Appeal No. 96-3053
Application 08/113,194
reading out by a Toll Collecting Terminal, or TCT, from each
passing In-Vehicle-Terminal, or IVT, a Personal Identification
Number, or PIN, and a Prepaid Authority Identification Number, or
PPA-IDN;
combining said IVT supplied numbers with the collecting
Authority’s Identification Number and toll amount supplied by the
TCT to form a toll transaction;
assigning to each toll transaction an m/n address which
designates the Authority to whom funds have been prepaid by m,
and the Authority to whom the toll is being paid by n, said m/n
address helps direct data to its m/n designated storage bin and
forms a toll transaction message, or TTM, which at a minimum
consists of the m/n address, PIN, and toll amount;
reading out like-m/n batched TTMs from each said data storage bin
during preassigned time slots;
directing the resulting TTM batches to a communications interface
where TTM batches are transmitted to the designated Authorities
during said assigned time slots;
receiving TTM batches from other Authorities and feeding said TTM
batches into a second, synchronized assigned-time switch which
directs the appropriate m addressed batch from each Authority
onto the n assigned busline, based on its time of arrival;
extracting toll amounts from each TTM and processing them into
running sums for each busline, with each busline’s running sum
being periodically fed into a busline-assigned electronic check
writer, ECW, which addresses that busline’s running sum so it
will credit and debit that busline’s assigned bank accounts, then
reset said running sum to zero; and
using the banking system’s Electronic Funds Transfer System,
EFTS, to complete the inter-bank fund transfers as directed by
said ECW.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Arnold et al. (Arnold) 4,558,176 Dec. 10, 1985
Marker, Jr. 4,802,220 Jan. 31, 1989
Hassett et al. (Hassett) 5,086,389 Feb. 04, 1992
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