehicle device equipped with wireless communication means, provided at a tollgate on a toll road, mounted on the passing vehicle
On the road with wireless communication means for performing wireless communication with onboard equipment
Machine andLocated at the tollgate, detects the height and length of passing vehicles
A vehicle type discriminating device for discriminating a vehicle type by  Installed near the above-mentioned road machine,
License plate reading device that reads and recognizes board information
When,The vehicle type information determined by the vehicle type determination device and the vehicle type information
Number play read by bar plate reader
Information and vehicle type information sent from the on-board unit to the road unit
And license plate information Comparison means for comparison and collation
And when the match signal is output from the comparing means,
Is legitimate, and the passing vehicle
Means for permitting traffic on the toll road, and a toll collection process based on information sent from the on-vehicle device.
Toll road characterized by means for performing
Toll collection device.