Communications: electrical – Vehicle detectors – With camera
Patent
1996-07-23
1998-05-26
Swarthout, Brent A.
Communications: electrical
Vehicle detectors
With camera
340928, 340942, 348148, 348149, G08G 1017
Patent
active
057572860
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and device for registering the successive displacement of a vehicle. A foreseen and important area of application is the registration of the displacement of a vehicle in a road toll facility from a place of entry to a place where recording of the number plate or other characteristic of the vehicle can take place.
BACKGROUND
It is known to arrange road toll facilities for automatic fee debiting, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,630 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,904.
Thereby, it is understood that the majority of vehicles that pass the road toll station are provided with a receiver-transmitter unit for radiowaves, a so-called transponder. The road toll facility comprises an arrangement by which communication by radiowaves can take place with passing vehicles. This arrangement comprises transmitter and receiver, a transceiver, for the radiowaves by means of which equipment payment and debiting operations can be effected for the passing vehicles that are provided with said transponder. For this technique compare U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,632 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,661 for example.
However, it may occur, that the toll facility is passed by vehicles which are not provided with any transponder and therefore cannot be identified by means of the radiowaves. For identification of such vehicles, if these attempt at passing the toll facility without paying toll, the toll arrangement is provided with camera devices for image registration of the number plates of the vehicles in question for search and post-debiting. Such need be performed not only of vehicles that lack a transponder. If pre-payment is understood and sufficient means is lacking or if an approved payment operation cannot be performed for any other reason despite the presence of a transponder, post-debiting shall also be performed.
The most advanced system for road tolls of this kind is adapted to a great flow of traffic in free formation. In such an arrangement it will be possible that the vehicle is displaced a certain distance from the time when a registration has been possible to make of whether the vehicle is identified through microwaves or not and until the recording of the number place can occur.
During this displacement a differentiating must be maintained between such vehicles for which search and post-debiting shall take place, and such for which payment has been assured by means of a transponder. This requires that the toll facility is provided with an equipment for the registration of the successive forward displacement of the vehicle, so that it is ensured that the image is registered for the correct vehicle, i.e. a vehicle which on passing the road toll has been established to have dissatisfactory payment status. This positioning check shall thereby be effected while several vehicles travel in a free flow with possible lane changes when passing through the road toll facility. The check shall be possible to perform of the vehicle at full speed whereby a very short time is available.
In order to perform this positioning check during the displacement in the toll facility and through the recording site it has been suggested to use induction loops in the roadway. With the aid of these it is possible to detect the displacement of the metal mass of a vehicle and follow the displacement of the vehicle in the direction of travel and also detect possible side displacements.
Such a device is however expensive and difficult to install as it must be countersunk into the roadway. It is also difficult to render it sufficiently selective, so as to in effect guarantee that no confusion between vehicles moving in a complex movement pattern at high speed occurs. Moreover, certain vehicles such as motor cycles can be difficult to register at all.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the invention, video cameras are used for the registration, arranged at a distance above the roadway. In the image planes of the cameras registered. In an image processing computer one or more contrast fields in the recording of th
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Isaksson Folke
Jonsson Rune
Saab-Scania Combitech Aktiebolag
Swarthout Brent A.
Trieu Vam T.
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