Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Koichi Yagi

Takehiko Okuda

Hajime Amano

A moving vehicle specification system having an auxiliary specification function. If a vehicle could not be specified by a local controller, the license plate number is decoded from a license plate image in a method where a number database is referenced according to grouped information and number information is retrieved. Auxiliary specification of the vehicle is performed through a comparison between the searched result and the decoded result. This prevents any impairment in the real-time performance of the processing based on local controller and permits more accurate vehicle specification.

Moving vehicle specification system including an auxiliary specification

A mobile communication method wherein a pilot signal is repeatedly transmitted toward a communication zone. As an IU on a vehicle arrives at the communication zone, it transmits a pilot response signal in reply to the pilot signal. When the confirmation antenna receives the pilot response signal, a procedure relating to the confirmation of debiting is executed. When a given time period has passed after this procedure has terminated, the IU transmits an existence-in-second-gantry-zone signal in response to the pilot signal, if the vehicle still exists in the communication zone. By receiving the existence-in-second-gantry-zone signal, it can be ascertained that the vehicle having a confirmed debiting associated therewith exists in the communication zone. Even if a plurality of vehicles are running in the same lane side-by-side, each of these vehicles can be distinguished from one another. The mobile communication method may be similarly applied to any other moving body, as well as to a road vehicle.

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Koichi Yagi