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CORVALLIS - Researchers at the Oregon State University College of Engineering will unveil and demonstrate on Friday two wireless systems for "vehicles miles traveled" that might one day replace Oregon's gasoline tax.

The systems employ wireless technology to calculate how many miles a vehicle travels between refueling, then automatically read this data, compute a total fee, and add this fee to the cost of fuel while a vehicle is at the fuel pump. They were developed by OSU professors David Kim and David Porter using a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

"Oregon House Bill 3946 mandates that ODOT develop alternatives to the current system of taxing highway use through fuel taxes," said James Whitty, manager of the ODOT Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding.

"One alternative is a mileage fee based on the number of miles driven on roads within Oregon," Whitty said. "According to the research OSU has performed, it appears that a VMT fee is a very workable solution, and Oregon would be the national leader if the Oregon legislature makes the decision to implement this fee system."

Researchers say systems using the global positioning system as part of the on-vehicle device could employ "congestion pricing," which is the use of different per-mile rates based on different geographic locations or times of day. The system would also not count any miles logged beyond the borders of the state, researchers say.

A year ago, ODOT came to OSU because of the College of Engineering's Mobile Technology Solutions Laboratory, the only one of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. ODOT asked researchers in the lab to develop preliminary prototype VMT systems that employ the latest in wireless and radio frequency technologies.

In addition, ODOT wanted to ensure that the proposed VMT fee would be fair, affordable to implement, and not infringe in any way on personal privacy.

"This project has been exciting and challenging because as far as we know, nobody else has ever developed such a system," Kim said. "The prototype systems we will be demonstrating on Friday indicate that from a technology standpoint, this system is definitely viable."

Kim stressed that the systems developed at OSU do not allow storage or retrieval of any location or personal information, or the time or dates mileage was logged. The only information captured is the total number of miles driven since the last fueling.

The demonstration, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 10:15 a.m. in the Journey Room of the Memorial Union on the OSU campus, with an overview of the prototype. Following that will be a real-time demonstration involving five vehicles and a test gas station set up at the Oak Creek Building on campus, at 30th Street and Western Boulevard.

Researchers will drive the vehicles through several zones set up within the city to demonstrate how miles are counted electronically using the global positioning system or odometer system, and how the user fee is then wirelessly incorporated into fuel purchases at the test gas station pumps.

In addition to Kim and Porter, the project includes four graduate students and has supported eight undergraduate engineering students, as well as AFX Technologies International, a Dallas, Texas, company that specializes in wireless technology, and Digital Consulting and Software Services, a company specializing in service station point-of-sale systems.