Method and system for reducing manual review of license plate images for assessing toll charges
AssigneeGeotoll, Inc.
InventorsJaime Andres Borras, Wyatt Drake Geist
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tolling system is operable to reduce the number of manual reviews of a toll point images needed to process toll fee charges by separately reporting from both toll points and mobile device in vehicles running a tolling application program the lane and crossing time when traversing a toll point. A tolling service can match records produced by the toll points with records providing by the mobile device when the toll point cannot immediately determine the identity of the toll customer passing through the toll point.
Claims15
A method for avoiding manual image review to determine an identity of a toll subscriber, comprising:
- at a mobile device associated with a vehicle;
- determining, based on a location of the mobile device, that the vehicle has entered a local geofenced zone of a tolling location on a toll roadway;
- responsive to determining that the vehicle has entered the local geofenced zone, attempting to determine a geofenced lane in which the vehicle is traveling;
- determining a time, based on a location determination by the mobile device, at which the vehicle crosses an imaging location of the tolling location;
- and
- transmitting to a tolling server a message including data indicating the time and tolling location information at which the vehicle crossed the imaging location;
- responsive to receiving the time and lane information, the tolling server attempting to match a license plate in an image taken by a toll camera at the tolling location of the imaging location at the time and failing to find a match;
- and
- responsive to failing to find a match, the tolling server applying a reconciliation process to identity a toll account to be billed.
A method for reducing the need for automatic license plate recognition at a tolling location, comprising:
- failing to receive a toll transponder response at a toll reader of a tolling location upon a vehicle passing through the tolling location;
- receiving, at a server of a toll agency from a plurality of mobile devices, a plurality of toll event log message indicating a tolling location and a time of passing through the tolling location;
- and
- responsive to failing to receive the toll transponder response, performing a reconciliation process to determine a toll account associated with the vehicle, and then billing the toll account.
A method of reducing revenue loss in vehicle tolling, comprising:
- at a tolling location, detecting an approach of a vehicle, wherein the tolling location is one tolling location of a plurality of tolling locations;
- determining a time at which the vehicle passes the tolling location;
- receiving, at a server of a toll agency from a plurality of mobile devices, a plurality of toll event log messages, each one of the plurality of event log message indicating a particular tolling location of the plurality of tolling locations and a time of passing through the particular tolling location;
- and
- performing a reconciliation process to determine a toll account associated with the vehicle, and then billing the toll account.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.