CN111557024A - High-accuracy geographic positioning system and mobile payment method - Google Patents

Fig. 1 is a system schematic of a geo-

100 for vehicular applications, according to some embodiments.

100 represents an overview of a system that can dynamically define a virtual area, which corresponds to a physical location: the vehicle may be driven at the physical location for which the operator of the vehicle is charged a toll or other monetary fee for driving within the defined areas. There are a variety of mobile toll applications for vehicular use, and this disclosure focuses on both travel and parking applications. The

100 illustrates a driving application (as opposed to a parking application) in which a

102 made up of

104, 106, 108, 110 for travel in the same direction passes through a toll point 128 (e.g., portal-real or virtual) and may include a multi-occupant vehicle (HOV) lane, which offers toll discounts to encourage carpools. In some implementations, one or more of the

104, 106, 108, 110 may be a non-toll lane. Typically, HOV lanes are reserved for vehicles with two or more occupants (including the driver), and in some applications, the discount may correspond to the number of occupants. For example, in some locations, if there are four or more occupants, the toll will be 100% off.

112 is shown traveling in

104 and

114 is shown traveling in

108, where both

112, 114 are approaching a

128.

The toll is paid electronically in response to the vehicle passing a toll point, such as

128. In some implementations, the fee may be charged via an application on a mobile device (such as cellular telephone device 116) that may be present in the

112. The

116 may be communicatively linked to a

118 that interacts with a portal or similar toll reader. In some embodiments, the toll points 128 may be toll portals that include toll readers on individual lanes or on HOV express lanes only. The toll reader transmits radio signals in a narrow pattern (narrow pattern) on its respective lane which, when received by the

118, causes the

118 to respond by transmitting its unique identifier back to the reader. The toll institution operating the

128 then bills the toll fee to the account associated with the identifier of the charging

118. In some embodiments, the

118 may be generally in a sleep state until the communicatively linked cellular telephone device 116 (or similar mobile device) detects the proximity of the

128 and wakes up or otherwise activates the

118. The unique identifier provided by the

118 may be provided to the

118 by the

116. Thus, if the

118 is stolen, it cannot be used to charge the owner's toll account.

To manage toll accounts, a user of the

116 can use the cellular telephone device to run a toll application to connect to a toll service server or

124 by communicating through a

120 connected to a wide area network 122(WAN), such as the internet. The

124 may maintain account information including transaction records and user account balances. The user may access the user's

126 to transfer funds to the

124 on a regular or irregular basis as desired. When the user's vehicle (e.g., vehicle 112) passes a toll point, such as

128, the user's account will be debited by the toll amount and a transaction record is generated to reflect the toll charge and balance adjustments. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other forms of access may be used to manage toll accounts at the

124, including using a personal computer connected to a data network or equivalent device further connected to the

122. In addition, the

116 may include other forms of communication, including wireless local area network connection (also referred to as "Wi-Fi") and Bluetooth.

The

116 may also include a positioning system (such as GPS) for determining its location. The use of GPS by mobile devices is widespread and widespread worldwide and is used for a variety of location-based applications, including navigation, travel routes, mapping, and many others. To verify that the

112 is within the

104, the tolling system defines a position polygon defined by position coordinates. The position polygon is a virtual object corresponding to the real area. For example, a plurality of rectangles (such as rectangle 130) may be defined on

104. When the cellular telephone device determines its location, it may compare the location to a known location polygon provided by a service, such as a fee-based service. If the determined location is within the boundaries of the location polygon, it may be reasonably determined that the cellular telephone device is in the physical area corresponding to the location polygon. In addition, many cellular telephone devices sold today also include inertial measurement systems, including multi-dimensional accelerometer arrays and electronic compasses, which can be used to determine movement and changes in movement and direction, and can be used to enhance position determination and facilitate faster position determination.

In the case of the present example, the

116 may receive the set of polygon definitions from the

124 and compare its determined location to a set of prescribed location polygons. The location polygon definitions may be used to specify toll lane maps, parking space maps, public/private roadway maps, etc., and these may be transmitted as map files to the

116. The position determination may have some error because the

112 in which the

116 is located is moving. However, the error will be small enough that the

112 will still fall within the

130 while traveling in the

104, indicating that the car is within the

104, and therefore the toll charged through the

128 will be based on the number of occupants of the

112, with any applicable discounts. If the

112 does not have the required number of occupants to meet the HOV lane, the fine may be assessed in the same manner as the toll is collected.

Alternatively, the

104 may be a toll lane, such as a express lane. By limiting the use of the

104 to toll-paying users, while the

106, 108, 110 remain free, fewer people will use the

104, thereby causing traffic to flow faster and/or with fewer interruptions. Fees based on distance traveled in the

104 may be assessed like tolls. To enable the

104, a series of positional polygons may be specified along the portion of the

104 that will be used as the toll lane. The

116, using a suitable toll application, may track the presence of the

112 in the

104 and a corresponding fee for the distance traveled in the

104 may be determined. Likewise, just as the

116 can determine when its location is within the location polygon that specifies the

104, it can also determine when to exit the toll lane by no longer appearing within the location polygon that specifies the

104. One of the advantages of specifying an HOV lane or toll lane by a position polygon is that the route of the lane can be dynamically changed by simply using a position polygon corresponding to the active route of the HOV/toll lane.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustration of a

200 of implementing an HOV lane using a high accuracy GPS device algorithm, according to some embodiments. Specifically, the

200 is an overview of a general method for billing for HOV/toll lane usage tolls and determines when and how much to charge the user for travel in the HOV lane or toll lane. As a preliminary matter, assume that the vehicle includes a cellular telephone device that has been installed and is executing a toll application consistent with the present disclosure. Further, the user of the cellular phone device has established a toll account with a toll service party operating the toll service server, and the cellular phone device is able to communicate with the toll service server over the data network as a result of running the toll application. Additionally, it may be assumed that the cellular telephone device is using a high accuracy GPS signal (e.g., the L5 signal) for location determination. As one of the tasks performed by the toll application, in

202, data including a position polygon defining the position of an area (such as an HOV/toll lane) is acquired and downloaded from a toll service server or equivalent. As mentioned with respect to fig. 1, the location polygon is specified by location coordinates (e.g., at the vertices of the polygon), which allows the cellular telephone device to use its satellite positioning system to determine whether it is inside the location polygon, i.e., within a physical area corresponding to the area specified by the location polygon.

In

204, the cellular telephone device may begin to determine its current location using its satellite positioning system. This action should be repeated at intervals sufficient to ensure that the cellular telephone device can detect when it is within the prescribed positional polygon. In some embodiments, the monitoring may be continuous, or the monitoring rate may be increased as the location of the cellular telephone device indicates that it is approaching one or more prescribed location polygons.

In

206, the cellular telephone device may determine whether, for example, the direction of travel and the route of travel indicate that it is approaching a prescribed HOV lane or toll lane. The toll lane may be specified by a positional polygon corresponding to a boundary of an actual physical traffic lane specified as the toll lane. In

208, the cellular telephone device may compare the current location of the cellular telephone device with a prescribed HOV/toll lane data file that includes one or more prescribed location polygons corresponding to the physical location of the traffic lane designated as an HOV/toll lane. In this regard, in this process, the cellular telephone device should make the position determination at its maximum rate to ensure that the time in the HOV/toll lane is accurate.

In

210, the cellular telephone device may determine, based on the comparison of

208, whether the cellular telephone device and, by inference, the vehicle in which it is located are within the HOV/toll lane. If the position coordinates determined in

210 are outside the prescribed position polygon of the HOV/toll lane, then no toll is charged as shown in step 212 (and the method may return to step 210).

If the location determination and comparison in

210 indicates that the location is within a prescribed toll polygon corresponding to an HOV/toll lane, then in

214, the distance traveled may be monitored and recorded to determine the toll to be charged. Once it is determined that the vehicle is in the HOV/toll lane, the method may proceed to step 216 (step 216 may be a repeat of step 210), where in

216 the cellular telephone device monitors the location to determine where the vehicle has left the prescribed HOV/toll lane based on a comparison of the location to a location polygon that specifies the HOV/toll lane location. Step 216 may be repeated as long as the position determination continues to fall within the prescribed position polygon.

When the position determined in

216 indicates that the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane, then in

218 it may be determined whether the HOV/toll lane has ended or whether the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane before the HOV/toll lane ends. If the HOV/toll lane ends, i.e., the vehicle remains on the lane but no more HOV/toll charges are applied, the toll charges are stopped in

224 and a final total toll can be calculated and applied to the user account. Any discount for multiple occupants may be applied to the final toll charge.

If it is determined in

218 that the vehicle has left the HOV/toll lane in advance, in some cases there may be a fine assessed for early exit from the HOV/toll lane. In

220, the

200 determines whether leaving the HOV/toll lane before the HOV/toll lane ends violates the HOV/toll lane rules. If there is a rule prohibiting early exit from the HOV/toll lane, then in step 222, the violation is evaluated, which may include additional fees. If no rules apply, the charging may be stopped simply by proceeding to step 224.

Fig. 3 is a

300 for specifying a position polygon corresponding to a physical roadway, according to some embodiments. The traffic lane is shown here defined between a

302 and a

304, wherein the flow of traffic moves along the traffic lane in the direction of

305. The left lane boundary is shown in solid lines indicating that the traffic lane may be the innermost or leftmost traffic lane of a multi-lane, bi-directional roadway in north america. The adjacent lane to be present on the right side is not shown. A plurality of

306, 308, 310 are defined along the roadway. Each positional polygon is defined by three or more sides and three or more vertices. For example,

306 is defined as a

312, 314, 316, and 318. Vertices are formed at corners, such as

320, 322. The vertices may be specified by geo-location coordinates, and lines between the vertices may be assumed. Thus, any position defined by a line between vertices of a position polygon (such as position polygon 306) is within

306, and thus assumed to be within a lane of travel.

As shown here, the position polygons 306, 308, 310 are shown with a distinct separation between each other and away from the

302, 304 of the roadway, simply to clearly illustrate the position polygons. In fact, the position polygons will abut each other if they do not overlap each other and may extend to the

302, 304 of the traffic lane. As long as the traffic lane remains relatively straight, the positional polygon will extend. If the lane departure exceeds a threshold distance, a new position polygon may be specified. Thus, the

308 is defined if the lane of the row changes direction slightly from the region corresponding to the

306, and the

310 is similarly defined if the lane of the row changes direction again. The same type of criteria is used to map positional polygons along curves, turns, curves, etc.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustration of a

400 for high accuracy GPS data file tracking preparation back-end algorithm, according to some embodiments. In particular, the

400 illustrates an embodiment for creating/specifying positional polygons corresponding to real physical features on roadways, such as HOVs and toll lanes. At

402,

400 may prepare a data file or record that will include prescribed positional polygons for a given roadway feature (such as HOV/toll lane). The map may be created from, for example, high-resolution satellite photographs, survey maps, certified traffic maps, and other sources having reliable, accurate location information.

At

404, a starting point of the HOV/toll lane may be identified, including a lane width between two latitude and longitude coordinate points that will form the vertices of the position polygon, and an initial demarcation of the prescribed position polygon. Generally, the lane of traffic is assumed to continue in a straight direction, and therefore, in

406, the

400 looks for the lane of traffic's deviation from a straight line from the initial vertex/coordinate. If the deviation from the straight line exceeds a threshold (e.g., 30 centimeters), a new vertex may be specified in

408, where new coordinates may be entered to indicate the end of one position polygon and the beginning of another position polygon. In

410, the

400 determines whether the end of the specified HOV/toll lane has been reached and if so, the

400 proceeds to step 412 where the data file is complete and ready for distribution in

412. The completed data file will include position data sets that specify one or more position polygons corresponding to the physical positions of the lanes of traffic on the roadway. These position polygons may be used, for example, in

200 to determine a toll to be charged for travel in an HOV/toll lane.

Fig. 5 is a

500 illustrating a temporary deviation from a prescribed HOV/toll lane due to an obstacle, in accordance with some embodiments. The roadway is bounded on a

502 and a

504 and includes a plurality of lanes of

506, 508, 510, 512, where the flow of traffic moves in the direction of

505. The lane of

506 is defined as an HOV/toll lane and the

514 is used by a toll application on a user device (e.g., a cellular telephone device or similar computing device used in a vehicle). Generally, the

514 continues along the lane of

506, but in this example, an obstacle such as a

518 blocks the lane of

506. As a result, the

514 is substantially interrupted and continues in the

516 on the other side of the

518. Since leaving the HOV/toll lane may be a violation, a temporary location polygon may be specified to allow vehicles in the

506 to bypass the

518 using the

508. For example,

520, 522, 524 may be specified around the

518, which would be considered to specify temporary HOV/toll lane deviations. Note that

520 and 524

514, 516, indicating that the position polygons need not be exclusive. Similarly, adjacent

526 near or abutting or overlapping

514/516 may be used instead.

Similarly, a toll user that does not enter the HOV/toll lane 506 (such as a user traveling in the travel lane 508) will not be charged a toll or violation fee for traveling through the

520, 522, 524, or 526. By being designated as temporary position polygons, they will only apply to vehicles that previously entered the

514. However, if the vehicle subsequently enters the

516, the vehicle may be considered to have entered the HOV/toll lane and any violation or surcharge charges may be applied. Those skilled in the art will observe that this is a flexible way to virtually and quickly set up HOV/toll lanes without being limited by infrastructure costs.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustration of a

600 of alerting an operator of a vehicle in a prescribed HOV/toll lane of a deviation in the prescribed HOV/toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments.

600 begins when there is an obstacle (or construction) blocking a prescribed HOV/toll lane such that a temporarily prescribed route around the obstacle is required (as in the example shown in fig. 5). Thus, in

602, the positions of obstacles are collected at the back-end server and a map around the obstacles is selected. The position of the obstacle can be reported from and need not be as precise as the roadway edges or lane demarcation. A start point and an end point may be selected and it may generally be assumed that a vehicle in a congested lane will switch to the nearest uncongested lane to bypass an obstacle. Personnel working at or communicating with the backend may select areas that need to be bypassed for reference to create temporary location polygons. Once the temporary location polygons are created, they may be transmitted to a vehicle (e.g., a cellular telephone device or similar onboard device) in

604. Alternatively, a notification may be sent to allow those devices to request data when needed.

Once the temporary location polygon that routes around the obstacle is received, in

606, the type of vehicle may be determined as to whether the vehicle is an autonomously driven vehicle (e.g., autonomous driving) (step 610) or a non-autonomously driven vehicle (step 608). It may be assumed that the autonomously driven vehicle is connected to a cellular telephone device or similar device, and even such a device may be integrated into the autonomously driven vehicle. When the vehicle is a non-autonomously driven vehicle driven by a user having a connection with a cellular telephone device, or when the vehicle is an autonomously driven vehicle,

618 is entered after

614 and the vehicle may indicate to the user that a temporary route is being followed to avoid an obstacle. Otherwise, steps 612 to 616 are followed and the cellular telephone device will alert the user by, for example, vibrating an internal component (e.g., steering wheel) or sounding an audible alarm through the vehicle's audio system. In some embodiments, voice prompts or commands may also be issued through the vehicle's audio system.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustration of a

700 for transmitting HOV/toll lane data to reduce battery consumption at a cellular telephone device, in accordance with some embodiments. At

702, the back end server has created a map specifying the HOV and the location polygons of the toll lanes (which include the location coordinates). The location polygon data may be sent to the user's cellular telephone device operating the toll application. In

704, the user device may process the HOV and toll lane data to create a reference file. The reference file is essentially a graph of the coordinates of the placement location polygon such that the determined location readings can be compared to the reference file to quickly determine whether the determined location is within or outside the area specified by the reference file. In step 706, the user device begins monitoring its location and comparing the location to coordinates in a reference file. In step 708, the current (or most recent) set of coordinates is compared to a reference file. If the location is outside of any HOV lane or toll lane, then in

710 the user device may send an indication to the back-end server that the device is outside of any HOV lane or toll lane and reduce cell battery consumption by reducing the GPS transmission rate. If the location is within the coordinates mapped by the reference file in step 708, the device will continue to track the location in

712.

Fig. 8 is a flow diagram illustration of a

800 for determining a toll for either an HOV or a toll lane, in accordance with some embodiments. In particular, the

800 is applicable to conventional GPS operation (i.e., not the L5 signal). Conventional cellular telephone devices have a GPS chipset that uses L1 GPS signals, which L1 GPS signals are less accurate than L5 signals. Further, in some embodiments, the cellular telephone device may be wirelessly connected to a toll transponder device via the PAN, which is also read by a toll reader in a portal at the toll location. A position polygon may be used, but some adjustment is necessary in view of the inherent inaccuracy of the L1 signal. A position polygon is defined for a longer extension before and after the toll position to ensure that the approaching and passing of the toll position is correctly detected. Instead of using a long polygon of length determined by the straightness or curve of the roadway, a plurality of position polygons of selected length may be used. When using a long position polygon, the cellular telephone device tracks its travel through the position polygon. The shorter position polygons are used for statistical averaging by calculating the number of position polygons through which the vehicle appears to travel. Due to the inherent inaccuracy of the L1 signal, it appears that the vehicle has traveled through most of the positional polygons, although not necessarily all of the positional polygons along the lane to which the positional polygons correspond.

The

800 begins with the cellular telephone device routinely monitoring its location in step 802. The position determination may be made at relatively large time intervals, for example 5 to 10 seconds or more. Once position monitoring is initiated, in

804, the

800 determines whether the current position is within a threshold distance from the toll location (e.g., toll portal) based on whether the current position has entered a space corresponding to any of a plurality of initial position polygons specified along a roadway ahead of the toll location. Once the vehicle's location is found to be very close to the plurality of initial location polygons, the method proceeds to step 806, where the cellular telephone device (or the device making the location determination) activates the toll RFID of the toll transponder in

806, and the rate of GPS location determination may be increased in

808. In

810, the

800 determines whether an HOV lane entry (approching) is present in addition to the toll location. The HOV lane may be a lane passing through the toll location that provides a toll discount for the qualified vehicle. If there is an HOV lane through the toll location,

800 proceeds to another section ("a") shown in fig. 9. When there is no HOV lane in the toll location, the method proceeds to

814 and 816 to determine when the vehicle has passed the toll location by continuing to monitor the location (i.e., generating a new location determination). Once the vehicle appears to have passed the toll position, the method proceeds to step 818 where it is determined whether the vehicle has passed a position that falls within the prescribed position polygon before and after the toll position in

818. In this example, there may be a total of sixteen positional polygons. If the vehicle location has passed all location polygons before and after the toll location, the toll is collected in

822 and the toll transponder may be turned off in

824, and the less active location monitoring mechanism is then resumed in

828.

However, if it is determined in

818 that the determined position of the vehicle passes through less than all of the position polygons, the method alternatively proceeds to step 820, where it is determined whether a threshold number (e.g., a majority) of the position polygons have been passed. If the vehicle has passed the minimum number of position polygons, it is assumed that the vehicle has indeed passed the toll position. If the vehicle has passed less than a minimum number of position polygons specified before and after the toll location along the roadway that passes the toll location, it may be that the vehicle has passed only near the toll location (e.g., on a side road or other adjacent roadway that does not charge a toll fee), then the method proceeds to step 826, where no toll fee is charged in step 826, but a flag may be set on the account for further inquiry, such as checking a photograph record at the toll location to see if the vehicle has indeed passed the toll location, as is common.

Thus, to help determine whether the vehicle is entering an HOV lane (or any special lane), in

902, the toll application on the user's cellular telephone device may access real-time traffic data from other traffic-related applications, such as Google location, place intelligence (Waze), and similar applications where other users share their traffic data, including current speed and location. In

904, the method determines whether the vehicle has entered an initial position polygon specified before the toll location. The method iteratively loops through

904 and 906 until the vehicle enters and passes the initial position polygon. In

908, the vehicle speed or lane speed of the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is compared to the speeds of other vehicles in adjacent lanes, assuming such information is available in

902. If the vehicle is traveling faster than the nearby vehicle, it may be assumed that the vehicle is using a special lane or an HOV lane and proceed to

912 and 914. Step 912 is an optional step that may be used to enhance detection of entry into a special lane or HOV lane based on inertial measurements provided by, for example, an accelerometer unit in the cellular telephone device if the cellular telephone device includes such a unit. For example, in

916, the cellular telephone device may detect acceleration as the vehicle passes the location polygon before the toll location. In addition, in

918, the rate of angular change may also be monitored (assuming the cellular telephone device is not moving within the vehicle). If it is determined in

920 that the angular rate of travel is to the left (or to the right in the uk or a traditional country in the uk), the method may proceed to step 922. In

922, the number of standard lanes and HOV lanes and the general direction of the roadway are examined to determine whether the angular rate of change is consistent with a lane change to an HOV lane or consistent with remaining along a prescribed lane of travel. In

924, if the comparison of

922 indicates a lane change to a special lane or HOV lane, then the method proceeds to step 914, if

912 is skipped or not applicable. In

914, a toll is charged to the user based on the HOV status of the vehicle (e.g., number of occupants). From

914, the method proceeds to step 926, where the method monitors whether the vehicle has passed the last position polygon beyond the toll position in

926, and if so, in

928, the method resumes normal position determination operation as in

928. Also, the GPS bearing difference may be used to detect lane-to-lane changes by detecting peaks and valleys of the respective lane changes to the right or left, as shown in fig. 15.

Fig. 15 is a

1500 of the output of an inertial measurement unit in a vehicle making a left-right lane change for determining whether the vehicle has changed to an HOV lane or toll lane, according to some embodiments. For comparison, assume that the same oriented cellular telephone device or other device performing inertial sensing is used for both

1502, 1504. In a

1502, the inertial sensor output may indicate a lane change to the left, and in a second graph, the inertial sensor output may correspond to a lane change to the right. The

1506, 1508 indicate the magnitude of the inertial change. In this example, a positive transition indicates a change to the left, while a negative transition indicates a change to the right. In both graphs, time increases towards the right side of the page. In real applications, the inertial measurement system can dynamically identify "left" and "right" based on the direction of gravity and by sensing forward motion. Thus, a cell phone device placed face down may initially determine the left-right direction relative to its orientation, and may recalibrate the left-right direction after flipping. The curves plotted on each graph indicate the overall magnitude of the change in direction, e.g., as indicated by the accelerometer output. Similarly, the

1500 may be derived from position data calculated for GPS time azimuth difference (GBDT) in degrees, and may be derived from position detection data provided by a cellular telephone.

In the

1502, there is initially a

1510 coinciding with left travel, followed by a

1512 coinciding with right travel, as is the case with a left lane change. In

1502, a negative offset follows a positive offset, but there may be a delay between them, such as would occur if the vehicle crossed multiple lanes. Likewise, in the

1508, there is first a negative offset 1514 and then a positive offset 1516, which is consistent with a lane change to the right. The combination of these outputs with the use of position polygons may allow a determination of whether a vehicle is driving into (or out of) a particular lane of travel that may result in a toll or other fee.

Fig. 16 is a traffic diagram illustrating a lane change of a vehicle to a motorway detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection, according to some embodiments. The highway is comprised of two

1602 and a plurality of

1604.

1606 is shown entering a highway. The

1606 may cross the

1604 to reach the

1602. Lane crossing may be detected based on position and/or inertial measurements. A series of polygons starting with

1608 and ending with

1610 may represent lane crossing points detected by the inertial measurement system. For clarity, the figure is shown as being compact, and the actual lane crossing may occur over a relative distance much greater than that presented in the figure. The inertial detection may be performed by an output of an inertial measurement system output similar to the

1502 with one or more instances of a positive offset followed by a negative offset. The duration between positive and negative excursions and the number of instances of positive and negative excursion pairs can be used to count the number of lanes crossed. The rate of change of the offset may also be used to estimate the lane change rate. Thus, the determination of the lane change may be used to determine that the

1606 has crossed the

1604 and is in the

1602, which may be confirmed by position detection, including using a position polygon corresponding to the position of the highway lane.

Fig. 17 is a traffic diagram 1700 illustrating lane changes of a vehicle from an HOV lane and a highway to an exit lane detected using inertial measurements and/or position detection, according to some embodiments. Similar to the diagram 1600, here the

1706 is initially located in one of the

1702 and spans multiple

1704 to exit the highway. A lane change indicated by a series of polygons beginning with

1708 and ending with

1710 indicates a series of lane changes that may occur when the

1706 safely reaches the exit from the

1702. A lane change may be detected as shown in

1504 where there is a negative offset followed by a positive offset.

Fig. 18 is a flow diagram illustration of a

1800 for determining when a vehicle enters or leaves a roadway including one or more HOV lanes or toll lanes based on inertial measurements and/or position determinations, according to some embodiments. The

1800 may be used in the context of fig. 16-17 to determine lane changes of a vehicle on a roadway, and use inertial measurement systems or position azimuth difference data with outputs such as those shown in fig. 15. At

1802, the cellular telephone device may begin monitoring position and inertial outputs (e.g., signals output by an inertial measurement system). In

1804, it is determined whether the vehicle has entered the highway, which may be done using a prescribed location polygon as described herein. In

1806, it may be determined whether an HOV lane is present ahead, and if not, normal toll location monitoring is followed in

1808.

However, if it is determined in

1806 that there is an HOV lane ahead, then in

1810, the output of the inertial measurement system may be monitored to detect a lane change by looking for an offset indicating a left or right movement. Alternatively or in combination, GPS position information may be determined to derive a change in direction. In

1812, the

1800 looks for an indication of a lane change in the output of the inertial measurement system. If a lane change is indicated, the direction of the lane change (left or right) is determined in

1814. The lane count may be used to indicate the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling. The lane count may be a variable maintained in memory by the cellular telephone device. Thus, the lane count is increased in

1816 for a lane change traveling to the left, and the lane count is decreased in step 181 for a lane change traveling to the right. The lane count is maintained in

1820. In

1822, it is determined whether the vehicle has crossed enough lanes to be in the HOV lane, and whether the vehicle has passed a position polygon corresponding to an HOV or fast lane entrance. In

1824, the

1800 determines whether the vehicle has crossed an exit, and if not, monitoring continues (return to step 1810). If the vehicle has crossed enough lanes to be in the HOV lane in

1822, it is determined in

1828 whether the last lane crossing occurred before or at a location corresponding to an entrance position polygon of a set of position polygons that specifies the HOV lane. If not, it means that the vehicle has incorrectly entered the HOV lane, and the violation may be evaluated in

1828. If the vehicle does correctly enter the HOV lane, two actions are taken. First, in step 1836, a toll may be collected. Next, in

1832, the method monitors to ensure that the vehicle is properly left in the HOV lane by determining whether the vehicle has shifted lanes to the right before passing the positional polygon indicating the HOV lane endpoint. If a right-going lane-change has occurred, and this occurs before the vehicle passes the location specified by the exit location polygon in

1832, then the violation may be evaluated in

1834. If the exit position polygon is passed before the right-hand travel lane change, the HOV lane monitoring process ends in step 1838. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that while a flow diagram is intended to suggest a linear flow, various blocks/steps may represent processes that may occur in parallel. For example, in

1828 and

1832, the

1800 may still detect the lane change in

1810 and increase or decrease the

1820.

Fig. 10 is a

1000 of a street having a prescribed physical parking space and a prescribed virtual position polygon corresponding to a real (physical) parking space for a parking application, in accordance with some embodiments. The street may include a first lane of

1002 and a second lane of

1004. As shown,

1002 and 1004 have opposite traffic flows, but they may also have the same traffic flow direction. Along both sides of the street are a number of defined parking spaces (such as parking spaces 1006). As is known, individual parking spaces may be physically delimited by, for example, stripes of paint on the roadway surface. The position coordinates of the respective parking spaces are mapped such that the positions of the respective parking spaces may actually be represented by one or more position polygons, such as position polygons 1008-1014 shown overlaid on

1006. In a parking application, the vehicle position in any of prescribed position polygons 1008-1014 may be used to assume that the vehicle is in a physical parking spot corresponding to position polygons 1008-1014, and so may other parking spaces and their corresponding position polygons. In the case of a parking garage (parking spaces may be present on multiple levels of the parking garage), the position coordinates may include an altitude component.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart illustration of a

1100 of operating a parking application using a position polygon, in accordance with some embodiments.

1100 may operate in the context of the plan shown in fig. 10, where in fig. 10 parking spaces are physically specified and mapped with respect to their coordinates, and location polygons are specified for use by a toll application or parking application to determine whether a vehicle is in a specified parking space. A local map or a map near the vehicle location specifying parking spaces in an area around the vehicle location may be loaded. Thus, in

1102,

1100 begins looking for a match to a specified parking space by comparing a vehicle location determined by a GPS on a cellular telephone device in the vehicle, for example, to a location polygon corresponding to the specified parking space near the vehicle location. In

1104, the

1100 determines whether the vehicle is parked in the prescribed parking spot by determining that the vehicle is no longer moving and that the vehicle position is within the prescribed position polygon. In

1106,

1100 may optionally determine whether the user has a valid parking or toll account (if not,

1100 causes the user to be notified in step 1108). In

1110, the parking or toll application may communicate with the back-end server to arrange for payment of a parking fee from the user account, and may activate an indicator in the vehicle or cellular telephone device to indicate that the vehicle has parked properly and will accept payment to avoid the parking violation. In

1112 and 1114, the amount of time the vehicle is parked in the parking space is monitored, and when the vehicle leaves the parking space in

1114, then a parking fee or parking fee is assessed in

1116 based on the amount of time spent in the parking spot. The parking spaces mapped by the position polygons may be public or private parking spaces (e.g., parking garages). For example, because the location of a parking space is already specified and known, the use of location polygons and the described system eliminates the need for a user to enter a particular parking space number.

Fig. 12 is a plan view of a public street or

1202 to which private streets or

1208 are connected, where the private roadways are specified using location polygons to avoid road use fees for vehicles on the private roadways, according to some embodiments. The

1202 may include one or more lanes of traffic (such as opposing lanes of

1204, 1206). In some jurisdictions, it is contemplated that vehicle owners will be assessed road usage fees or road usage taxes for traveling on public roadways. Traditionally, the tax is collected indirectly by imposing a tax on the fuel (e.g., gasoline/petroleum). However, in recent years, vehicle technologies of an engine that is fuel-efficient, a hybrid engine that uses an electric motor in combination with an internal combustion engine, and an electric vehicle have reduced the revenue that is generally collected as a fuel tax. Therefore, road use fees are being considered and implemented in some places. However, driving on private roadways should not be included in public road usage fees. Thus, the

1208 can be mapped and have a plurality of

1210 specified corresponding to the

1208. No road use fees are incurred when the vehicle is within any position polygon specified for the private roadway, and the road use fees are incurred only when the vehicle is located on the public roadway 1202 (which may also be specified by the position polygon). Alternatively, it is conceivable that only the bus lane may be specified by the position polygon, and that no road use fee is incurred as long as the vehicle is not on the bus lane position polygon.

Fig. 13 is a

1300 for determining road usage fees for vehicles traveling on both public and private roadways, according to some embodiments. Road use fees may be collected by traffic authorities or other governmental agencies. Using the model of fig. 12 as an example, in

1302, location polygon data for private and/or public roadways is loaded for at least the area around the initial location of the cellular telephone device or vehicle. The location polygon provides a map of the area that is included as a private roadway and a public roadway. Private roadways are not used to determine road usage fees. In

1304, the road usage tolling application monitors the current location of the vehicle and the total miles (or other units of distance) driven is recorded. In

1308,

1300 determines, based on the position polygon (or the absence of such a position polygon), whether the current position indicates that the vehicle is currently on a public road or a private road. In

1310, the distance units traveled on the private roadway are recorded, and in

1312, a road usage fee may be calculated based on the distance traveled only on the private roadway. Although shown here as a subtraction operation, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a simple accumulator may also be maintained that is incremented only when the vehicle is traveling on a bus lane to determine the distance traveled on the bus lane.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart illustration of a

1400 for using location polygons in a drive-through retail distribution arrangement, according to some embodiments. The

1400 is used at a retail location having a parking lot or similar area into which vehicles may be driven and parked. Parking spaces may be mapped with respect to their location coordinates and specified by location polygons at the back-end server, as in the example given above with respect to toll locations, parking spaces and road usage fees. In

1402, the location polygon data for the retail location may be loaded into a cellular telephone device or equivalent device, and the cellular telephone device may then begin monitoring its location and comparing its location to the location of the retail location in

1404. In step 1406, the

1400 determines whether the vehicle is approaching a retail location. In

1408, the cellular telephone device, upon detecting sufficient proximity to the retail location, may issue a prompt or notification indicating that the retail location is nearby. In

1410, the cellular telephone device may prompt the user as to whether the user wants to place an order (or has placed an order). If the user wishes to place an order for a retail location, the user may place the order and pay using a cellular telephone device in

1412. In

1414, the

1400 determines whether the vehicle is parked in one of the retail outlet's prescribed parking spaces. In

1416, when the vehicle is located in a designated or prescribed parking spot of a retail location, the cellular telephone device may transmit the geographic location coordinates of the vehicle or identify the parking space, such as by the parking space number associated with the location polygon of the prescribed parking space. In

1418, the retail personnel may deliver the ordered merchandise to the vehicle as indicated by the parking information associated with the order.

The

1400 may be used for a variety of retail services, including food services, pharmaceuticals, and other goods. It is also contemplated that a person may place an order prior to arriving at a retail location, rather than placing the order at the time of parking or at a retail location, and that detection of a vehicle in a parking space at the retail location may automatically trigger a message to be sent to the retail location that includes, for example, an order number, the name of the person placing the order, and the current parking location where the person is located. In response to receiving the message, the retail location may verify the identity of the order and the person placing the order and deliver the goods to the person at the indicated parking space.

Independent claim 1 is modified to distinguish from the combination of Gravelle (US 2012/0215594) and Dawson (US 2007/0278300). Dawson teaches comparing traffic speed known on toll roads with traffic speed known on non-toll roads parallel to toll roads to determine the toll to be charged. However, the claim language of

2 uses the speed of the vehicle to determine whether it is in a toll or non-toll lane. This is a fundamentally different technical difference. Written opinions speculate that Dawson's system is "able" to perform the claimed subject matter, but even if this is assumed to be true, there is no evidence that Dawson actually takes this into account. The work that the reference may be able to do is not a reliable basis for finding the undepatentability.