EP0323326A1 - Automatic traffic condition control system - Google Patents

Abstract

Vehicle traffic is controlled by equipping each vehicle (2) with a memory-card or chip-card reader (3) connected to receiving means for receiving a signal emitted by a traffic control post (5) or station. The use of such cards permits generalised usage by avoiding the need to standardise the devices to be installed permanently on the vehicles (and which can therefore be of varied technology) and by limiting the standardisation only to limited elements: the chip cards (4). <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to an automatic control system for the state of traffic, in particular road traffic. The expression automatic control includes the following non-limiting functionalities: control of durations, payments, attendance, absences ... It relates to the control of this traffic whether the vehicles are in motion or whether they are stopped. Its purpose in the first case is to ensure compliance with the highway code, to serve as a statistical recording medium, and to oppose vehicle theft. In the second case it may aim to promote the use of public transport.

We know the various problems posed by the use of vehicles, especially in large cities or congestion, traffic saturation, bring discomfort to everyone's life. In particular, vehicle parking is one of the main causes. The regulations in force are intended to organize parking and, in particular by limiting it to a fixed period (for example two hours), to encourage motorists to use public transport. Initially, parking authorized for a fixed period was regulated by the affixing of a disc, known as a parking disc, with which each driver indicated the time at which he had parked his vehicle. The disc displayed the time limit before which the driver was obliged to take back his vehicle or move it under penalty of being fined. Very quickly the municipalities, which manage parking on their territory, have replaced the use of these free discs with systems with paid parking spaces. Different systems have been put in place, the principle of which is based on the prepayment of a parking period with a parking terminal, and the issuance by this terminal of a parking ticket, or more generally of a temporary authorization to parking corresponding to the amount paid. These parking terminals only imperfectly fulfill the role assigned to them.

In fact, at the end of the parking period, nothing prevents the owner of the vehicle from repeating its prepayment operation and requesting the granting of an additional parking permit for another period. This is all the easier for him since his vehicle already occupies a parking space that somehow he reserves. In principle the reiteration of the parking request beyond a certain period is prohibited. However, the parking control officers who are required to monitor all of the parked vehicles in their sectors must identify which of these vehicles has been in place abnormally long in order to penalize their driver. This identification is difficult and it can only be carried out rigorously if these agents engage in a tedious job of recording the serial numbers of the vehicles present in their field. They must then compare these statements hour by hour to understand their evolution. The complexity of this verification is such that in practice it is not undertaken. Some motorists abuse it in defiance of the regulations.

In addition, disabled people who drive specialized vehicles may have difficulty reaching the parking lot associated with the space occupied by their vehicle with their wheelchair. The route to get there can for example be congested or impassable for their wheelchair. In some cases, the lack of an easily visible terminal can annoy motorists when they try to find one.

With regard to moving vehicles, it is necessary to consider the problems presented by traffic violations: (mainly speeding), the problems presented by road wear, and finally the problems presented by vehicle theft.

The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks by recommending a system in which vehicles are provided with transceivers for communicating with terminals, or stations, for traffic control. In order to ensure the identification of vehicles independently of the manufacturing technology of the transceivers, the invention provides for providing these transceivers with memory card readers. These memory cards are cards of which the storage member is an electronic integrated circuit and the cards are so-called smart cards. In the system of the invention, all vehicles are provided with an assigned smart card. This smart card can also be provided with a prepayment function to allow its use in parking lots with controlled parking duration. In practice, the chip includes a memory area which can be loaded with the vehicle registration number, and which the vehicle transceiver presents at each requisition of a traffic control station. In addition, the smart card is equipped with a microprocessor which can be used to prohibit parking beyond a given period, even if the prepayment credit available on the card is sufficient.

The subject of the invention is therefore an automatic control system for the state of vehicle traffic, in particular road traffic, characterized in that it comprises:
- smart cards associated with vehicles,
- transmitting stations distributed over the traffic areas, and
- Means for exchanging information between the cards and the stations, this information relating to traffic.

In a variant, the exchange means can be integrated into the cards.

• - Figure 1 : une utilisation du système de l'invention dans une application de contrôle de stationnement ;
• - Figure 2 : un schéma fonctionnel montrant l'utili­sation de la carte dans l'application précédente ;
• - Figure 3 : une utilisation du système lorsque les véhicules sont en mouvement, et
• - Figure 4 : un organigramme typique d'échange d'infor­mations entre la station et le véhicule.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows and on examining the figures which accompany it. These are given for information only and in no way limit the invention. The figures show:

• - Figure 1: a use of the system of the invention in a parking control application;
• - Figure 2: a block diagram showing the use of the card in the previous application;
• - Figure 3: use of the system when the vehicles are moving, and
• - Figure 4: a typical flowchart of information exchange between the station and the vehicle.

FIG. 1 shows a use of the automatic control system for the state of a traffic according to the invention. In this use, a parking space 1 is furnished with a vehicle such as 2. Each vehicle 2 manages, for example in a radio card transceiver reader-recorder of smart card 3 an associated smart card 4. A station such as 5, arranged on the parking area has a transmitter which transmits by an antenna 6 a signal received by radio receiver included in the reader 3 of the vehicle 2. As a variant, the exchange means can be optical or magnetic. The smart card 4 can comprise, in a simple parking application, prepayment account units, represented here symbolically by diodes, stored in a memory area 7. The reader 3 has for example two indicator lights, 8 and 9, green and red respectively. In practice, the prepayment smart card 7 obliterates its account units at the rate of the debit of the pulses of a clock signal emitted by the station 5. As long as the prepayment credit contained in the area 7 is sufficient, the indicator light 8 stays on. When the credit is exhausted, the indicator 9, red, lights up and signals to a control officer that this vehicle is now in violation for default of payment.

In a more efficient version the smart card 7, when purchased from a distributor 10, can be programmed using a programming terminal 11 provided with a slot 12 to receive the card and a programming keyboard 13 . You can program the vehicle number 2 there: that is to say not only its registration number but also, for example, to facilitate the work of the agents, the type of vehicle as well as its color. Other information concerning a subscriber number, an invalid qualification, or a skip-the-line may also be recorded there. They allow individualization of the card for example at the level of the permitted parking time or at the rate level. In this improved version, the smart card reader 3 is not just a reader associated with a radio receiver. It is a reader associated with a radio transceiver. It is then possible for this transmitter to radiate information about the vehicle number 2 to the station 5, so that an agent can, by opening a door 14 of this station 5, access a interrogation keypad 15 regularity of parking of vehicles present. A display screen 16 can also indicate, when a payment default is proven, the registration number of the vehicle concerned. The job of locating the vehicle 2 in the area of agent surveillance is then greatly facilitated by knowing the type of vehicle, its color, as well as its registration number. A fine editor 17 can also be automatically coupled to terminal 5 to facilitate the work of this agent. This editor can also issue a signal increasing the hourly payment rates. In addition, when parking the driver can program a number relating to the space his vehicle occupies. This information also makes it possible to manage the places available in the park at a centralized level.

FIG. 2 shows the functional diagram of an application of the invention of the type of that presented in FIG. 1. In this one the aim sought is essentially to limit the duration of the parking to a given duration, even if the credit of the prepayment contained in the card is sufficient to support a longer duration. A radio receiver 18 associated with the reader 3 transmits to the card 4, for example by one of the access metallizations 19 of this card, a clock signal representative of the passage of time and coming from terminal 5. The card can however have its own transmitter, its own receiver, or its own transceiver. It also transmits to another input 20 of the card a signal identifying the parking terminal. This signal is directed, symbolically by a switch 21, in a register 22. The signal of the clock pulses is directed on the one hand in downcounting on the prepayment zone 7, and on the other hand on a counter 23 contained in the menu. When the zone 7 is empty (prepayment credit zero), or when the counter 23 is saturated (exceeding a time limit displayed in the counter) each of them delivers a signal indicating this situation.

These signals are collected in an OR gate 24 connected to a monostable 25. The monostable 25 has, in one example, a duration of maintaining its state of the order of fifteen minutes. During this holding time, the monostable 25 causes the switching of the switch 21. Under these conditions, the identification of the terminal 5 received by the receiver 18 is now oriented on a second register 26 comparable to the first. The registers 22 and 26 are connected to a comparator 27. As the register 22 contains information representative of the identification of the terminal 5, and that the register 26 now contains the same, the comparator 27 switches and issues an alarm 28: ignition the red indicator 9 of vehicle 2 for example. This alarm can also cause the names of bad payers to be placed on a special list, which may then result in higher rates. Conversely, a list of good payers can also exist: their rates are reduced. At the end of the changeover period of the monostable this returns to its initial state and causes the return of the switch 21 and the reset to zero, both of the counter 23 and of the register 26. When the parking time need not be limited, when happy to make the owners of vehicles pay for their parking prorated by their duration, stations 5 are planned not to issue the identification. This absence of identification can be coupled to the counter reset signals, so that the counter 23 is permanently forced to zero. Under these conditions the register 26, which by default is filled with characteristic information, is always different from the content of the register 22. The comparator 27 does not deliver an alarm. However in this case, as we seek to monitor the regularity of payments, we use the signal 29 available at the exit of zone 7 to produce the alarm. This signal 29 is in practice associated with the signal 28 in a second OR gate 30, the output of which is effectively connected to the indicator 9. In the improved variant, the signal available at the output of gate 30 can be used to cause the emission. , by the transceiver 18 of the vehicle registration number 31. Station 5 can then receive information regarding this fault.

FIG. 3 represents another application using the same means of the system as those described so far. For example, in order to limit the speed, a set of stations such as 33 can be distributed along a road 32, each provided with an identification and a clock. The clocks of all the stations 33 are at the same time. They are also synchronous. Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the operation of the control system. the invention in this case. When a vehicle approaches a station, the latter detects it in a first operation 34. This detection can be carried out by any means, in particular by a radar with electromagnetic or acoustic radiation. This detection can also be obtained by passing the vehicle over a mechanical or magnetic pedal. As soon as a vehicle is detected the station 33 transmits to this vehicle an instruction 35 for conditioning the transceiver 18 of this vehicle. This transceiver recognizes the presence of a station by a procedure 36 and immediately starts transmitting its registration number by a procedure 37. Procedures 36 and 37 can be easily programmed in the memory card 4 contained in the reader 3 of the vehicle using the microprocessor 38 contained in this card.

The absence of reception by the station 33 of the vehicle registration number 2 can be interpreted as a malfunction of the control system of the part on board the vehicle and cause the triggering of an alarm 48. The triggering of the alarm 48 can also be caused if the station 33 recognizes in the number received the number of a stolen vehicle of which it is otherwise aware. This technique ultimately makes it possible to follow the evolution of a stolen vehicle on the entire route that its driver takes.

Apart from these cases, the transceiver 18 of the car 2 then receives from the station, in an operation 39, a clock signal representative of its time of passage in front of the station 33. This time of passage is stored in card 4. When the vehicle subsequently passes in front of a station 40 located at a distance 41 from station 33, the same phenomenon occurs reproduced. The card then has in memory the instants of passage in front of stations 33 and 40 on the one hand, and, by the comparisons of the identifications of stations 33 and 40, the distance 41 on the other hand. It is therefore possible to deduce therefrom the speed taken by the vehicle over this distance 41. This speed which is potentially entered in the map can then be used by the traffic police to prove in an irrefutable way, when it is is produced, the exceeding of an authorized speed on section 41. When route 32 is a toll highway, speed information can be used to adjust the payment to be provided by the user based on a speed that 'he practiced. It is known in fact that the degradation of roads is all the more important as the vehicles which circulate there are faster. It may therefore be useful for the sake of sound management to charge more for the use of the motorway for vehicles driven quickly than those driven more slowly. Alternatively, the toll can be made on the fly, without requiring a stop at the motorway entry-exit stations. These stops are often the cause of accidents.

In a more rustic application where one does not seek to control for example stolen cars one can be satisfied with the emission by the station of a clock signal and of an identification signal of this station. Ultimately only operation 39 is performed. This operation 39 is nevertheless recorded in card 4, with a view to determining according to the authority which manages this card, whether to increase the toll price, or whether to impose a fine. for speeding. In a particularly interesting application, it is preferably possible place the terminals 33 and 40 at the entrances and exits of villages such as 42 scattered along a main road 32. Rather than an identification code, each station 33 or 40 can then send a duration representative of the minimum duration of crossing the distance 41 taking into account a speed limit imposed between the terminals 33 and 40. The card 4 can then receive as information the time of passage in front of the terminal 33 and the minimum duration of crossing. If this time is added to the hour of passage, the hour of passage past terminal 40 must be later. It then suffices to compare the two instants of passage stored in the card 4 to determine whether or not there has been an infraction.

Claims (4)

1 - Automatic control system for the state of vehicle traffic, in particular road traffic (1), characterized in that it comprises:
- smart cards (4) associated with the vehicles (2),
- transmitting stations (5) distributed on the traffic scene, and
- Means (6) for exchanging information between the cards and the stations, this information being relating to the traffic in that the means for exchanging comprise, in each station, a transmitter, this transmitter emitting a clock signal to shed the time, and, in each vehicle, a receiver (18) for receiving this signal and transmitting it to the card, the card comprising a memory area (7) for recording this signal and in that the memory area is a prepayment area. 2 - System according to claim 1 characterized in that the transmitter transmits a signal (22) representative of the station. 3 - System according to any one of claims 1 to 2 characterized in that the cards include memory areas (31) for recording the registration number of the vehicle, in that the receiver of each vehicle is a transceiver, and in that that the transmitter in each station is also a transceiver, in order to transmit the vehicle serial number to the station. 4 - System according to any one of claims 1 to 3 characterized in that the cards comprise memory zones connected to a microprocessor (38) for processing (23) the clock signal as a function of a signal emitted by the station and representative (22) of this station.

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