Design of a Remote Meter Reading System for Residential Heating

Abstract

The traditional heating system in northern China faces various problems, such as energy waste, low efficiency and unreasonable metering. To solve these problems, this paper designs a remote meter reading system for residential heating, and describes the hardware, software and key functions of the system in details. The system consists of five parts: temperature controllers, on-off controllers, heat meters, building managers and a remote data center. Multiple cutting-edge tools were adopted in the system. For example, the Windows CE (Embedded Compact) was introduced to support data processing, the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Internet was employed to establish the communication between key modules, and the on-off time-area method was utilized to calculate allocated heat. Empirical results show that our system boasts high efficiency, stability and reliability, despite a simple structure.

A Novel Method for Recognizing Readings in Images of Electric Circuit Inspection Meters Based on Deep Learning

“…Due to the effect of multiple factors, the measuring meters need to be inspected regularly, and the installation environment of these meters is often complex and ever-changing [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The conventional manual inspection method has a series problems including the heavy work load of recording the readings, the low accuracy, and the hidden safety hazards [15][16][17], while the intelligent recognization method for images of meter readings based on digital image technology has a great practical value [18][19][20][21]. For the dashboard pointer segmentation, image registration and automatic interpretation of electric circuit inspection meters, matters such as the type of meter pointers, the light changes at the site, and the shooting and affine transformation of meter images need to be considered, and the research in the related fields should be further deepened.…”