Patent ID: 7215255

Claim:
A system for monitoring, measuring, and/or usage metering of a vehicle involving tracking continuous movement and position of said vehicle comprising: an apparatus mounted on or in the vehicle, comprising: a receiver for receiving positioning signals from a signal source; a motion detector for determining parking episodes of the vehicle to form a parking-log; an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and/or DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) element for determining entry and exit data based on movement of the vehicle into or out of gated areas; a processor for forming a continuous, time-marked position-log from the positioning signals having regard to the parking-log and the entry and exit data, the processor comprising a memory; a storage element for storing position-logs; and a two-way wireless telecommunication element, such as GPRS, to transmit position-logs; a central processing system, in communication with the apparatus, comprising: a central telecommunication element to demand, receive and acknowledge receipt of position-logs and system information from the apparatus; digital maps and databases for containing usage fees, premium rules, parking fees and schedules; a central processor to further process position-logs, calculate user fees and generate invoices, maps and data feeds; and a central storage element for storing the maps, databases, position-logs, and system information, wherein the position-log contains optimized positioning signals processed to correct for multipath error when the vehicle is in either open or obscured line-of-sight from the signal source.