Communications: electrical – Traffic control indicator – Combined
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-13
2002-05-14
Pope, Daryl (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Traffic control indicator
Combined
C340S932200, C340S933000, C705S013000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06388581
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for monitoring the correct operation of an electronic debiting appliance, arranged in a vehicle, for the use of a road network or for the entering of a stipulated geographical zone by the vehicle, in accordance with the preamble to patent claim 1. The invention also relates to a system for carrying out this monitoring method.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
DE 43 10 099 A1 discloses an electronic device within the meaning of a debiting appliance which makes log entries on a mobile memory module in the context of a use accounting system for the use of a road network or for the entering of a stipulated geographical zone by the vehicle, i.e. for the time spent in this geographical zone. This mobile memory module carried in the vehicle can be used like a value card, such as a telephone card. The use of the road which is subject to charges or of the stipulated geographical zone by the vehicle can be automatically recognized by the debiting appliance on the basis of data which is held in a carried memory device and identifies the roads or geographical zones which are subject to charges. This identifying data characterizes geographical positions and is compared by the debiting appliance with the current geographical position of the respective vehicle. This up-to-date information for the vehicle is ascertained on the basis of data which can be received wirelessly in the vehicle from a navigation satellite system. In one preferred embodiment of this debiting appliance, the debiting appliance can transmit an “in order” signal from the vehicle to the outside when the debiting appliance is operating correctly. This is intended to provide a control option for discovering users of the road system or of the geographical zone who do not wish to pay prescribed charges for using the road system or the geographical zone and, by way of example, do not switch on the debiting appliance, or else use a value card containing insufficient charge credit.
To introduce such an electronic use accounting system, which is largely intended to require no infrastructure permanently installed along the road network or in the geographical zones, it is necessary, on the one hand, for it to be possible to effect as reliable a control as possible to ascertain unauthorized instances of use, and, on the other hand, for legal data protection provisions not to be infringed. This means that, in the context of the controls which are to be carried out, it is absolutely essential that the anonymity of the respective vehicle being controlled and of its occupants be assured in the case of unobjectionable use.
To make it possible to check the debits actually performed for the use of individual sections of a road network (in the following text this is also used to mean instances of the use of stipulated geographical zones, according to context), it is possible to provide for each of the log entries made on the mobile memory module also to record identifying data for the section of the road network which is currently being used, and also for the time of the respective use, for the purposes of an electronic receipt. When a vehicle is subsequently being controlled, the recorded data in the memory module, which, by way of example, remains stored for a certain period of time (e.g. a few weeks), could be used to prove that the vehicle has actually performed the debits required in each case for the use of a particular road. However, such a control option does not preclude deliberate instances of manipulation. Thus, for example, two drivers who know each other and are driving on the same road at the same time in separate vehicles could agree that only one of the two drivers operate his debiting appliance correctly, while the other driver uses the road network as a “toll dodger”. If this unauthorized use is now discovered as a result of a control station at the edge of a road wirelessly interrogating the debiting appliances in the passing vehicles about their correct operation, and the debiting appliance of the “toll dodger” not transmitting the requested “in order” signal, then the driver or occupant of this vehicle can later be brought to account. However, he would then be able to present the electronic receipt on the mobile memory module in his “friend's” vehicle, passing the control station at the same time as he. He could thus evade legal proof of his unauthorized use of the road network by fraudulent means.
GB 2 295 466 A, forming the generic type, discloses an accounting system whose fundamental features largely match those of the use accounting system in accordance with DE 43 10 099 A1 and in which the individual log entries on the mobile memory module used as a value card are recorded by recording identifying data (geographical coordinates) for the particular road section used by the vehicle or for the geographical zone entered together with the time of use as a receipt for subsequent control purposes. To this end, the debiting appliance installed in the respective vehicle can be wirelessly addressed by control devices which, by way of example, are installed on highway bridges above the highway and are each permanently assigned to one lane. The time of address is recorded on a nonvolatile memory both in the addressed debiting appliance and in the respective control device. In the case of correct operation, which is established in the debiting appliance itself by means of self-monitoring, a corresponding status message is sent to the monitoring device. If such a status message signaling correct operation is not sent, the control device stores information for identifying the vehicle which is passing the control device (e.g. takes a photograph) in order to be able to effect a subsequent control on the vehicle to track the unauthorized use of road which has been established.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to propose a method and a system for carrying out the method which permit reliable monitoring of the correct operation of electronic debiting appliances in the context described above and make it possible to recognize fraudulent manipulation. In particular, the aim is to ensure the authenticity of the requested status message from the debiting appliance with a very high level of reliability. The control devices used need to be able to be used flexibly, and the intention is therefore that they do not absolutely need to be permanently assigned to one monitoring site and to one lane on a continuous basis.
This object is achieved for a method of this generic type by the distinguishing features of patent claim
1
. The features of dependent claims
2
to
5
make it possible to provide further embodiments of this method as advantages. A system for carrying out the method according to the invention has the features specified in claim 6. Dependent claims
7
to
12
contain advantageous developments of this system.
In a method of the generic type, the invention provides for each of the log entries on the mobile memory module also to record identifying data for the used section of the road network or of the entered geographical zone and also for the time of use. In this way, an electronic receipt, so to speak, is produced on the mobile memory module, as in the case of a ticket issued for a particular road. In addition, provision is made for the logging appliance to be wirelessly addressed by a control device arranged outside the vehicle, that is to say, for example, next to a road or on a bridge crossing the respective road. The control device, like the debiting appliance, is equipped with devices for receiving data from the navigation satellite system, that is to say it is able to ascertain its geographical position precisely. As soon as the debiting appliance is addressed by the control device, it records the time of this address and the respective data received from the navigation satellite system at this time on a nonvolatile memory. Preferably, this is the mobile memory module, on which the debits are also per
Barker Ronald
Weber Günther
Wolters Ralph
Cohen & Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Mannesmann AG
Pope Daryl
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