JPH0426520B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is used, for example, in monthly parking lots, etc.
The present invention relates to a vehicle traffic control device that can regulate entry and exit of automobiles, etc.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of traffic control includes, for example, parking lot entry/exit regulations. In this entry/exit regulation, users are given a card with the month, date, time, etc. printed on it at the time of entry to allow the car to enter, and when exiting, the administrator etc. receives a fee commensurate with the parking time, thereby regulating the users. , methods of managing parking lots using magnetic card devices, etc. are often used.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned vehicle traffic control, the license plate number of the vehicle entering the parking lot is not checked, so it may not be known if a vehicle other than the one under contract enters or exits, and if a magnetic card device is used. However, there are problems in that there is a risk that the magnetic card may be counterfeited, and that the recorded contents may be lost or altered due to proximity to ferromagnetic material.

This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a vehicle traffic control device that can perform reliable traffic control and that does not cause the recorded contents of the card to be lost or changed even in strong magnetic fields. shall be.

[Means for solving problems]

The vehicle traffic control device according to the present invention records the license plate number of a vehicle in advance in the data memory of an IC card, and uses a TV camera to take an image of the recorded number and the license plate number of a passing vehicle. The IC card processes the image data and compares it with the vehicle's license plate number read by a license plate reader consisting of an image processing processor that recognizes specific characters, and outputs the determination result. Based on this output result, the gate device that opens and closes the entrance and exit of the vehicle passageway is controlled.

[Effect]

In this invention, when a vehicle approaches an entrance/exit, its license plate number is read, and the license plate number recorded on the IC card and the number read by the license plate reader are read using the IC card brought by the user. The plate number is compared and verified, and the determination result is output. If the determination result is normal, the gate is opened, and if it is abnormal, the gate is kept closed.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a vehicle traffic control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a car, 2 is its license plate, 3 is an IC card with the number of license plate 2 recorded in advance,
4 is a card terminal that performs an input/output interface between this IC card 3 and the outside, 5 is a TV camera for capturing an image of the license plate 2, and 6 is a terminal for capturing an image of the license plate 2 when the TV camera 5 captures an image. This is a lighting device that provides sufficient illuminance to the area. Further, 20 is an image processing processor that processes the data of the image of the license plate number of a passing vehicle taken by the TV camera 5 and recognizes it as a specific character. ing. Also, 7
9 is a processing device that transmits image recognition data from the license plate reader 21 to the card terminal 4, as well as controls the opening/closing of the gate device 8 at the entrance and exit, controls imaging, etc.; 9 is connected to this processing device 7; Reference numeral 5 denotes a position sensor that detects the position of the automobile 1 to provide a trigger for capturing an image and timing for lighting the lighting device 6.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the IC card 3.
10 is a microcomputer having a calculation function and an input/output function with the card terminal 4; 11 is a data storage semiconductor memory (e.g. EEPROM) for recording data input/output to/from the card terminal 4; 12 is an operation of the microcomputer 10; Semiconductor memory (for example, ROM) in which the program for
13 is a semiconductor memory (for example, RAM) in which the microcomputer 10 temporarily records data sent from the outside or data to be sent to the outside.

Next, the operation of the vehicle traffic control device configured as described above will be explained. When the car 1 approaches the gate device 8 at the entrance or exit of the parking lot, which is the entrance/exit of the traffic road, the position sensor 9 detects the entrance of the car, and uses the TV camera 5 and the lighting device 6 to capture an image of the license plate 2. is taken into the image processing processor 20. The image processor 20 extracts and recognizes the number of the license plate 2 from the image gate, and transmits the recognized information to the card terminal 4 via the processing device 7.

Meanwhile, the user inserts the IC card 3 he/she brought into the card terminal 4 and waits until the gate 8 opens. In the IC card 3, the number of the license plate 2 (for example, Shinagawa 59 SA 1234, etc.) is recorded in the data memory 11, and the IC card 3 is transferred from the license plate reader 21 to the processing device 7.
The signal of the number of license plate 2 sent via A pass/fail judgment is made by comparing the contents of address B) and outputs the result. The processing device 7 receives the output result, and if the information output from the IC card 3 is normal (when the contents of the RAM (A) and data memory (B) match), the processing device 7 opens the gate 8 and allows the vehicle 1 to enter. If there is an abnormality (when the contents of RAM (A) and data memory (B) do not match), the system will take actions such as not opening gate 8 and reporting the situation to the parking lot manager. The entry time, exit time, parking fee, etc. are recorded in the data memory 11 of the IC card 3.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the vehicle traffic control device of the present invention, a license plate number of a vehicle is read by a license plate reader composed of a TV camera and an image processing processor, and an IC in which the license plate number of the vehicle is recorded in advance is read. The recorded license plate number is compared with the output of the license plate reader using the card, and vehicle traffic control is performed based on the result, so that the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Since an IC card is used, it is possible to protect confidentiality and prevent counterfeiting, which was difficult with magnetic cards.

(2) Since the license plate number recorded on the IC card is compared and verified with the number read by the license plate reader, it is possible to reliably prevent the passage of vehicles other than those under contract.

(3) Since personal information can be recorded in the data memory of the IC card, it will not be lost or altered by strong magnetic fields.

(4) By combining it with a gate device, etc., traffic control can be performed automatically, so management labor can be saved in the case of parking lots, etc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle traffic control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the recorded contents of an IC card of the same traffic control device. 1...Car, 2...Number plate, 3...IC
card, 5...TV camera, 7...processing device, 8...gate device, 10...microcomputer, 11...
Data memory, 20... Image processing processor, 21
...Number plate reader. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A vehicle traffic control device installed at the entrance/exit of a vehicle traffic route, which includes a television camera that captures an image of the license plate number of a passing vehicle, and image processing that processes the image data and recognizes it as a specific character. A license plate reader consisting of a processor and a license plate number of the vehicle is recorded in advance in its data memory, and the recorded license plate number and the output of the license plate reader are compared and verified. 1. A vehicle traffic control device comprising: an IC card that outputs a result; and a processing device that controls a gate that opens and closes the entrance/exit based on the output result of the IC card.