Communications: electrical – Vehicle detectors
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-15
2002-01-29
Lefkowitz, Edward (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Vehicle detectors
C340S928000, C342S042000, C701S117000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06342844
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to automatic radio-frequency (RF) real-time high-way toll collection from moving vehicles. It especially adapted to the use of an untraceable electronic check debited from smart card and communicated in a cryptographically sealed envelope message. The invention relates directly to an in-vehicle unit (IVN), noncontact IC card (NIC), a roadside collection station (RCS) and to an overall system incorporating a plurality of RCS's, IVN's and NIC's. The invention may be used for parking collections and other types of road pricing applications.
In addition this invention may be used for individual access control wherein the remote toll systems enable personal authentication and payment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An automatic toll-paying systems which utilizes a recording medium, for example an integrated circuit card (IC card), of a prepaid system has been previously developed for paying charges for utilization of pay facilities, for example for paying a toll for passage over a toll road or for a passage over a toll-gate in public transport. In such a prepaid systems, a prepaid amount of money is recorded beforehand on a recording medium, and every time a toll road is utilized, a toll for passage is subtracted from the amount of money recorded on a recording medium through wireless communication at a tollbooth gate at an entrance or an exit, and a balance is recorded on the recording medium.
However, in the case of such an automatic toll-paying systems, if a balance recorded on the recording medium is not enough for a necessary amount of money such as a toll for passage it becomes difficult to pay using the recording medium and complicated operations becomes necessary such as a shortage amount must be paid in cash, or this debt has to be stored in the recording medium or in a special accumulator in a vehicle carried device and afterward the debt should be returned to the creditor.
In order to solve the mentioned problems there is a few decisions presently utilized in similar operation comprising communication via electromagnetic waves.
The first group of an automatic toll-paying systems includes a microwave and cryptographic units arranged on-board of a vehicles. This unit comprising reader/writer block to operate with contact computerized and/or memorized prepaid smart cards. U.S. Patents which reflect the discussing area are hereby incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,520—Chaum et. al. (1996);
U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,548;—Hayashi et. al. (1997)
U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,689—Bueno et. al. (1996)
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,417;—de Vall et. al. (1997)
U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,286—Shuno et. al. (1997)
One or more roadside collection stations (RCS) communicate over a short-range, high speed bi-directional microwave communication link with one or more in-vehicle units (IVU) associated with one or more respectively corresponding vehicles in one or more traffic lanes of a highway (U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,520). At least two up-link (IVU to RCS) communication sessions and at least one downlink (RCS to IVU) communication session are transacted in real time during the limited duration of an RCS communication footprint as the vehicle travels along its lane past a highway toll plaza. Especially efficient data formatting and processing is utilized so as to permit, during this brief interval, computation of the requisite toll amount and a fully verified and cryptographically secured (preferably anonymous) debiting of a smart card containing electronic money. Preferably an untraceable electronic check is communicated in a cryptographically sealed envelope with opener. Transaction linkage data is utilized in each phase of the complete toll payment transaction to facilitate simultaneous multi-lane RCS/IVU operation. A plaza computer local area network and downlink plaza controller is also used to facilitate simultaneous multi-lane transactions.
A hand-held portable smart-card reader/writer with radio frequency receiving/transmitting means is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,689 France. Herein is described a method of transmitting data quickly and securely from a smart card during a remote transaction between a fixed station and a mobile item of equipment containing a smart-card reader, said card reader having a fast memory, wherein, on receiving said card, and in addition to storing the data from the card in said fast memory, said reader also stores a pair of data items in said fast memory, one of which data items identifies the number of the card, and the other data item corresponds to an access count indicating the number of accesses to the card, each access by any reader incrementing the access count in the card by unity, and wherein, during the transaction, the mobile item of equipment, which is interrogated remotely by the fixed station, compares said pair of data items stored in said fast memory of said reader with the pair of data items of the card that is currently inserted in the mobile item of equipment, and transmits the result of the comparison and the data of the card, which data is stored in the fast memory, to the fixed station.
However a vehicle carried units for automatic toll payment systems are too complicated device as they operate in a microwave mode similar to cellular telephones and pagers. Furthermore the hand-held and/or vehicle carried unit must have IC card reader/writer with appropriate security functions to prevent tampering and/or using of forged (false) IC cards. All these features add an additional value in the cost of a system, and do not make it versatile and convenience to spread these system to the other market applications. Moreover the vehicle carried units can not be used in individual transport applications like in subway gates or in buses due to it cost, complexity and non convenient to use and wherein person uses individual contactless radio frequency IC cards becoming to be versatile.
The radio frequency (RF) Smart cards become to be a standard convenience element for transport and access applications. These noncontact IC cards and/or tags for performing proximate data communication between IC card and the terminal by using electromagnetic waves and having at least one inductive coil employees antenna for power transfer and data interchange are illustrated in U.S. Patents reflecting these area are hereby incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,222—Inoue et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,105—Axer et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,302—Irmer et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,274—Donig et. al., 1994;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,358—Bruhnke et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,894—Bruhnke et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,353—Toride et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,667—van Zon et. al., 1995;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,298—Lian et. al., 1993;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,330—Everet et. al. 1994;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,137—Herman et. al. 1991.
Systems for noncontact exchange of data are known in different designs and types. Inductively operating systems comprising radio frequency tags and reader/writer terminal and performing low frequency range less than one megahertz (MHz) that allows to operate at relatively long distances are well known in the art. Such tags provide the advantage of permitting through-the-body operation and easy clock generation. However these low frequency systems can not provide relatively high rate data exchange, an despite that they may operate at relatively long distances the portable carrier must be attendant in a special recognition area during a significant time to provide identification and data transfer. Furthermore these systems can not provide the adequate protection on security level during short interaction time because of low rate of data exchange. Moreover they operate at constant frequency that allow the interception of a signal and hacking of security. In addition the returning signal from tag to the reader is more than 80 dB less than transmitted signal from the reader to the tag.
The embodiment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,330 enables to increase power retransmitted
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