IT202200024897A1 - Platform for data management and certification between customers and multi-utility operators through the use of neural networks and cryptographic algorithms - Google Patents

Description

1.3 DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION of the invention entitled "Platform for the management and certification of data between customers and multi-utility operators"

Field of invention

This invention relates to the sector of electricity, gas and water consumption and, in particular, to the management and certification system of the related data.

Description of the prior art

? US Patent 2015088734 is well known and, although dealing with similar subjects, refers to a "wireless meter reading system and method to facilitate billing a consumer for utility usage".

Although the patent digresses into multiple applications and types of meters and methods of reading them, it does not address the issue of managing the flow of information and the security of its transmission for the purpose of making such flow certified.

The present invention concerns an innovative system capable of certifying in a unique and immutable way the flow of data between the user and the operator.

By using the invention, the customer is certain of paying for the consumption actually made and the retailer is certain of collecting the fee quickly, having eliminated the risk of contesting the invoiced consumption.

Advantageously, the use of the invention allows to reduce to a minimum the waste of paper, the delivery times of the bills by the postal service, the waiting times for the readings provided by the distribution companies to the sales company, as well as to anticipate the replacement of the volumetric meters and the implementation of the remote management (it is estimated that the replacement includes over 20,000,000 meters installed, to be replaced at a national level only for the gas sector).

Technical problem

To date, retailers are not able to monitor consumption in real time with a certified system.

This dysfunction made it necessary to use the estimated consumption readings system, i.e. consumptions that are attributed in the absence of recorded readings (or self-readings).

The estimated reading of consumption involves significant critical issues in managing customer relations, with the charging of expenses that are not consistent with the consumption actually produced.

The causes of the failure to acquire measurement data via remote reading by distribution companies are due to problems in reaching the meter through the Power Line Communication system (hereinafter: PLC or "power line conveyed waves") which represents the current technology used for remote management of meters.

Further problems that prevent remote reading are: concentrator not reachable, meter "not enrolled" (a meter is "not enrolled" when it is not included in the set of meters that a concentrator is programmed to interrogate, anomalies in the central system and meter to be reprogrammed after replacement).

Therefore, in fact, the user is denied the right and the possibility to independently transmit his/her own consumption data.

To overcome the technical problem, the present invention provides a certified system for the exchange of data relating to actual consumption, allowing customers to constantly monitor their consumption and thus avoiding the need to resort to the system of estimated readings.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig. 1 represents the platform in which the inputs are entered (personal data input during registration and subsequent text and image data) by the customers.

The platform, through the application, interacting with a blockchain infrastructure and with neural libraries for the textual acquisition of textual data, completing the processing, archives the processed data on the cloud and NAS, returning the processed data to the customers. Fig. n. 2 represents an extension of the customers that can be served as institutional sites.

Furthermore, since it also performs a notification function, it is implemented with an email notification and instant messaging system.

Detailed description of the invention

The invention consists of a platform for data management between customer and merchant, characterized by the certification of contractual and consumption data, inviolable and immutable over time.

The invention consists of the following elements:

1. Electronic database called for brevity ?Anagrafica? is protected for the archiving of electronic documents, which can be consulted remotely by a generic sender and by an employee of the sales company;

2. Data protection system through hot backup on servers and data replication in the cloud with data masking;

3. Mobile application usable on all platforms to be distributed to customers in order to allow connections to the IT platform on the go from any type of device.

The combination of the above elements allows to provide the innovation which is the object of the present invention, that is the construction of a unique and immutable historical archive of consumption readings which solves the problem of estimated readings by the selling companies.

Through the application it will be possible to transmit data (text, images, voice).

Typically, the customer will upload a digital photo of the meter that shows both its serial number and the consumption on the date of upload.

The application, once received, will return the data to the customer for reading confirmation.

This procedure provides an unequivocal certification of the consumption data.

The data, thus processed and certified, is released by the platform with the hashes printed on it.

As a result, the data will be constantly aligned with real consumption.

When the meter reading and photo are entered, the latter is converted into a binary blob so as to obtain the elimination of metadata and the uniformity of the format of the images stored in the database, while avoiding the possibility of overloading the maintenance system.

A unique signature is then generated by performing a hash function on what the user is declaring by reading and entering the photo.

The hash values obtained are unique, which means that no two different data sets can have the same hash value.

A check is then performed on the hash of the declaration just entered, so if the hash value in question is already present, the system itself discards the information just entered, communicating that the information you are trying to enter is incorrect because it already exists.

The hash value obtained together with the timestamp is then entered into the blockchain, thus constituting a record that, by the very nature of the blockchain, is immutable over time.

Immediately before entering the data into the blockchain and currently in the design phase, there is a check on the photographic materials entered to consider invalid and therefore discarded, all photos that may be altered by photo editing programs.

The data relating to a declaration present in the platform database are compared, the hash function used at the time of registration of the same is executed again and the blockchain is queried asking if there is a corresponding record for that declaration in question and, if so, the hash value stored in the blockchain is compared with the one obtained during the control phase.

If the hash values are identical it means that the declaration in question is the same one that was made at the time it was uploaded to the system and consequently the declaration is authentic, in any other case the declaration is false.

The supplier is not the recipient of any communication from the platform.

In fact, the data is owned by the user, so only the user can decide to whom to communicate their data, when to do it and how to do it.

The system simply provides a PDF document including hash, date of insertion and photograph of each reading entered by the user.

In conclusion, the invention offers the possibility to the user, holder of the readings, to download a .PDF file including all the data relating to the reading for each record inherent to the reading itself.

The consumption data thus certified will be made available in the customer's historical database, which can be consulted at any time in the customer area dedicated to it.

The certified data will allow the platform to valorise it with the contracted prices and therefore to return the expenditure value on the transmission date computed up to the previous reading.

This enhancement will allow the customer to have perfect knowledge of the expenditure produced by their consumption at any time.

The invention described is applicable to all customer/merchant relationships where there is a fiscal measurement instrument for the consumption-based service provided.

A preferred form of application of the invention is that described in drawing no. 3, which allows the customer to communicate the consumption data of his meter in real time, becoming an active part in the preventive phase of the process that leads to the issuing of the periodic consumption bill.

Claims (2)

1.4 CLAIMS 1. System for the detection and transmission of data relating to consumption from volumetric and electronic meters, consisting of the following elements: - Database for archiving electronic documents, which can be consulted remotely by a generic sender and by a representative of the sales company; - Data protection system through hot backup on servers and data replication in the cloud with data masking; - Mobile application. 2. System as per the preceding claim, characterised by the following process: - via the mobile application the customer uploads a photo of the meter, which indicates both its serial number and the consumption on the date of upload; - the photo of the meter is converted into a binary blob; - the application, having received the data, returns it to the customer for confirmation of the reading; - the data, thus processed and certified, is released by the platform with the unique hashes printed on it; - the hash value obtained, together with the timestamp, is entered into the blockchain; - the data relating to a declaration present in the platform database are compared, the hash function used at the time of registration is re-executed and the blockchain is queried asking whether a corresponding record exists for that declaration and, if so, the hash value stored in the blockchain is compared with the one obtained during the control phase; - subsequently, the data is reported in a history that can be consulted by the user, who can download it in PDF format containing all the information to send to their supplier.