JPH0125113B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a toll collection device for a toll road, and particularly relates to automation of toll calculation.

[Prior Art] Figures 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing a conventional system of this type. Figure 1 is a diagram explaining the operation of the entrance gate, and Figure 2 is a diagram explaining the operation of the exit gate. It is a diagram. In these figures, 1 is the collector at the entrance gate, 2 is the car using the toll road, A ₁ ,
A _{2 .}

The collector 1 selects the ticket A _i corresponding to the vehicle type from among the tickets A ₁ , A ₂ , . . . A _i , and hands it to the car 2. The collector 3 receives the ticket A _i from the car 2 at the exit gate and causes the reader 4 to read it. The ticket reader 4 reads the vehicle type, the number of the interchange leading to the entrance gate, etc. from the information code of the ticket A _i . The read contents are sent to the calculation device 5, where the toll is calculated based on the contents and displayed on the display 6. The collector 3 receives the fee by looking at the content displayed on the display 6.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The conventional system is configured as described above, and at the entrance gate, the vehicle type is identified by the collector 1.
A toll ticket corresponding to the vehicle type is given to the vehicle. Therefore, there was a problem in that a collector 1 had to be stationed at the entrance gate, and traffic jams occurred at the entrance gate to hand over passes to cars, impeding smooth traffic flow.

In Japanese Patent Application No. 56-101448 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-3086) filed by the present applicant, ``Device for preventing unauthorized traffic on toll roads'' (hereinafter referred to as Document 1), ``vehicles entering each toll road toll gate entrance/exit. A device was installed to image the vehicle number, and a device was installed to recognize patterns from the video signals captured by these devices, code the vehicle number information, and output it.''This vehicle number information was recorded on a pass ticket and issued.

Next, the patent application filed by the applicant in 1983-
141437 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-43081) ``Toll collection system'' (hereinafter referred to as Document 2) also aims to ``prevent fraud'' like Document 1, and ``Prints information read by a character recognition device on the ticket. and a magnetic coating. However, although the devices disclosed in Documents 1 and 2 are both equipped with a vehicle number reading device, they still hand pass passes to cars, and a collector must be stationed at the entrance gate to issue passes. It is not possible to eliminate the traffic jam at the entrance gate.

Furthermore, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-29200 "Illegal check method at paid facilities" (hereinafter referred to as Document 3), passes are issued in the same way as in Documents 1 and 2. In 1 and 2, the vehicle number is encoded and recorded on the pass ticket, whereas in Document 3, the vehicle number etc. is recorded as a video electrical signal on a video tape recorder at the entrance gate, and this is recorded in response to a request from the exit gate. This system is designed to playback the recording of a video tape recorder at the exit gate. Information is recorded as a video electrical signal, and this is read out and transmitted, so it has a large storage capacity and can transmit video electrical signals. There is a problem in that a line is required and verification must be performed by a human (Figure 1 of Reference 3).

This invention was made in order to solve the problems of the conventional ones as described above, and by automating all the necessary work at the entrance gate, there is no need to station a collector at the entrance gate. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a toll collection device that does not cause traffic jams at gates.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the present invention, characters on a car license plate are automatically imaged by a television camera installed at an entrance gate, and a character recognition device is developed from a video electrical signal obtained by this imaging. The character code representing the characters on the license plate is obtained by obtains the character code representing the character written on the car's license plate and sends it to the central processing unit, which searches in memory for the same character code as the character code sent from the exit gate, The entrance and exit gates of the vehicle were determined based on the match between the two character codes, and tolls were calculated using this determined data.

[Operation] The character code sent from the entrance gate is
It is stored in the CPU and compared with the character code sent from the exit gate, and the matching character code is searched and the fare calculation is performed, so the work at the entrance gate and the work in the CPU are all mechanized, reducing the necessary work. There will be fewer staff members and congestion at the entrance gate will be eliminated. Additionally, the information to be transmitted and stored is encoded and in a form convenient for transmission and storage.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which 10 is an entrance gate device;
30 is the exit gate device, 30 is the central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as
(abbreviated as CPU), 14, 24, and 25 are signal transmission paths, respectively. 11 is a car entering the toll road from the entrance gate, 21 is a car leaving the toll road from the exit gate, 12 and 22 are television cameras, respectively, and 13 and 14 are video electric signals representing the characters, and the characters are recognized by pattern recognition. This is a character recognition device that determines the character and outputs the character code representing that character.It is used to input the video electrical signal of the vehicle number written on the license plate of a car and output the character code representing that vehicle number. Therefore, in this specification, it is also tentatively referred to as a number reading device. 26 is a charge display, 31 is a memory, and 32 is configured in the CPU 30 under program control, and compares the character code transmitted through the signal transmission path 24 with the character code stored in the memory 31 to determine a match. A search device 33 is a fee calculation device in the CPU 30.

Television cameras 12 and 22 are each in car 1.
Number plates No. 1 and 21 are scanned to generate a video electrical signal corresponding to the character pattern drawn on the number plate. This video electrical signal is pattern-recognized by number reading devices (character recognition devices) 13, 23, and the character is determined.
The character code representing the determined character is output.
The structure and operation of character recognition devices using pattern recognition are well known, for example, "Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronic Engineering," published by Denki Shoin, Vol. 11, pp. 116-148.
is also detailed. The character recognition device used in this invention recognizes numbers, hiragana, and limited types of kanji, the total number of which is relatively small, and the typeface is constant.
Since the positions where the kanji are written are also fixed, a relatively simple character recognition device can be used.

That is, number reading device (character recognition device) 1
A character code obtained by reading the characters drawn on the license plates of the cars 11 and 21 is outputted from 3 and 23 and sent to the CPU 30 via signal transmission lines 14 and 24. An entrance gate device 10 and an exit gate device 20 are provided at each gate of each interchange in this toll collection system (FIG. 3 shows only one device at each location), and are used to identify each interchange. An interaction number is established. The CPU 30 stores the character code of the license plate sent from the number reading device (character recognition device) 13 of the entrance gate 10 in the memory 31 in association with the interchange number corresponding to the entrance gate 10. The interchange number can be transmitted from the number reading device (character recognition device) 13, 23 together with the character code of the license plate, or can be determined in the CPU 30 by the signal transmission path through which the character code of the license plate is input. You can also do it.

The CPU 30 inputs the character code of the license plate from the number reader (character recognition device) 23 of the exit gate 20, searches the memory 31 for the same character code as the character code, and stores the character code corresponding to the character code in the memory 31. The fare is calculated from the entrance interchange number stored in the memory and the exit interchange number corresponding to the number reading device 23, and the result is displayed on the fare display 26. In order to avoid errors in this display, the characters of the corresponding license plate can also be displayed. Also memory 31
The searched data inside will be deleted. Note that the toll coefficient based on the vehicle type may be determined by determining the vehicle type from the characters on the license plate and multiplied by the toll calculation device 33, or the toll calculation device 33 may not perform this multiplication and the exit collector manually inputs the vehicle type code. However, the charge coefficient may be multiplied in the charge display 26. Also, in many cases, a number reader (character recognition device)
13, 23, the search device 32, and the fee calculation device 33 are configured under processor program control.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, not only is it possible to unmanned the entrance gate operation, but also it is possible to eliminate pass tickets, achieve smooth traffic flow at the entrance, and eliminate number plates. This has the effect of preventing various types of fraudulent activities.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are block diagrams showing a conventional device, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. 10... Entrance gate device, 20... Exit gate device, 30... CPU, 11, 12... Car, 12,
22... Television camera, 13, 23... Character recognition device (number reading device), 14, 24, 25
...Signal transmission line, 26...Charge display, 31...
Memory, 32...search device, 33...charge calculation device. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Provided at each entrance gate and each exit gate of a toll road, and written on the license plate of a vehicle entering the toll road from each entrance gate or exiting the toll road from each exit gate. a television camera that images characters displayed on the screen and converts the imaged image signal into a video electric signal; a character recognition device that recognizes characters (plurality) written on a car license plate and outputs a character code representing the characters; and a signal transmission that transmits the character code output from the character recognition device to a central processing unit. a memory provided in the central processing unit for temporarily storing a character code transmitted from each entrance gate and an entrance interchange number for identifying an interchange corresponding to the entrance gate in correspondence with each other; a search device provided in the central processing unit for comparing the character code transmitted from each exit gate with the character code in the memory and searching the memory for a character code indicating the same license plate; A fare calculation device that calculates a toll for a vehicle with a license plate based on an entrance interface number and an exit interface number corresponding to a pair of character codes that are determined to indicate the same license plate as a result of a search by the search device; A toll collection device comprising a signal transmission path that transmits the toll calculated by the device to the exit gate.