Communications: electrical – Traffic control indicator – Combined
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-13
2002-01-15
Trieu, Van T. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Traffic control indicator
Combined
C340S933000, C235S384000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06339384
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to toll payment devices and, more specifically, to a device able to be positioned within a vehicle and hidden from sight for automatically paying a toll as the vehicle passes through a toll booth, the device being able to record the transmitted signal transmitted by a presently in use toll payment tag and transmitting the signal to a toll collection device upon passing through a toll booth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous types of toll booth pass cards have been provided in the prior art. An example of such a system is the E-Z Pass® System being used along the east coast of the United States.
FIG. 1
illustrates a toll booth
10
utilizing such a system. As can be seen from this figure, a vehicle
12
is passing through the toll booth
10
. The vehicle
12
has an E-Z Pass® tag
14
positioned in the windshield
15
of the vehicle
12
. As the vehicle
12
passes through the toll booth
10
, an antenna
16
is triggered to transmit a signal to the E-Z Pass® tag
14
. The signal transmitted by the antenna
16
is indicated by the arrow labeled with the numeral
18
. Upon receipt of the signal
18
, the E-Z Pass® tag
14
transmits a signal including a tag identification number. The signal transmitted by the E-Z Pass® tag
14
is indicated by the arrow labeled with the numeral
20
. The toll is charged to the account identified by the tag identification information and the tag identification information is recorded and a display
22
is controlled to indicate that the toll was paid upon receipt of the signal
20
by the antenna
16
. The antenna
16
may also control a series of lights
17
for providing an additional indication as to payment of the toll. Certain problems with this system is that the tag is large and therefore may obstruct or distract the driver when positioned in the windshield
15
. The tag is also unattractive and distracts from the style of the vehicle. Furthermore, the tag is positioned in a highly visible location and thus is readily seen by thieves who may look to steal the tag.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,001,696; 5,204,675; 5,552,789; 5,955,970; 5,969,641; 6,018,641; 6,019,285; 6,049,289 and 6,091,343 are also illustrative of such prior art. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,696
Inventor: George Louis Bannerman
Issued: Jan. 4, 1977
An electronic antenna adapted for concealment in an automobile or similar vehicle is tuned by the RF tuning circuits of a conventional radio receiver. In the preferred embodiment, the antenna is designed for the AM and FM broadcast bands and includes a concealed metal plate which may be suitably mounted at a convenient location on the vehicle such as being embedded in the crash panel. RF signals are received by the metal plate pick-up which is connected to both low frequency and high frequency RF amplifiers which amplify them and, after suitable filtering, provide a highly selective output to the conventional radio receiver. This is due to the fact that when the conventional radio receiver is tuned to a station, it presents a very high impedance load at that frequency thereby causing the low frequency RF amplifier of the electronic antenna to amplify that frequency in preference to all others.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,04,675
Inventor: Hiroyoshi Sekine
Issued: Apr. 20, 1993
A System for collecting a toll for a vehicle, on which a vehicle number plate is mounted, is disclosed. In the system, a radio card as a storage medium is provided in the vehicle. The radio card generates a data signal representing identification data including a vehicle number data. A radio card access system receives the data signal transmitted from the radio card and processes the data signal to obtain the vehicle number data contained in the radio card. A TV camera picks up an image corresponding to a vehicle number from the number plate of the vehicle. The radio card access system generates vehicle number plate data from the image picked up by the TV camera. The radio card access system compares the vehicle number data and vehicle number plate data and verifies whether or not the two sets of data coincide, the toll of the vehicle is calculated in accordance with the identification data stored in the storage medium.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,789
Inventor: Josef H. Schuermann
Issued: Sep. 3, 1996
An integrated vehicle communications system for on-board use within a vehicle which may also communicate with external portions of the system which includes miniaturized, self-contained read/write transponders
20
,
22
,
30
of the type disclosed in Schuermann U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,774, for providing functions within the vehicle, e.g., for sensing conditions and parameters. The on-board interrogation unit
10
interrogates and receives signals by RF communication provided by on-board antennas
14
,
26
,
28
between the interrogation unit and respective transponders for read/write responder operation. The processor
33
with display device
34
a
and/or control circuits
34
b
carries out on-board functions in response to such interrogation. A transponder
22
may serve as a vehicle operator key by which the system may verify key code, unlock the vehicle doors, as well as select and perform initialization functions including ignition, seat and seat belt adjustment, mirror positioning, and antitheft functions before vehicle entry by the operator. A transponder
30
may access external control data for premises or toll access, and may provide toll or credit or service transactions, as for authorization or verification or toll charge debiting purposes. The system may include also IR links.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,970
Inventor: Masamiki Ando et al.
Issue Sep. 21, 1999
In a toll gate system in which the toll is automatically and electronically collected through wireless communication between an on-board electronic device and a stationary electronic device installed at the toll gate, illegitimate or fraudulent actions committed in the system are detected by the on-board device. When such actions are detected, a communication function of the on-board device is made inoperative. After disposing the illegitimate actions properly, the communication function of the on-board device is restored so that the on-board device can be used again thereafter. The illegitimate action such as opening the on-board device for changing or reading the data contained therein can be detected by sensing removal of screws fastening a circuit board to a case of the on-boar device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,641
Inventor: Yuki Nakamura et al.
Issued: Oct. 19, 1999
A plurality of antennas receives radio wave transmitted from a vehicle which comes in a toll collection area. Each antenna has at least three antenna elements, and the antennas are disposed in the horizontal direction and vertical direction. The signal analyzer analyzes the ID signal included in the received radio wave to identify the vehicle. The direction detector measures the direction of arrival (DOA) of radio wave received by two antennas selected by the antenna selector by way of two-dimensional interferometry principle in terms of the directional angle and depression angle. The location detector calculates the location of the vehicle in the horizontal direction and the height in the vertical direction of the vehicle as a location information based on the DOA of the radio wave measured by the direction detector. The vehicle tracking unit generates the locus data of the vehicle based on the location information calculated by the location detector and the information for identifying the vehicle analyzed by the signal analyzer. On the other hand, the video camera takes a picture of the vehicle which comes in the toll collection area to obtain the picture data. The data correlation unit judges whether the vehicle is a violator vehicle by correlating the picture data and locus data. The controller regi
Kroll Michael I
Trieu Van T.
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