Toll payment apparatus for vehicle

1 . A toll payment apparatus for a vehicle, the toll payment apparatus comprising:

a synchronizer configured to be mounted on the vehicle and configured to:

communicatively couple to a communicator of an occupant of the vehicle to synchronize with the communicator;

acquire, from the communicator of the occupant, payment data and identification data of an owner of the communicator, the identification data including face authentication data configured to unlock a locked state of the communicator;

store the payment data and the identification data acquired from the communicator in a storage of the vehicle;

an occupant data obtainer configured to be mounted on the vehicle, the occupant data obtainer comprising a driver monitoring system (DMS) imaging device disposed in a vehicle compartment of the vehicle and configured to:

capture an image of a face of the occupant present in the vehicle;

acquire occupant data comprising face data of the occupant from the captured image,

store the face data in the storage of the vehicle;

communicatively coupled to a vehicle processor to transmit the acquired occupant data to the vehicle processor;

an electronic toll collection (ETC) in-vehicle device mounted on the vehicle and configured to communicatively couple to a roadside device to execute a payment of a facility associated with the roadside device; and

a navigator configured to acquire position data of the vehicle;

the vehicle processor mounted on the vehicle and configured to:

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-on state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-on state, perform a comparison between the face authentication data included in the identification data and the face data included in the occupant data to determine whether the face authentication data and the face data match with each other,

in response to the face authentication data and the face data matching with each other, determine that the owner of the communicator identified by the payment data acquired from the communicator is the occupant present in the vehicle,

in response to determining the owner identified by the payment data is the occupant present in the vehicle, validate a payment that is based on the payment data,

transmit the validated payment data to the ETC in-vehicle device, the validated payment data being transmitted by the ETC in-vehicle device to the roadside device to execute the payment of the facility;

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-off state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-off state, acquire the position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

determine whether the vehicle stays in a toll road based on the acquired position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

in response to determining that the vehicle stays in the toll road, maintain the validated payment data; and

in response to determining that the vehicle does not stay in the toll road, (i) delete the payment data and the identification data stored in the storage of the vehicle to invalidate the payment data and the identification data, (ii) notify a driver of the vehicle that the payment data and the identification data are invalidated, and (iii) transmit a signal indicating that the payment data is invalidated to the ETC in-vehicle device, and cause the ETC in-vehicle device to delete the validated payment data stored in the ETC in-vehicle device.

2 . A toll payment apparatus for a vehicle, the toll payment apparatus comprising:

circuitry configured to be mounted on the vehicle;

an occupant data obtainer comprising a driver monitoring system (DMS) imaging device disposed in a vehicle compartment of the vehicle and configured to capture an image of a face of an occupant present in the vehicle;

a navigator configured to acquire position data of the vehicle; and

an electronic toll collection (ETC) in-vehicle device to be mounted on the vehicle,

wherein the circuitry is configured to:

communicatively couple to a communicator of the occupant of the vehicle to synchronize with the communicator;

acquire, from the communicator of the occupant, payment data and identification data of an owner of the communicator, the identification data including face authentication data configured to unlock a locked state of the communicator;

store the payment data and the identification data acquired from the communicator in a storage of the vehicle;

cause the occupant data obtainer to capture an image of a face of the occupant present in the vehicle;

acquire occupant data comprising face data of the occupant from the occupant present in the vehicle and to transmit the acquired occupant data to the circuitry captured image;

store the face data in the storage of the vehicle;

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-on state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-on state, perform a comparison between the face authentication data included in the identification data and the face data included in the occupant data to determine whether the face authentication data and the face data match with each other,

in response to the face authentication data and the face data matching with each other, determine that the owner identified by the payment data acquired from the communicator is the occupant present in the vehicle,

in response to determining the owner identified by the payment data is the occupant present in the vehicle, validate a payment that is based on the payment data,

transmit the validated payment data to the ETC in-vehicle device, the ETC in-vehicle device being configured to communicatively couple to a roadside device to execute a payment of a facility associated with the roadside device, the validated payment data being transmitted by the ETC in-vehicle device to the roadside device to execute the payment of the facility;

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-off state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-off state, acquire the position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

determine whether the vehicle stays in a toll road based on the acquired position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

in response to determining that the vehicle stays in the toll road, maintain the validated payment data; and

in response to determining that the vehicle does not stay in the toll road, (i) delete the payment data and the identification data stored in the storage of the vehicle to invalidate the payment data and the identification data, (ii) notify a driver of the vehicle that the payment data and the identification data are invalidated, and (iii) transmit a signal indicating that the payment data is invalidated to the ETC in-vehicle device, and cause the ETC in-vehicle device to delete the validated payment data stored in the ETC in-vehicle device.

3 . A vehicle comprising:

an electronic toll collection (ETC) in-vehicle device;

a camera disposed in a vehicle compartment of the vehicle and configured to capture an image of a face of a driver present in the vehicle;

a navigator configured to acquire position data of the vehicle; and

circuitry configured to:

communicatively couple to a communicator of an occupant of the vehicle to synchronize with the communicator;

acquire, from the communicator of the occupant, payment data and identification data of an owner of the communicator, the identification data including face authentication data configured to unlock a locked state of the communicator;

store the payment data and the identification data acquired from the communicator in a storage of the vehicle;

acquire face data of the driver present in the vehicle from the captured image;

store the face data in the storage of the vehicle;

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-on state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-on state, perform a comparison between the face authentication data included in the identification data and the face data to determine whether the face authentication data and the face data match with each other;

in response to the face authentication data and the face data matching with each other, determine that the owner identified by the payment data acquired from the communicator is the driver present in the vehicle;

in response to determining the owner identified by the payment data is the driver present in the vehicle, validate a payment that is based on the payment data;

transmit the validated payment data to the ETC in-vehicle device, the ETC in-vehicle device being configured to communicatively couple to a roadside device to execute a payment of a facility associated with the roadside device, the validated payment data being transmitted by the ETC in-vehicle device to the roadside device to execute the payment of the facility;

determine whether the vehicle is in an ignition-off state;

in response to the vehicle being in the ignition-off state, acquire the position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

determine whether the vehicle stays in a toll road based on the acquired position data of the vehicle from the navigator;

in response to determining that the vehicle stays in the toll road, maintain the validated payment data; and

in response to determining that the vehicle does not stay in the toll road, (i) delete the payment data and the identification data stored in the storage of the vehicle to invalidate the payment data and the identification data, (ii) notify a driver of the vehicle that the payment data and the identification data are invalidated, and (iii) transmit a signal indicating that the payment data is invalidated to the ETC in-vehicle device, and cause the ETC in-vehicle device to delete the validated payment data stored in the ETC in-vehicle device.