HD_MR: a new algorithm for number recognition in electrical meters

Utility companies in developing countries employ analog electrical meters to determine consumption and bill their customers accordingly. Obtaining an accurate reading is an expensive and time-consuming process. High consumption levels of water, energy, or gas are fined by the government; thus, it is necessary to develop tools that allow users to be informed about their consumption in real time. This paper proposes a new number recognition algorithm named the Hausdorff distance for meter reading (HD^R). Experiments prove that H D ^ R can achieve a 99.9% recognition rate, even when recognized numbers are under rotation. The maximum recognition time is 31 ms; hence, the proposed method proves to be effective and capable in real time for the task proposed.