Integrated traffic monitoring assistance, and communications system
AssigneesMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsIchiro Mizunuma, Ichiro Masaki
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Abstract
A traffic monitoring, driver assistance, and communications system includes lane terminals arranged along a direction of travel of a highway, each lane terminal including a sensor for detecting passage of a vehicle, a communication antenna, a terminal transceiver for communicating with a passing vehicle through the communication antenna, and a network backbone linking the lane terminals to a data processor for compiling information on passing vehicles sensed. The system permits complex toll assessment on toll roads. By using a larger number of short range antennas, cellular communication is possible with a very large number of moving vehicles without increasing bandwidth because the cells are relatively small.
Claims12
A traffic monitoring system for a highway including first and second adjacent lanes for travel in the same direction, the traffic monitoring system comprising:
- a plurality of lane terminals arranged along directions of travel of the highway and including a first line of the lane terminals located along an outside edge of the first lane, a second line of the lane terminals located between the first and second lanes, and a third line of lane terminals located along an outside edge of the second lane, each lane terminal including a sensor for detecting passage of a vehicle;
- a communication antenna;
- a terminal transceiver for communicating with a passing vehicle through the communication antenna;
- and
- a network backbone linking the lane terminals to a data processor for compiling information on passing vehicles sensed, each of the first, second, and third lines of the lane terminals including respective network backbones connected to the respective first, second, and third lines of the lane terminals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.