METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FLUID FLOW MEASUREMENT
First Claim
1. A fluid flow meter to measure a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen, the fluid flow meter comprising:
- a hinged housing to fit about a structure defining the lumen;
a sensor, disposed within the hinged housing, to provide a measurement signal representative of the velocity, the sensor comprising;
(i) a first transducer to transmit an ultrasonic signal through the fluid flowing through the lumen;
(ii) a second transducer to receive a reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal; and
(iii) a front end to produce the measurement signal from the reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal;
a memory to store a template associated with a possible velocity of the fluid;
a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to perform a comparison of the measurement signal to the template and to determine an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the comparison; and
a communications interface, communicatively coupled to the processor, to transmit a representation of at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal to a server, the server comprising an analytics engine to determine fluid usage information based on the at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal and to provide the fluid usage information to a user or a third party via a wireless device.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A fluid flow meter estimates the velocity of water or another fluid flowing through pipe by comparing measurements of the water velocity to one or more pre-determined templates. The fluid flow meter may collect measurement signals from one or more flow sensors (e.g., ultrasonic transducers), estimate the fluid velocity or flow rate by comparing the measurement signals to the template(s), and either store the comparison results in local memory, transmit the results to a remote memory or server, or both. In some embodiments, the fluid flow meter transmits the results to a server via a wireless interface (e.g., a Zigbee, Bluetooth, or Wi-fi interface). The transducers and processing system can be powered by a battery, a power line, or, for manifolds installed outdoors, a solar cell. Example transducers and processing systems may also have a passive wake-up feature for power reduction; that is, they may only draw power when water or another fluid flows through the pipe.
109 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A fluid flow meter to measure a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen, the fluid flow meter comprising:
-
a hinged housing to fit about a structure defining the lumen; a sensor, disposed within the hinged housing, to provide a measurement signal representative of the velocity, the sensor comprising; (i) a first transducer to transmit an ultrasonic signal through the fluid flowing through the lumen; (ii) a second transducer to receive a reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal; and (iii) a front end to produce the measurement signal from the reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal; a memory to store a template associated with a possible velocity of the fluid; a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to perform a comparison of the measurement signal to the template and to determine an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the comparison; and a communications interface, communicatively coupled to the processor, to transmit a representation of at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal to a server, the server comprising an analytics engine to determine fluid usage information based on the at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal and to provide the fluid usage information to a user or a third party via a wireless device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A method of estimating a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen, the method comprising:
-
transmitting an ultrasonic signal through the fluid flowing through the lumen; receiving a reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal; and producing a measurement signal representative of the velocity of the fluid flowing through the lumen from the reflected, scattered, or transmitted copy of the ultrasonic signal; performing a comparison of the measurement signal to a template associated with a possible velocity of the fluid; determining an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the comparison; transmitting, to a server, a representation of at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal; determining fluid usage information based on the at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal; and transmitting the fluid usage information from the server to a wireless device. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A system for monitoring fluid usage, the system comprising:
-
(a) at least one fluid flow meter comprising; (i) a sensor to detect an ultrasonic signal representative of a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen and to provide a measurement signal representative of the velocity; (ii) a memory to store a template associated with a possible velocity of the fluid; (iii) a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to perform a comparison of the measurement signal to the template and to determine an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the comparison; and (iv) a communications interface, communicatively coupled to the processor, to transmit a representation of at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal; and (b) a server to receive the representation of the at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal, the server comprising; (i) an analytics engine to determine fluid usage information based on the at least one of the estimated velocity and the measurement signal; and (ii) a billing engine to determine billing information based on the fluid usage information. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification