Vehicle traffic and vehicle related transaction control system
A location enabled mobile wireless device and central system cooperate to provide traffic control such as vehicle inspection site services and toll station services. Traffic control information such as vehicle inspection site information and toll station information is independently processed by a third party provider and sent to the central system. The mobile wireless device monitors its location and sends location and vehicle related information to the central system. The central system compares data from the third party provider and the mobile wireless device. The mobile wireless device or the central system take an action based on the comparison, such as toll payment or vehicle inspection site operations.
1. A method of determining contemporaneously with transit of a vehicle between a roadside sensor location and a vehicle traffic control site, by a central processing system for vehicle traffic control connected to a telecommunications network, an association between the vehicle and a data output event of plural data output events produced by one or more sensors at the roadside location, the method comprising:
receiving, at the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, a first dataset from a mobile wireless device carried by the vehicle, the first dataset comprising vehicle location data obtained by monitoring a location of the mobile wireless device in which the location is determined from satellites to produce a series of location detection events each associated with a respective location and location detection event time stamp, and vehicle related information;
accessing, by the central processing system, a second dataset including the plural data output events produced by the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location, wherein the central processing system accesses the second dataset and receives the first dataset without a direct communication link between the mobile wireless device carried by the vehicle and the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location;
calculating, by the central processing system, a time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location based on a comparison of the roadside sensor location with the respective locations and location detection event time stamps of the series of location detection events;
comparing, by the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, the calculated time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location to times of the plural data output events produced by the one of more sensors to determine a temporal correspondence between the data output event of the plural data output events and the calculated time at which the vehicle entered the roadside sensor location, and to determine a lack of temporal correspondence between other data output events of the plural data output events and the calculated time;
determining, by the central processing system, the association between the vehicle and the data output event based on the determined temporal correspondence and the determined lack of temporal correspondence; and
outputting, contemporaneously with the transit of the vehicle between the roadside sensor location and the vehicle traffic control site, by the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing a vehicle traffic control site, one or more electronic commands that control vehicle traffic based on the association between the vehicle and the data output event.
2. The method of claim 1 in which the first dataset is obtained from a third party provider.
3. The method of claim 2 in which the second dataset also comprises rule based data related to the movement of vehicles along roads.
4. The method of claim 3 in which the second dataset is obtained by the central processing system downloading from the third party provider to the central processing system using a web service a second file containing the second dataset.
5. The method of claim 3 in which:
the second dataset comprises toll information;
the vehicle location data specifies the presence of the vehicle at a toll location; and
the method includes initiating a toll payment to a toll service provider.
6. The method of claim 5 in which the toll service provider is the third party provider.
7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
the central processing system using the vehicle location data to estimate a toll charge related to the presence of the vehicle at the toll location; and
deducting the toll charge from an account related to the mobile wireless device.
8. The method of claim 7 in which the method further comprises associating the toll charge to the toll payment and adjusting the account when the toll charge differs from the toll payment.
9. The method of claim 3 in which:
the second dataset comprises safety rules;
the vehicle location data specifies the presence of the vehicle at a vehicle inspection site; and
the method further comprises sending a signal to the mobile wireless device indicative of whether the vehicle is permitted to bypass the vehicle inspection site.
10. The method of claim 9 the method further comprises sending a notification to a law enforcement service.
11. The method of claim 9 in which the method further comprises initiating a toll payment.
12. The method of claim 1 in which receiving the first dataset comprises downloading from the mobile wireless device to the central processing system the first dataset containing the location data and vehicle related information through a web service.
13. The method of claim 1 further comprising uploading to the mobile wireless device a set of instructions for:
periodically obtaining a location of the mobile wireless device; and
comparing the location to a set of stored geographic areas.
14. The method of claim 13 in which the set of instructions includes instructions for communicating vehicle related information to the central processing system.
15. The method of claim 1 in which the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location produce data concerning vehicles in a first lane, and one or more additional sensors detect vehicles in a second lane at the roadside sensor location, and the association between the vehicle and the data output event produced by the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location is recorded depending on the lack of detection of a vehicle in the second lane by the one or more additional sensors.
16. The method of claim 1 in which the mobile wireless device initiates producing the series of location detection events upon the mobile wireless device entering a pre-defined geographic area, the vehicle encountering the roadside sensor location after the mobile wireless device initiates producing the series of location detection events.
17. A central processing system for connecting to a telecommunications network, the central processing system comprising:
a server connected to the telecommunications network to receive first dataset from a mobile wireless device and a second dataset including data produced by one or more sensors at a roadside sensor location, wherein the server receives the first and second datasets without a direct communication link between the mobile wireless device and the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location, the one or more sensors producing data concerning vehicles; and
the central processing system being configured to, contemporaneously with transit of a vehicle between the roadside sensor location and a vehicle traffic control site, carry out steps of:
receiving, prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle control site, the first dataset from the mobile wireless device carried by the vehicle, the first data set comprising vehicle location data obtained by monitoring a location of the mobile wireless device in which the location is determined from satellites to produce a series of location detection events each associated with a respective location and location detection event time stamp, and vehicle related information;
calculating a time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location based on a comparison of the roadside sensor location with the respective locations and location detection event time stamps of the series of location detection events;
comparing, prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, the calculated time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location to times of plural data output events of the data produced by the one of more sensors to determine a temporal correspondence between a data output event of the plural data output events and the calculated time at which the vehicle entered the roadside sensor location, and to determine a lack of temporal correspondence between other data output events of the plural data output events and the calculated time;
determining an association between the vehicle and the data output event based on the determined temporal correspondence and the determined lack of temporal correspondence; and
taking one or more actions contemporaneously with the transit of the vehicle between the roadside sensor location and the vehicle traffic control site based on the step of determining the association, including sending a signal to the mobile wireless device prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, the signal being indicative of whether the vehicle is permitted to bypass a vehicle inspection site.
18. The central processing system of claim 17 configured to instruct the mobile wireless device to initiate producing the series of location detection events upon the mobile wireless device entering a pre-defined geographic area, wherein the vehicle encountering the roadside sensor location after the mobile wireless device initiates producing the series of location detection events.
19. A method of determining contemporaneously with transit of a vehicle between a roadside sensor location and a vehicle traffic control site, by a central processing system for vehicle traffic control connected to a telecommunications network, an association between the vehicle and a data output event of plural data output events produced by one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location, the method comprising:
receiving, at the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle control site, a first dataset from a mobile wireless device carried by the vehicle, the first dataset comprising vehicle location data obtained by monitoring a location of the mobile wireless device in which the location is determined from satellites to produce a series of location detection events each associated with a respective location and location detection event time stamp, and vehicle related information;
accessing, by the central processing system, a second dataset including the plural data output events produced by the one or more sensors at a roadside sensor location, wherein the central processing system accesses the second dataset and receives the first dataset without a direct communication link between the mobile wireless device carried by the vehicle and the one or more sensors at the roadside sensor location;
comparing, by the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, the roadside sensor location with the respective locations and location detection event timestamps of the series of location detection events to calculate a time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location;
comparing, by the central processing system, the calculated time at which the vehicle encountered the roadside sensor location to times of the plural data output events to determine a temporal correspondence between the data output event of the plural data output events and the calculated time at which the vehicle entered the roadside sensor location, and to determine a lack of temporal correspondence between other data output events of the plural data output events and the calculated time;
determining, by the central processing system, an association between the vehicle and data output event based on the determined temporal correspondence and the determined lack of temporal correspondence; and
outputting, contemporaneously with the transit of the vehicle between the roadside sensor location and the vehicle traffic control site, by the central processing system prior to the vehicle passing the vehicle traffic control site, one or more electronic commands that control vehicle traffic based on the association between the vehicle and the data output event.
20. The method of claim 19 in which the mobile wireless device initiates producing the series of location detection events upon the mobile wireless device entering a pre-defined geographic area, the vehicle encountering the roadside sensor location after the mobile wireless device initiates producing the series of location detection events.