Granted Patent B2

US 10,885,369 · App. 16/219,004 · Granted Jan 5, 2021

Inventors: Jay E. Hedley (Arlington, VA); Neal Patrick Thornburg (Charlotte, NC)

Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited

G06K9/325G06K9/00624G06Q30/0283G06Q50/30G07B15/06G08G1/017

Abstract

Claims (50)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a license plate reader of a toll management system, a particular license plate identifier, wherein the toll management system includes:

(i) the license plate reader that outputs license plate identifiers based on an automated analysis of images of corresponding license plates and that occasionally outputs incorrect license plate identifiers for some of the license plates in error,

(ii) a billing engine server that generates toll data based on the license plate identifiers that are output by the license plate reader, including incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error,

(iii) a network interface through which the toll data, including the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error, is transmitted to one or more external systems for further automated processing,

(iv) a dispute management engine through which incorrect license plate identifiers are manually correlated to corrected license plate identifiers following prior, automated processing of the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers by the one or more external systems, and

(v) a read errors database that includes data that associates each manually corrected license plate identifier to a respective, correct license plate identifier;

determining, by the billing engine server, that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with a particular, corrected license plate identifier as a result of the particular license plate identifier being manually correlated following prior, automated processing of particular toll data based on the particular license plate identifier by the one or more external systems;

in response to determining that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with the particular, corrected license plate identifier, generating, by the billing engine server, particular toll data based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader; and

transmitting, by the billing engine server and through the network interface, the particular toll data that is generated based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the license plate reader comprises a camera at a toll plaza that is positioned to take pictures of the license plates.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the external systems comprises a postal authority server, an insurance company server, or a homeland security agency server.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the automated analysis of images performed by the license plate reader comprises an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier, wherein the particular license plate identifier is determined to be associated with the particular, corrected license plate identifier only after determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dispute management engine comprises a user interface through which drivers who receive bills based on incorrect license plate identifiers can initiate a manual correction process.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the license plate reader of the toll management system is configured to generate a photo of every passing vehicle.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations that comprise:

receiving, from a license plate reader of a toll management system, a particular license plate identifier, wherein the toll management system includes:

(i) the license plate reader that outputs license plate identifiers based on an automated analysis of images of corresponding license plates and that occasionally outputs incorrect license plate identifiers for some of the license plates in error,

(ii) a billing engine server that generates toll data based on the license plate identifiers that are output by the license plate reader, including incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error,

(iii) a network interface through which the toll data, including the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error, is transmitted to one or more external systems for further automated processing,

(iv) a dispute management engine through which incorrect license plate identifiers are manually correlated to corrected license plate identifiers following prior, automated processing of the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers by the one or more external systems, and

(v) a read errors database that includes data that associates each manually corrected license plate identifier to a respective, correct license plate identifier;

determining, by the billing engine server, that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with a particular, corrected license plate identifier as a result of the particular license plate identifier being manually correlated following prior, automated processing of particular toll data based on the particular license plate identifier by the one or more external systems;

in response to determining that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with the particular, corrected license plate identifier, generating, by the billing engine server, particular toll data based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader; and

transmitting, by the billing engine server and through the network interface, the particular toll data that is generated based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the license plate reader comprises a camera at a toll plaza that is positioned to take pictures of the license plates.

10. The device of claim 8 , wherein one or more of the external systems comprises a postal authority server, an insurance company server, or a homeland security agency server.

11. The device of claim 8 , wherein the automated analysis of images performed by the license plate reader comprises an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

12. The device of claim 8 , wherein the operations comprise determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier, wherein the particular license plate identifier is determined to be associated with the particular, corrected license plate identifier only after determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier.

13. The device of claim 8 , wherein the dispute management engine comprises a user interface through which drivers who receive bills based on incorrect license plate identifiers can initiate a manual correction process.

14. The device of claim 8 , wherein the license plate reader of the toll management system is configured to generate a photo of every passing vehicle.

15. A toll management system including:

(i) a license plate reader that outputs license plate identifiers based on an automated analysis of images of corresponding license plates and that occasionally outputs incorrect license plate identifiers for some of the license plates in error,

(ii) a billing engine server that generates toll data based on the license plate identifiers that are output by the license plate reader, including incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error,

(iii) a network interface through which the toll data, including the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers that are output in error, is transmitted to one or more external systems for further automated processing,

(iv) a dispute management engine through which incorrect license plate identifiers are manually correlated to corrected license plate identifiers following prior, automated processing of the toll data based on incorrect license plate identifiers by the one or more external systems, and

(v) a read errors database that includes data that associates each manually corrected license plate identifier to a respective, correct license plate identifier;

wherein the toll management system comprises:

one or more processing devices; and

one or more storage devices storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from the license plate reader of the toll management system, a particular license plate identifier;

determining, by the billing engine server of the toll management system, that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with a particular, corrected license plate identifier as a result of the particular license plate identifier being manually correlated following prior, automated processing of particular toll data based on the particular license plate identifier by the one or more external systems;

in response to determining that the particular license plate identifier is associated, in the read errors database, with the particular, corrected license plate identifier, generating, by the billing engine server of the toll management system, particular toll data based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader; and

transmitting, by the billing engine server and through the network interface, the particular toll data that is generated based on the particular, corrected license plate identifier in lieu of the particular license plate identifier that is received from the license plate reader.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the license plate reader comprises a camera at a toll plaza that is positioned to take pictures of the license plates.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein one or more of the external systems comprises a postal authority server, an insurance company server, or a homeland security agency server.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the automated analysis of images performed by the license plate reader comprises an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the operations comprise determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier, wherein the particular license plate identifier is determined to be associated with the particular, corrected license plate identifier only after determining whether the particular license plate identifier comprises a partial or complete license plate identifier.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the dispute management engine comprises a user interface through which drivers who receive bills based on incorrect license plate identifiers can initiate a manual correction process.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (8)