JP2018045398A - Meter reading system of meter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a meter reading system reducing workload of a client reading a meter by himself/herself, a management business operator operating a management server, and a commissioned business agent.SOLUTION: A meter reading system is configured to read a meter via a portable terminal 2 of a client. A management server 1 that includes a database 11 for managing information 11a of a client reading a meter by the portable terminal 2, metering day information 11b for requesting the client to read the meter, and metering result information 11c of the client, and the portable terminal 2 of the client in which meter-reading application 20 is installed are communicated with each other. The meter-reading application 20 converts image data of a display surface of the meter that is photographed by the client at the metering day, into a text, and transmits only the text data to the management server 1. This configuration can reduce an amount of data communications and a load of the database.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a meter reading system that performs meter reading of a meter via a customer's mobile terminal.

  For example, when a customer uses water, a meter for measuring the amount of water used is installed at the customer's house. Then, a water meter or a meter reader of a contractor entrusted with meter reading work from the water company regularly visits the customer's home and charges a fee using the meter reading result obtained by reading the measurement value of the meter. Such a meter reading by a patrol of the meter reader increases the labor cost as well as the burden on the meter reader.

  Therefore, in order to reduce the burden and cost of the meter reader, there is a method in which the customer himself performs meter reading using a camera-equipped mobile terminal owned by the customer (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2009-37279 A

    In Patent Document 1, a customer transmits an image of a display surface of a weighing meter taken using a camera-equipped mobile terminal to the management server by e-mail, and the management server recognizes the received image as a character, thereby obtaining a numerical value of the weighing meter. Read and calculate usage. This document does not consider the increase in data communication volume of the management server due to image transmission or the load on the database that manages a large amount of images sent from customers, which may increase the operational burden on the management server operator. There is.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a meter reading system that reduces the work burden of a customer who conducts meter reading, and an operator or contractor who operates a management server.

    In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the meter reading system of the present invention is a meter reading system that performs meter reading of a meter via a customer's portable terminal, and requests customer information for meter reading by the portable terminal and the customer for meter reading. The management server having a database that manages the meter reading date information and the customer's meter reading result information communicates with the customer's mobile terminal on which the meter reading application is installed. The image data is converted into text and only the text data is transmitted to the management server.

    ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the meter-reading system which reduces the operation | work burden of the customer who performs meter-reading himself, the management company which operates a management server, or a contractor can be provided.

1 is a configuration diagram showing a meter reading system in a first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a meter reading method in the first embodiment. 2 is an example of a meter reading in the first embodiment. 5 is an example of a meter reading in a second embodiment.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking water as an example.

(Embodiment 1)
The configuration of the meter reading system according to this embodiment is shown in FIG.

The meter-reading system of FIG. 1 enables a customer who receives water supply to perform meter-reading, and a meter-reading management server 1 installed in a meter-reading center of a water company, a mobile terminal 2 at a customer's house, It is comprised with the network 3 which performs data communication.
The meter reading management server 1 includes a database 11. The database 11 includes customer information 11a for managing a customer's address, name, contract number, meter identification number, mail address, etc., meter reading date information 11b for managing a meter reading date, and the like. , Meter reading result information 11c for managing image data and text data sent from the customer, and billing information 11d for managing the amount of water used and the fee based on the meter reading result information. Note that past history information is also stored in the meter reading date information 11b, meter reading result information 11c, and billing information 11d.

  The communication processing unit 12 performs data communication with the mobile terminal 2 via the network 3, and makes a reference to transmission information to the mobile terminal 2 and a request for registration of reception information from the mobile terminal 2 to the input / output processing unit 14.

  The input / output device 13 is a computer terminal operated by an operator of the meter reading center, and refers to and edits information managed by the database 11. The input / output processing unit 14 receives requests from the communication processing unit 12 and the input / output device 13 and accesses information in the database 11.

  The mobile terminal 2 has a screen display device 21 and a camera device 23 built therein. In addition, a meter reading application 20 is installed in the portable terminal 2, and the meter reading application 20 is an image of the display surface of the metering meter photographed by the communication processing unit 20 a that transmits and receives information to and from the meter reading management server 1 and the camera device 23. An image processing unit 20b for converting data into text and a meter reading operation executing unit 20c for correcting meter reading operation guidance and text data are provided. The screen display device 21 accepts display of a photographed image to the customer and various operations from the customer.

  The input / output processing unit 22 performs processing in response to a request from the meter reading application 20 or the screen display device 21 such as activation of the camera device 23 or editing of text data. The meter reading application 20 can be downloaded after inputting the address, name, contract number, meter meter identification number, e-mail address, etc. from the homepage when the customer desires to use the meter reading system. . The contents input by the customer are registered in the database 11.

  The flow of meter reading in this system is shown in FIG.

  An operator of the meter reading center sets a meter reading date in advance in the meter reading management server 1 via the input / output device 13 (step S1). The meter reading management server 1 transmits a meter reading request to the meter reading application 20 of the customer's portable terminal 2 on the meter reading date set by the operator (step S2). The meter reading application 20 that has received the meter reading request notifies the screen display device 21 of the portable terminal 2 that there is a meter reading request from the meter reading management server (step A1). When the customer operates the screen display device 21 and confirms the meter reading request (step C1), the camera device 22 is activated from the meter reading application 20 (step A2). The customer goes to the place where the meter is installed with the portable terminal 2 and takes a picture of the display surface of the meter (step C2). The captured image is converted into text by the image processing unit 20b of the meter reading application 20, and is displayed together with the original image data on the screen display device 21 (step A3). The customer compares the text data with the image data, and edits the text data if there is an error in the text conversion result. If there is no error in the text conversion result, and if the text data is corrected to a correct value by editing, the meter reading result is determined (step C3). The determined meter reading result is transmitted from the meter reading application 20 to the meter reading management server (step A4). Upon receipt of the meter reading result, the meter reading management server 1 registers the meter reading result in the database 11 (step S3). Furthermore, the amount of water used and the charge from the previous meter reading date are calculated from the meter reading result, the operator confirms the contents of the bill, and registers it in the database 11 (step S4). Note that the operator confirms the image data stored in the database when there is doubt about the contents of the request.

  Here, the operations from step A3 to step A4 will be described with reference to FIG. The metering meter 30 is stored in a meter box 31 and is connected to a water supply pipe 32 laid in the customer's premises for measurement. The measurement value 30b and the identification number 30c of the measurement meter 30 are displayed on the display surface 30a of the measurement meter 30. The identification number 30c is a sticker to which a number that uniquely identifies the metering meter is added, and is attached to the display surface of the metering meter after a contract with the customer. By associating and managing the identification number and the contract number of the customer, it is ensured that the customer is photographing the metering meter at home. The identification number 30c may be a symbolized code such as a two-dimensional code. In step A3, the image photographed in step C2 is converted into text by the screen processing unit 20b of the meter reading application 20, and is displayed in the screen display area 21 together with the text data 21a and the image data 21b. In addition to the measurement value 30b and the meter identification number 30c, the date and time of photographing are added to the text data 21a to ensure that past image data is not used. In step C3, the customer compares the text data 21a with the image data 21b, and presses the meter reading result confirmation button 21c if there is no error in the text conversion result. If there is an error in the text conversion result, the customer can correct the text data 21a by pressing the meter reading result correction button 21d. After completing the correction of the text data, the customer presses the confirm button 21c. In step A3, the meter reading operation execution unit 20c manages whether or not the text data 21a is corrected. When there is no correction and the confirm button 21c is pressed, only the text data 21a is transmitted to the meter reading management server 1. Further, when the confirmation button 21c is pressed after the correction, a process of transmitting both the text data 21a and the image data 21b to the meter-reading management server 1 is performed. In this way, by limiting the images to be transmitted to the meter-reading management server 1, the amount of data communication with the meter-reading management server 1 and the load on the database 11 that is the registration destination of images can be reduced.

  In addition to meter reading, the meter reading application 20 allows customers to check their own water usage and billing details in the past and present, change customer information, and supply water to the average water usage. It has a function to check whether it is overused or not.

(Embodiment 2)
The present embodiment is a modified example from step A1 to step C2 in the first embodiment. This will be described with reference to FIG. According to the present embodiment, the camera device 33 with a wireless communication function is installed in the meter box 31 at the customer's house.

  When the customer confirms the meter reading request in step C1, in step A1, the meter reading application 20 establishes a network connection with the camera device 33 with a wireless communication function and activates the camera device 33 with a wireless communication function. In step C2, the customer instructs photographing while viewing the video transmitted from the camera device 33 with the wireless communication function to the portable terminal 2. The camera device with wireless communication function 33 captures the display surface of the metering meter 30 and transmits an image to the mobile terminal 2. Thereafter, step A3 to step S4 are performed as in the first embodiment.

  By using the camera device 33 with the wireless communication function in this way, it is not necessary for the customer to go outside for meter reading, which leads to a reduction in the burden on the customer. Further, the meter reading system of the present invention can be used even when a portable terminal that does not incorporate a camera device is owned.

  In the above, in order to activate the camera device 33 with a wireless communication function in step A2, a customer confirmation operation is required in step C1. Further, the photographing operation of the customer in Step C2 is necessary for photographing the image. Therefore, changing the steps C1 to A3 leads to further reduction of the burden on the customer.

  Specifically, the meter-reading application 20 that has received a meter-reading request from the meter-reading management server 1 attempts a network connection with the camera device 33 with a wireless communication function. When the connection can be established, step C1 is omitted, and the meter reading application 20 issues an imaging instruction in step C2 to acquire an image. After performing the image conversion in step A3, the customer is notified that the text correction / confirmation in step C3 is to be performed. Thereby, the customer's operation is only step C3, leading to a reduction in the burden on the customer. The meter-reading application 20 executes Step C1 when the network connection fails, or executes an imaging instruction as soon as the connection can be established.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Meter-reading management server, 2 ... Mobile terminal, 3 ... Network, 10 ... Input / output terminal, 11 ... Database, 20 ... Application for meter-reading, 21 ... Screen display device, 23 ... Camera device, 30 ... Metering meter, 31 ... Meter Box, 32 ... water supply pipe, 33 ... Camera device with wireless communication function.

Claims (4)

A meter reading system that performs meter reading of a meter via a customer's mobile terminal,
Communication between customer information for meter reading by portable terminal, meter reading date information for requesting meter reading to the customer, database for managing meter reading result information of the customer, and customer portable terminal installed with meter reading application The meter reading system is characterized in that the meter reading application converts text data of the metering meter taken by the customer on the date of meter reading into text, and transmits only the text data to the management server.   In Claim 1, the measuring meter is provided with a reading device having a wireless communication function with the camera, and when the reading device comes to the meter reading date, the measured value read based on the instruction by wireless communication from the portable terminal is stored in the portable terminal. Meter reading system characterized by returning.   3. The meter reading system according to claim 2, wherein the meter automatically performs meter reading when the application recognizes the network connection with the reading device on the meter reading date.   4. The meter-reading system according to claim 1, wherein when there is an error in the text data, the customer corrects the text data to a correct value and transmits it together with the image data.

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