NFC Toll Pass Account Provisioning Across State Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users operating multiple vehicles, such as rental cars, face difficulties in using a single Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) account across different states due to the incompatibility of radio frequency transmitter devices, requiring multiple accounts and devices for toll payments.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device with NFC capabilities is used to provision and manage user credentials for a toll system communication device, allowing seamless association and disassociation of payment accounts across various toll systems, enabling a single account to be used across multiple states through wireless communication and user interface interactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a user operates multiple vehicles in different states, then the user needs to use multiple ETC accounts and devices to pay tolls in different states, but this increases device complexity and user burden
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal toll pass device that can function across multiple state toll systems. The system allows a single physical toll pass to be associated with multiple ETC accounts from different states through a provisioning server, enabling the same device to work in different geographic regions without requiring multiple dedicated devices. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by making one device adaptable to many different toll systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a provisioning server as an intermediary between the toll pass device and multiple ETC accounts. This server manages the association between a single toll pass and multiple state-specific ETC accounts, enabling seamless cross-state toll payment. The intermediary handles the complexity of multi-system compatibility, allowing the user device to remain simple while achieving universal functionality through the mediating server infrastructure.
2Ease of operation
If a user operates multiple vehicles, then the user is unable to use their ETC account established with the roadway management authority because the radio frequency transmitter device in the rental car is not associated with the user's ETC account, but establishing multiple ETC accounts increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The toll pass device is designed with universal functionality to work with multiple ETC accounts across different vehicles. A single toll pass can be provisioned with multiple account identifiers corresponding to different vehicles, allowing the user to easily switch between vehicles without carrying multiple dedicated toll passes. This resolves the contradiction by enabling one device to serve multiple vehicles through account association rather than requiring separate physical devices for each vehicle.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the same radio frequency transmitter device is not usable in all 22 states, then a user may have to establish multiple ETC accounts and use different devices, but this increases loss of time and administrative burden
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary provisioning of the toll pass device with multiple ETC account associations before the user needs to use them. The provisioning server pre-configures the device with the necessary account information for multiple states, so when the user travels to different states, the device is already prepared and requires no additional setup time. This preliminary action resolves the contradiction by eliminating the time-consuming process of establishing multiple accounts at the point of need.
Solution Approach 2:
The provisioning server acts as an intermediary that handles the complex task of managing multiple ETC account associations in the background. Instead of requiring users to manually establish and manage multiple state-specific accounts, the intermediary server automatically manages the associations between the toll pass and various state toll systems, significantly reducing the time and administrative burden on users while maintaining broad geographic adaptability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Facilitates easy and secure reassignment of payment accounts between different radio frequency transmitter devices, allowing a single ETC account to be used across various states, enhancing convenience and reducing the need for multiple accounts and devices.
Implementation Method 1
a mobile device includes at least one user interface element, a wireless communication transceiver, a near field communication (NFC) transceiver
Data Source
AI summary
Examples are disclosed that facilitate provisioning of a toll system communication device used in an electronic toll collection system, such as EZ Pass. The toll system communication device (e.g., an EZ Pass tag) can have user credentials provided to it that are associated with a user payment account. As a user travels a toll road, the toll system communication device is interrogated at a toll booth location. In response to the interrogation, the toll system communication device provides information identifying the toll system communication device and associated user credentials. The user credentials may be obtained from or authenticated with a mobile device within close proximity to the vehicle equipped with the toll system communication device. Using the user credentials and the identifying information, a user payment account may be provisioned to pay tolls accrued by the vehicle using the toll road.