JPH07262229A - Meter reading method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To provide a meter reading method and a device thereof that can prevent mistakes in reading customer numbers and meter numbers of meters, and mistakes in writing on usage slips. [Structure] A label 12B on which a bar code indicating a customer number is printed is pasted on the meter 12, and the bar code and the usage amount of the meter 12 are read by a portable optical reader 16, and an optical reader 26 is provided. The customer number and the amount used are read by the portable printer 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a meter reading method and apparatus thereof, and more particularly to a meter reading method and apparatus for measuring household electric power meters, gas meters and water meters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional meter reading method for metering the amount of electricity, gas, water, etc. used, meter reading staff dispatched from each of these supply companies visits each household at a predetermined time and is installed in each household. Visually read the customer numbers and meter numbers of meters such as electricity meters, gas meters, and water meters. Next, the usage amount and the amount of money for the current month are calculated from the difference between the read current meter number and the previously recorded meter number. Then, the customer number, the usage amount, the amount of money, and other necessary items were entered in the usage amount slip. In addition, recently, there is a tendency that a handy printer is used to fill in a usage amount slip instead of handwriting, and a usage amount slip is manually printed out by a keyboard operation.

[0003]

However, in the conventional meter reading method, the meter reading person visually reads the meter number or the customer number of the meter and fills in the usage amount slip by handwriting or manual input by the keyboard operation. There is a drawback that human error (error) such as reading error of customer number and error in filling usage amount slip is likely to occur. In particular, since the customer number has a very large number of digits, there is a problem that errors are likely to occur during reading or writing. For this reason, reading and writing customer numbers and meter numbers was a very laborious task for meter readers.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a meter reading method and an apparatus therefor which can prevent a customer error of a meter or a reading error of a meter number and an error in writing on a usage amount slip. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention attaches a bar code display means 12B showing a customer number to a meter 12, and the bar code 12B is read by a portable reading device 16. The customer number is printed by the portable printer 18.

[0006]

According to the present invention, display means for displaying the bar code 12B indicating the customer number is attached to the meter 12, and the bar code 12B is read by the portable reader 16.
The read customer number is printed by the portable printer 18.
Further, the portable reading device 16 reads the used quantity of the meter 12 and prints it by the portable printer 18.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of a meter reading method and its apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment in which a meter reading device 14 including an optical reading device 16, a portable printer 18, and an interface 20 connecting the two devices is used to measure a meter 12 for electric power, gas, water, etc. according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the meter-reading device 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, on the meter 12 attached to the outer wall 10 of the house, the cumulative usage amount is displayed in the cumulative display section 12A as a meter number. Then, a label 12B on which a bar code indicating a customer number is printed is attached to the lower side of the integrated display portion 12A. That is, in the meter reading method of the present invention, the label 12B in which the customer number registered for each home is bar-coded is preliminarily displayed on the meter 12 of each home.
Paste it in advance.

Next, according to FIG. 1 and FIG.
4, the meter reading device 14 is composed of a handy type optical reading device 16 and a portable printer 18, and the optical reading device 16 and the portable printer 18 are
For example, it is connected via the RS232C interface 20. The optical reading device 16 mainly includes a bar code scanner 22 that reads a bar code and an OCR 24 (optical char) that reads characters and numbers.
optical reader 26 having an actuator reader)
A keyboard 28 for manually inputting data, a liquid crystal display 30 for displaying and outputting data and the like, and a memory 32 for storing data. In addition, the memory 32
The customer number information corresponding to the bar code attached to each home and the meter number information at the time of the previous meter reading in each home are input from a host computer (not shown).

The portable printer 18 is mainly composed of
It comprises a printing mechanism 36 for printing on the usage amount slip 34, a CPU (central processing unit) 38, an optical reading device 16 and a battery 40 for supplying electric power to the portable printer 18. Further, a band 42 for shoulder hanging is attached to the portable printer 18, and a meter reader suspends the printer device 18 from his neck or shoulder and holds the optical reading device 16 in his hand for meter reading.

Next, the meter-reading device 14 constructed as described above.
The method of measuring the meter of electric power, gas, water, etc. will be explained. The meter-reader uses the meter-reading device 14 to read the meter 12
And the bar code displayed on the label attached to the meter 12 are read by the optical reader 26.
At this time, the bar code is read by the bar code scanner 22 of the optical reader 26, the meter number is read by the OCR 24 of the optical reader 26, and the read bar code and meter number are photoelectrically converted to the CPU 38. Entered in. Next, the CPU 38 decodes the customer number corresponding to the read bar code from the customer number information of each home and the read bar code stored in advance in the memory 32, and stores the read meter number and the pre-stored value. The amount used this time and the amount of money corresponding to it are calculated from the current meter reading at the time of the previous meter reading. The relationship between the customer number and the meter number at the current meter reading is stored in the memory 32 as basic data for the next meter reading. Next, the decrypted customer number and the calculated usage amount and amount are output to the liquid crystal display 30 and displayed, and at the same time, output to the printing mechanism 36 and printed on the usage amount slip 34. At this time, information to be printed other than the customer number, the used amount, and the amount of money is manually input from the keyboard 28 of the optical reading device 16 and printed by the printing mechanism 36. The printed usage slip 34 is posted by a meter reader in a mail box or the like of each home.

As described above, according to the meter reading method and apparatus of the present invention, the customer number and the meter number of the meter 12 are read, the used amount and the amount of money at this time are calculated, and the customer number, the used amount and the amount of money are used. Entry (printing) on the quantity slip 34
All were carried out by the meter reading device 14. As a result, it is possible to eliminate mistakes in meter reading due to human mistakes such as mistakes in reading customer numbers and meter numbers, mistakes in calculation of usage amount and amount, and errors in filling usage amount slip 34.

In this embodiment, the optical reader 26 has both functions of the bar code scanner 22 and the OCR 24 so that the bar code can be read by the bar code scanner 22 and the meter number can be read by the OCR 24. However, by converting the meter number into a bar code, the bar code scanner 22 can also read the meter.
Further, only the customer number having a large number of digits is read by the optical reader 26, and the meter number, which has a relatively small number of digits and is less likely to cause a reading error or an entry error on the usage amount slip 34, is visually read and the keyboard 28 is used. If the input is performed by using, the optical reader 26 only needs to have a bar code scanner function, and the reading mechanism of the optical reader 26 can be simplified.

Although the label has been described as the means for displaying the bar code, the bar code is not limited to this, and the bar code may be printed or engraved on a metal plate. Metal plates are more durable than paper labels.

[0015]

As described above, according to the meter reading method and device of the present invention, the meter is provided with the display means for displaying the bar code indicating the customer number, and the bar code is read by the portable reader. Since the customer number read by the above-mentioned portable reader and printed by the portable reading device is printed by the portable printer, there is no artificial reading error or entry error about the customer number. Further, by reading the used quantity of the meter with the portable reading device and printing it with the portable printer, there is no human erroneous reading or writing error in the used quantity.

[0016] Therefore, unlike the conventional method of meter reading which is based on visual inspection, the meter-reading staff does not need to confirm reading, entry, etc., so that the meter-reading efficiency can be improved and the meter-reading accuracy can be improved. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an embodiment of a meter reading method and its apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the meter-reading device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 ... Meter 12A ... Integrated display section for displaying meter numbers 12B ... Bar code printed label (bar code display means) 14 ... Metric reading device 16 ... Optical reading device 18 ... Portable printer 22 ... Bar code scanner (portable reading) 24) OCR 26 ... Optical reader 28 ... Keyboard 30 ... Liquid crystal display 32 ... Memory 34 ... Usage slip 36 ... Printing mechanism 38 ... CPU 40 ... Battery

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A meter reading method for meters, wherein the meter is provided with a bar code display means for indicating a customer number, the bar code is read by a portable reading device, and the read customer number is printed by a portable printer. . 2. The meter reading method for meters according to claim 1, wherein the number of meters used is read by the portable reader and printed by the portable printer. 3. A portable reading device provided on the meter for reading a customer number, and a portable printer connected to the portable reading device for printing the customer number read by the portable reading device. A characteristic meter reading device. 4. The meter-reading device for meters according to claim 3, wherein the portable reading device has a function of reading the used quantity of the meter.