1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to obtaining information from a utility meter.
2. Description of the Background
Information from utility meters is required for a number of purposes. For example, owners or operators of large numbers of meters such as gas, electricity or water companies generally keep a database of the number, location, type, age etc of their meters. In the past this information has been acquired by manually reading this information from newly installed and existing meters and manually entering this information into a database. However, the manual writing down of this information and subsequent manual entry into a database leads to a significant number of errors reducing the usefulness of the database. The amount of commodity measured by the meter is also displayed on a meter and collecting this information for billing purposes generally involves a person writing down the reading and later having it entered into a database. This also leads to human errors in the recording and transferring of many numbers.
An object of the present invention is the acquisition of information from a utility meter with a reduced risk of error.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of obtaining information from a utility meter, the method comprising using a digital camera to take a digital image of information displayed on the utility meter, passing the digital image to a computing means and using the computing means to obtain information from the image.
By using the computing means to obtain the meter information from the digital image there is a much lower risk of recording erroneous data. The information may be displayed on the meter as numbers, letters, words, barcodes, shapes or colours and the computing means can extract, interpret and store the information from the image. The digital camera is preferably a handheld digital camera to enable an operator to carry it easily from meter to meter and to enable the operator to take a clear picture of the information displayed on the meter.
The computing means may be a portable computer such as a so-called “laptop” or handheld computer. Such a computing means may also be carried around by an operator and connected to the digital camera so that as digital images are taken by the camera the image is passed directly to the computing means and the relevant information extracted from the image.
The extracted information is preferably stored by the computing means for later use.
Alternatively the digital camera may store a number of images and at a convenient time for the operator the images may be passed to a suitable computing means such as a computer in a van or at the operator's base. The relevant information can then be extracted from all of the stored images. The digital image may be passed from the camera to the computing means by a variety of methods. For example, the digital camera may be in communication with the computing means by an electrical cable or by a wireless link, using for example an infra red link or a mobile phone.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for obtaining information from a utility meter, the apparatus comprising a digital camera to take a digital image of information displayed on the utility meter, computing means to receive the digital image taken by the digital camera and the computing means being arranged to extract information displayed on the utility meter from the image.
An example of a method and apparatus illustrating the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
As shown in
Alternatively the digital camera may be used to take and store a number of images of meter index plates 13 which are then passed to a computer 30 together at a convenient opportunity. The computer need not be connected to the camera whilst the images are taken and the computer could be kept at a convenient remote location such as the operator's vehicle or base.
In either case the images could be sent to the computer 30 by any convenient means such as a communication cable 21, infra red communication link or as a radio signal using a mobile telephone for example.
In the present example the operator 1 visually identifies the type of meter to be analysed. This information is stored in association with the image. Knowing the type of meter, the computer 30 selects a suitable template which identifies the location of various pieces of information on the image of that identified meter index plate 13 such as the manufacturer 14, meter index reading 15, meter reference numbers and bar codes 16, year of manufacture 17 and coloured shapes 18. Since the size of the meter index plate 13 in the image can vary depending upon how close the camera is to the index plate 13 when taking the image and the position of the index plate 13 can be anywhere in the image, the computer identifies at least two reference points on the image. For example, for the meter index plate 13 of
Many modifications may be made to the example described without departing from the invention. For example, the computer 30 could be connected directly to the digital camera 20 or they could be separate and the images passed from the camera 20 to the computer 30 when convenient. Furthermore, information could be read from any type of utility meter such as an electricity or water meter as well as the gas meter described in the example.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0024612 | Oct 2000 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/GB01/04400 | 10/4/2001 | WO | 00 | 7/23/2003 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO02/31442 | 4/18/2002 | WO | A |
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5559894 | Lubliner et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
5673331 | Lewis et al. | Sep 1997 | A |
5870140 | Gillberry | Feb 1999 | A |
6621943 | Yoo et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
6853309 | Schroter | Feb 2005 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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11 175656 | Jul 1999 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20040032504 A1 | Feb 2004 | US |