Image sensing meter reading probe

A system to monitor usage of one or more utilities comprising:

• a communication unit comprising a processor, a communication interface coupled to the processor, and a probe interface coupled to the processor;
• and
• a meter monitoring probe comprising a probe head coupled by a cable to a probe connector capable to mate with the probe interface;
• and
• a device capable to receive the message from the processor;
• wherein the probe head comprises:
• an image sensor;
• an indicator;
• and
• a button;
• wherein the probe head is capable to detect a characteristic of a utility meter that is dependent on a usage of a utility metered, and send information related to the characteristic to the processor;
• the processor is capable to receive the information from the probe head and send a message related to the usage of the utility over the communication interface;
• the image sensor is capable to capture an image in response to a press of the button;
• and
• the device is capable to check the image received in the message from the processor, and send a message to the processor to control the indicator to indicate whether the image sensor is positioned to capture a view of the utility meter useful to determine the usage of the utility.

A method to determine a reading of a utility meter comprising:

• acquiring an image of at least a portion of a display of the utility meter;
• performing optical character recognition (OCR) on at least a portion of the image;
• determining a probability of successful OCR;
• using a numerical output of the OCR to determine the reading of the utility meter if the probability of successful OCR is at least a predetermined value;
• and
• determining an angle of a dial indicator in at least the portion of the image if the probability of successful OCR is less than the predetermined value, and using the angle of the dial indicator to determine the reading of the utility meter.

At least one non-transitory machine readable medium having one or more instructions stored thereon, that in response to being executed on a computing device cause the computing device to carry out a method comprising:

• acquiring an image of at least a portion of a display of the utility meter;
• performing optical character recognition (OCR) on at least a portion of the image;
• determining a probability of successful OCR;
• using a numerical output of the OCR to determine the reading of the utility meter if the probability of successful OCR is at least a predetermined value;
• and
• determining an angle of a dial indicator in at least the portion of the image if the probability of successful OCR is less than the predetermined value, and using the angle of the dial indicator to determine the reading of the utility meter.