Patent ID: 8489342
Filing Date: 2013-07-16
Classification: G01F,G16Z,Y10T

Abstract:
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.