Flow measurement apparatus and program thereof, flow measurement method and fluid supply system

A flow measurement apparatus comprising:

• a flow measurement unit that measures an instantaneous amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a determination zone setting unit that has a first determination zone classification condition for classifying and setting a flow waveform observed during activation of an appliance, a second determination zone classification condition for classifying and setting a flow value observed during activation of an appliance, and a third determination zone classification condition for classifying and setting a time interval of operation of an appliance and that creates determination zones in a matrix pattern which combines the determination zone classification conditions;
• a determination zone storage unit that allocates the flow measured by the flow measurement unit to one of the determination zones classified by the determination zone setting unit and stores a number of occurrences of the flow in the one determination zone;
• a clock unit that measures a learning period during which processing for allocating the measured flow to the determination zone storage unit is performed;
• a grouping unit that registers a determination zone for use in determining an appliance, based on a number of occurrences of the flow allocated to the determination zone stored in the determination zone storage unit during the learning period measured by the clock unit and that performs grouping by associating an appliance with each registered determination zone;
• a determination zone decision unit that determines, after grouping, whether or not the flow measured by the flow measurement unit conforms to any registered determination zone;
• an integration unit that integrates a flow value for a registered determination zone when the determination zone decision unit determines that the flow conforms to the registered determination zone;
• and
• a determination zone update unit that performs registration determination zone update processing when the determination zone decision unit determines that the flow does not conform to any registered determination zone.

A flow measurement apparatus comprising:

• a flow measurement unit that measures an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a flow information storage unit for storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured by the flow measurement unit and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• an object data classification unit that takes first object data stored in the flow information storage unit as reference data and that classifies second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a characteristic value showing relevance between a measured flow value of the second object data and a flow value of the reference data.

A flow measurement apparatus comprising:

• a flow measurement unit that measures an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a flow information storage unit for storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured by the flow measurement unit and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• an object data classification unit that takes first object data stored in the flow information storage unit as reference data and that classifies second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a plurality of characteristic values showing relevance between a plurality of measured flow values of the second object data and a plurality of flow values of the reference data corresponding to times during which the plurality of flow values are measured.

A flow measurement method comprising computer executable steps executed by a flow measurement apparatus to implement:

• a step of measuring an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a step of storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• a step of taking first object data stored as reference data and classifying second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a characteristic value showing relevance between a measured flow value of the second object data and a flow value of the reference data.

A flow measurement method comprising computer executable steps executed by a flow measurement apparatus to implement:

• a step of measuring an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a step of storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• a step of taking first object data stored as reference data and classifying second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a plurality of characteristic values showing relevance between a plurality of measured flow values of the second object data and a plurality of flow values of the reference data.

A non-transitory storage medium storing programs for causing a flow measurement apparatus to perform processing pertaining to

• a step of measuring an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a step of storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• a step of taking first object data stored as reference data and classifying second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a plurality of characteristic values showing relevance between a plurality of measured flow values of the second object data and a plurality of flow values of the reference data.

A non-transitory storage medium storing programs for causing a flow measurement apparatus to perform processing pertaining to

• a step of measuring an amount of fluid flowing through a passageway;
• a step of storing object data that describe, in an associating manner, a flow value measured and a measurement time during which the flow value is measured;
• and
• a step of taking first object data stored as reference data and classifying second object data into respective reference data groups on the basis of a characteristic value showing relevance between a measured flow value of the second object data and a flow value of the reference data.

A flow measurement apparatus comprising:

• a flow measurement unit that measures flow rates of fluid flowing through a passage to which at least one appliance is connected;
• a determination zone setting unit that defines a set of attributes identifiable in a profile of flow rates and a set of parameters representative of each attribute and indicative, respectively, of different classes of each attribute;
• a determination zone storage unit that presents memory areas each defined by a different combination of single parameters selected, respectively, from the parameter sets;
• a determination zone decision unit that analyzes a profile of flow rates measured by the flow measurement unit and makes an entry in a memory area of the determination zone storage if the profile of the measured flow rates is accountable by a combination of parameters which defines the memory area;
• and
• a grouping unit that divides the memory areas into groups according to distributions of the entries over the memory areas.

A flow measurement apparatus comprising:

• a flow measurement unit that measures at intervals a flow rate of fluid flowing through a passageway to which at least one appliance is connected;
• a flow information storage unit in which object data indicative of a profile of measured flow rates is storable in relation to measurement times during which the flow rates were measured;
• a reference data group storage unit that stores reference data in sets each indicative of a different exemplary profile of flow rates, wherein the reference data sets are each correlatable with a different group of appliances;
• and
• an object data classification unit that determines a relevance between the profile of the object data and the exemplary profile of the respective sets of reference data and stores at least part of the object data as a new set of reference data in the reference data group storage unit if none of the determined relevances satisfies a predetermined level of relevance, while if a set of reference data is found which satisfies the predetermined level of relevance, identifying the measured flow rates as being exhibited by an appliance which belongs to a group of appliances correlated with the found set of reference data.