# US 2020/0288221 A1 · Instantaneous energy resource use monitoring and customer engagement server

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2020/0288221 A1
- Document ID: US20200288221A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/812,721
- Filed: 2020-03-09
- Published: 2020-09-10
- Earliest claimed: 2019-03-08
- Assignees: Copper Labs, Inc.
- Applicants: Copper Labs, Inc.
- Inventors: Jeffrey P. Mathews; Daniel J. Forman; Christopher P. Meyer; Michael L. Russo
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200288221A1

## CPC

- H04Q 9/02: Automatically-operated arrangements
- G01D 4/002: {Remote reading of utility meters}
- G01D 4/006: {Remote reading of utility meters to a non-fixed location, i.e. mobile location}
- G01D 4/02: Details
- G01R 19/0092: {Measuring current only}
- G01R 19/2513: {Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging}
- G06Q 30/04: Billing or invoicing
- G06Q 50/06: Energy or water supply
- H04L 67/025: for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
- H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
- H04L 67/535: {Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34)}
- H04L 67/55: Push-based network services
- H04L 69/40: for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06)
- H04Q 9/00: Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
- H04W 4/021: Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
- H04W 4/029: Location-based management or tracking services
- H04W 4/38: for collecting sensor information
- H04W 4/80: Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
- G01D 2204/18: Remote displaying of utility meter readings
- G01R 22/063: {related to remote communication}
- G06N 5/04: Inference or reasoning models
- G06N 20/00: Machine learning
- H04L 67/10: in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46)
- H04Q 2209/10: using a centralized architecture
- H04Q 2209/40: using a wireless architecture
- H04Q 2209/60: for transmitting utility meters data, i.e. transmission of data from the reader of the utility meter
- H04W 4/02: Services making use of location information
- Y04S 20/30: Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading
- H04Q: SELECTING (switches, relays, selectors H01H; wireless communication networks H04W)
- G01D: MEASURING NOT SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR A SPECIFIC VARIABLE; ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEASURING TWO OR MORE VARIABLES NOT COVERED IN A SINGLE OTHER SUBCLASS; TARIFF METERING APPARATUS; MEASURING OR TESTING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G01R: MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES (indicating correct tuning of resonant circuits H03J3/12)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)
- G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS
- Y04S: SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS

## Abstract

A system for resource monitoring includes: a resource server that monitors use of a resource, the server including: a meter reading processor, that communicates with resource monitors disposed within radio range of resource meters, where the resource meters transmit radio signals indicative of meter identifiers and current readings, and where the each of the resource monitors receives and decodes one or more of the radio signals to obtain one or more of the meter identifiers and current readings, and where the each of the resource monitors transmits the one or more of the meter identifiers and current readings over the internet cloud, and where the meter reading processor updates corresponding records in a resource database that indicate resource consumption of corresponding facilities; and an engagement processor, that causes alerts to be transmitted to client devices based on analyses of resource consumption that notify users of the unusual patterns of consumption.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system for instantaneous resource monitoring and engagement, the system comprising:
a resource server, coupled to the internet cloud, that monitors use of a resource, and that engages resource users when unusual patterns of resource consumption are detected, said resource server comprising:
a meter reading processor, configured to communicate with a plurality of resource monitors that are each disposed within radio range of a corresponding plurality of resource meters, wherein said resource meters transmit corresponding radio signals indicative of corresponding meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors receives and decodes one or more of said corresponding radio signals to obtain one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors transmits said one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings over the internet cloud, and wherein said meter reading processor creates and updates a corresponding plurality of records in a resource database that indicate resource consumption of corresponding facilities; and
an engagement processor, that causes alerts to be transmitted to one or more client devices based on analyses of corresponding resource consumption, wherein said alerts notify corresponding users of said unusual patterns of resource consumption.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of resource meters comprises automatic meter reading (AMR) meters.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said plurality of resource meters comprises advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors comprises a tunable narrow band receiver that scans specified narrowband frequency bands to detect said decode said one or more of said corresponding radio signals, and wherein said tunable narrow band receiver is configured to scan for both fixed and frequency hopping meter transmission protocols.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors transmits said one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings to said resource server at least every 30 seconds.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said alerts comprise prescribed messages from resource providers.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The system as recited in claim 6, wherein said alerts comprise push notifications that are transmitted to user client devices.

### Claim 8

A system for instantaneous resource monitoring and engagement, the system comprising:
a resource server, coupled to the internet cloud, that monitors use of a resource, and that engages resource users when unusual patterns of resource consumption are detected, said resource server comprising:
a meter reading processor, configured to communicate with a plurality of resource monitors that are each disposed within radio range of a corresponding plurality of resource meters, wherein said resource meters transmit corresponding radio signals indicative of corresponding meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors receives and decodes one or more of said corresponding radio signals to obtain one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors transmits said one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings over the internet cloud, and wherein said meter reading processor creates and updates a corresponding plurality of records in a resource database that indicate resource consumption of corresponding facilities;
a disaggregation processor, configured to analyze said plurality of records to distinguish between normal and abnormal usage patterns by said corresponding facilities, and to detect said unusual patterns of resource consumption; and
an engagement processor, that causes alerts to be transmitted to one or more client devices based on analyses of corresponding resource consumption, wherein said alerts notify corresponding users of said unusual patterns of resource consumption.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The system as recited in claim 8, wherein said plurality of resource meters comprises automatic meter reading (AMR) meters.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The system as recited in claim 8, wherein said plurality of resource meters comprises advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters.

### Claim 11 (depends on 8)

The system as recited in claim 8, wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors comprises a tunable narrow band receiver that scans specified narrowband frequency bands to detect said decode said one or more of said corresponding radio signals, and wherein said tunable narrow band receiver is configured to scan for both fixed and frequency hopping meter transmission protocols.

### Claim 12 (depends on 8)

The system as recited in claim 8, wherein said each of said plurality of resource monitors transmits said one or more of said corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings to said resource server at least every 30 seconds.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

The system as recited in claim 8, wherein said alerts comprise prescribed messages from resource providers.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The system as recited in claim 13, wherein said alerts comprise push notifications that are transmitted to user client devices.

### Claim 15

A method for instantaneous resource monitoring and engagement, the method comprising:
monitoring use of a resource, said monitoring comprising:
communicating with a plurality of resource monitors that are each disposed within radio range of a corresponding plurality of resource meters, wherein the resource meters transmit corresponding radio signals indicative of corresponding meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein the each of the plurality of resource monitors receives and decodes one or more of the corresponding radio signals to obtain one or more of the corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings, and wherein the each of the plurality of resource monitors transmits the one or more of the corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings over the internet cloud;
creating and updating a corresponding plurality of records in a resource database that indicate resource consumption of corresponding facilities; and
transmitting alerts to one or more client devices based on analyses of corresponding resource consumption, wherein the alerts notify corresponding users of the unusual patterns of resource consumption.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the plurality of resource meters comprises automatic meter reading (AMR) meters.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the plurality of resource meters comprises advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the each of the plurality of resource monitors comprises a tunable narrow band receiver that scans specified narrowband frequency bands to detect the decode the one or more of the corresponding radio signals, and wherein the tunable narrow band receiver is configured to scan for both fixed and frequency hopping meter transmission protocols.

### Claim 19 (depends on 15)

The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the each of the plurality of resource monitors transmits the one or more of the corresponding plurality of meter identifiers and current readings to the resource server at least every 30 seconds.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the alerts comprise prescribed messages from resource providers.