Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-20
2003-04-29
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S602000, C340S615000, C340S870020, C073S861770, C073S861790, C073S861650, C073S861020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06556142
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The present invention relates to data communication. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system for communicating information between a utility metering device, such as a water meter, and a remote location, such as inside a residence or a service provider.
In the art today, utilities such as water and natural gas providers utilize mechanical devices affixed to the delivery pipe of each customer to determine individual usage. These devices typically use an impeller wheel of some kind in the path of the measured fluid to drive a calibrated, geared system for continually incrementing an analog display (e.g. values on a set of rotary dials) or digital display (e.g. a series of seven segment liquid crystals or light emitting diodes) of accumulated volumetric flow.
FIG. 1
provides an illustration of a conventional water meter
104
as used in the art today. A large diameter water main
102
is typically utilized to distribute water to several residential houses (or buildings) in an area. For billing purposes, it is necessary for the provider (in this case, the water company) to know how much water has been used during each billing period. To achieve this purpose, a water meter
104
is used. As stated above, an impeller
106
is often utilized as a component of the water meter
104
. The flow of water
108
causes the impeller
106
to turn. The impeller
106
is directly linked to a geared system
110
, which has been calibrated for volumetric accuracy, to provide a digital or analog display
112
of accumulated flow. The display
112
continually increments with each cubic volume (typically tenths or hundredths of a cubic foot) of water passing the water meter
104
.
Because water and gas meters in the art today are isolated from the respective service providers, meter readers are necessarily hired to monitor the meter of each assigned building periodically. The information he/she collects is then used to calculate each customer's bill. Besides being susceptible to human error in data recordation, this process is very expensive and inefficient. Further, this system provides no means for the customer to monitor his/her own service usage in real time. Meter readings can be difficult to interpret and utilize by a customer if they are accessible for the customer to view at all. Further, with the current art, it is difficult for the service provider or the customer to recognize a continuous, low usage—a strong indicator of a leak.
It is therefore desirable to have a system for communicating information between a utility metering device and a remote location to prevent the above-mentioned problems, as well as for other benefits.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4213119 (1980-07-01), Ward et al.
patent: 4590805 (1986-05-01), Baird et al.
patent: 4918995 (1990-04-01), Pearman et al.
patent: 5574229 (1996-11-01), Castillo
patent: 5721383 (1998-02-01), Franklin et al.
patent: 6246677 (2001-06-01), Nap et al.
patent: 6286596 (2001-09-01), Schnatzmeyer et al.
Intel Corporation
Kenyon & Kenyon
Nguyen Tai T.
Wu Daniel J.
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