Method and apparatus for providing information to a subscriber over an electronic network

• US 5,764,739 A
• Filed: 09/23/1996
• Issued: 06/09/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Comverse Technology, Inc. (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Todd, Douglas Wallace, Davis, Glenn Albert, Patton, Mark Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F.
• Application Number:
  US08/718,752
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 379/102, 379/104-107, 379/93, 379/97-100, 379/67, 379/88, 379/89
• US Class Current: 379/106.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/005 using recorded signals, e.g. speech

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing information, such as power consumption, to a subscriber over an electronic network in response to commands provided by the subscriber. The apparatus includes a remote unit which detects and stores the power consumption information, a subscriber device, i.e., a telephone, for generating request commands and a control device which tracks the information. The subscriber using the subscriber device, feeds the request commands via the network to the control device. The control device responds to the commands by directing the remote unit to feed its stored power consumption information onto the network to the control device. The control device then processes the information and indicates the result back to the subscriber.

Claims

1. A remote unit for indicating power consumption to a subscriber in a system having a controller receiving commands provided by a subscriber, transmitting a request signal onto a network, and receiving power readings from the network, a computer computing a power consumption value in response to the received power readings, and an indicator circuit responsive to the computer and providing the computed power consumption value onto the network to the subscriber, the remote unit comprising:

a sensor detecting power readings of an electronic power meter; and

a transmitter responsive to the request signal for providing the detected power readings onto the network.

2. The remote unit as recited in claim 1 further comprising a telephone coupled to the network and responsive to the provided computed power consumption value for providing an audio indication of the consumption value.

3. The remote unit as recited in claim 1 further comprising a telephone coupled to the network having a depressible keypad and a tone-generating circuit which feeds a tone onto the network in response to keys depressed on the keypad, and wherein the subscriber provides commands onto the network by depressing the keypad.

4. A method for indicating a consumption value to a subscriber location over an electronic network in response to commands provided at the subscriber location, the method including the steps of:

detecting consumption readings of a meter at the subscriber location;

feeding the detected power readings onto the network;

transmitting subscriber commands onto the network;

detecting the subscriber commands;

computing in response to detecting subscriber commands a consumption value from the detected meter readings fed onto the network; and

providing the consumption value to the subscriber location over the network.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of transmitting subscriber commands onto the network with a touch tone telephone.

6. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of determining an address of the subscriber location when the commands from the subscriber location are transmitted onto the network.

7. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the steps of generating with an off-hook signal when transmitting the detected consumption reading;

and transmitting the detected consumption readings only when the off-hook signal is generated and the request commands are generated.

8. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the steps of generating a next time call signal and feeding the next time call signal onto the network, detecting the next time call signal and accessing the network after a first predetermined time period indicated by the next time call signal.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 further comprising the step of accessing with the remote unit the control device after a first predetermined time period if the next time call signal is not detected within a second predetermined time period.

10. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of periodically storing in a memory the detected consumption readings.

11. The method as recited in claim 4 wherein the meter is an electric power meter.

12. A system for indicating utility consumption to a subscriber, the system comprising:

a sensor detecting readings of a utility meter;

a control device providing commands onto the network requesting that the detected readings be fed onto the network;

a remote unit receiving utility meter readings provided by the sensor and transmitting utility meter readings detected by the sensor onto the network; and

said control device receiving the utility meter information on the network, computing a consumption value from the detected utility readings and providing the consumption value to the subscriber over the network.

13. The system as recited in claim 12 further comprising communications device for feeding information onto the network requesting that the control device provide a consumption value to the communications device.

14. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the control device contains means for receiving commands provided by the subscriber over the network and for feeding a request command over the network indicating that the remote unit transmit utility meter readings detected by the sensor to the control device.

15. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the remote unit transmits the utility meter readings detected by the sensor onto the network in response to receiving the request command.

16. The system as recited in claim 13 wherein the communications device includes a computer connected to a modem.

17. The system as recited in claim 12 further comprising a display device for indicating the consumption value provided to the subscriber over the network.

18. The system as recited in claim 12 further comprising a modem for providing the consumption value to the subscriber over the network.