The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 24, 2019
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2017
Applicant:
Itron Global Sarl, Liberty Lake, WA (US);
Inventors:
Assignee:
Itron Global SARL, Liberty Lake, WA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01F 15/00 (2006.01); G01N 29/02 (2006.01); G01N 29/024 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01F 15/007 (2013.01); G01N 29/024 (2013.01); G01N 2291/105 (2013.01);
Abstract
A method for detection of a utility meter having been tampered with, in particular a water or heat meter having been tampered with, and a meter for detecting such tampering are provided. The utility meter comprises a flow measurement portion in which the flow of water is measured. The method comprises detecting a presence of air in the flow measurement portion and evaluating a fraud condition, wherein the fraud condition comprises that air is present in the flow measurement portion for a first period of time or more. In response to the fraud condition being evaluated as met, an alert is generated.