Patent ID: 7970644

Claim:
A method of identifying a vehicle in a toll system, the method comprising: accessing image data for a first vehicle; obtaining license plate data from the accessed image data for the first vehicle; accessing a set of records, each record including license plate data for a vehicle; comparing the license plate data for the first vehicle with the license plate data for vehicles in the set of records; identifying a set of vehicles from the vehicles having records in the set of records, the set of vehicles being identified based on results of the comparison of the license plate data; accessing vehicle fingerprint data for the first vehicle, the vehicle fingerprint data for the first vehicle being based on the accessed image data for the first vehicle; accessing vehicle fingerprint data for a vehicle in the set of vehicles; comparing, using a processing device, the vehicle fingerprint data for the first vehicle with the vehicle fingerprint data for the vehicle in the set of vehicles; and identifying the vehicle in the set of vehicles as the first vehicle based on results of the comparison of vehicle fingerprint data, wherein comparing the license plate data for the first vehicle with the license plate data for vehicles in the set of records includes searching a vehicle record database for records that include license plate data that exactly match the license plate data obtained for the first vehicle, and wherein comparing the license plate data for the first vehicle with the license plate data for vehicles in the set of records includes performing an extended search of the vehicle record database for records that include license plate data that nearly match the license plate data obtained for the first vehicle, the extended search being conditioned on no vehicle identification records being found that include license plate data that exactly match the license plate data obtained for the first vehicle.