Horology: time measuring systems or devices – Time interval – Gravity actuated type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2001-10-30
Miska, Vit (Department: 2859)
Horology: time measuring systems or devices
Time interval
Gravity actuated type
C194S205000, C194S211000, C194S239000, C194S340000, C194S903000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309098
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement made to an electronic on-street parking meter, and more particularly to a contactless IC card receive & read-write mechanism for an induction type on-street parking meter.
A conventional on-street parking meter in early stage mechanically operates to count and collect parking charges. Such mechanical parking meter includes very complicate parts and components and is therefore uneasy to maintain. Moreover, such mechanical parking meter accepts only coins and not the convenient cards. In recent years, on-street parking meter has incorporated electronic read unit to accept payment by card. Currently, most on-street parking meters provided by various manufacturers of different countries are designed to accept payment by contact smart IC card. A card receiver provided with the parking meter for receiving the IC card is subject to damages caused by external humidity and dust because the parking meter is exposed to outdoor environment. Moreover, the current on-street parking meter accepting IC card has the following two disadvantages:
1. In order to accept an IC card as a payment means, each on-street parking meter is equipped with a card slot and a card reader that are actually a unitary body in the parking meter. In the event the card slot on the card reader is clogged or damaged by foreign matters, it is necessary to dismount or even replace almost the entire parking meter to repair the card slot and the card reader.
2. In a rainy day, when an IC card is inserted into the card reader on the parking meter via the card slot, it is possible rainwater at the card slot would wet electric contact on the surface of the IC card and cause short circuit or poor electrical contact of the IC card with the card reader.
As to another type of smart IC card, that is, contactless smart IC card or induction-type smart IC card, it is currently not easily accepted for using in the existing on-street electronic parking meter for the following reasons:
1. With the existing technique, a non-street parking meter mounted outdoors and accepting the contactless or induction-type IC card includes an induction coil that continuously emits electromagnetic-wave signals to detect for any card approaching to the card reader of the on-street parking meter. That is, the parking meter consumes considerable power and the batteries provide therein simply could not supply the power for a prolonged time. Frequent replacement of batteries is therefore needed and inevitably endangers our living environment.
2. Generally, two parking meters are mounted side by side on the same one pipe standard and are therefore very close in their position. When a contactless IC card is unexpectedly moved toward an adjacent parking meter, it is possible the adjacent parking meter is induced to make incorrect read-out and write-in of data and causes confuse and trouble in paying the parking charges
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a dustproof and waterproof contactless-smart-IC-card receive and read-write mechanism for on-street parking meter.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a contactless-smart-IC-card receive and read-write mechanism for on-street parking meter that includes separable card receiver and induction-type card read-write unit. Therefore, a clogged or damaged card receiver alone may be easily removed from the parking meter for repair or replacement without the need of opening the housing of the parking meter or changing the card read-write unit.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a contactless-smart-IC-card receive and read-write mechanism for on-street parking meter that includes a detecting switch to determine correct receiving of a correct IC card. When there is not an IC card or a correct IC card inserted into the card receiver, the parking meter is in a standby state to consume only very small amount of power.
To achieve the above and other objects, the present invention mainly includes a nested cartridge set consisting of a card read-write unit and a card receiver. The card read-write unit further includes an outer case provided with an induction coil and a circuit board attached to the outer case at predetermined position. The card receiver is removably fitted in the outer case for an IC card to insert thereinto. The circuit board has different circuits provided thereon for controlling power supply to correctly complete card reading and overwriting. A detecting switch is mounted on the outer case to detect the existence of the IC card in the card receiver. Only when a card in the receiver is detected will a high frequency power supply circuit be actuated for the card read-write unit to read and overwrite data or amount stored in the IC card. In the event no IC card or an incorrect IC card is detected being inserted into the card receiver, the parking meter is in a standby state without consuming too much power. The induction coil and other circuits would not be affected by external dust or rainwater to cause error operation. And any clogged or damaged card receiver may be easily separated from the read-write unit for maintenance or replacement.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4880097 (1989-11-01), Speas
patent: 5442348 (1995-08-01), Mushell
patent: 5500517 (1996-03-01), Cagliostro
patent: 5841369 (1998-11-01), Sutton et al.
patent: 6111522 (2000-08-01), Hiltz et al.
Dougherty & Troxell
Miska Vit
LandOfFree
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