Patent ID: 7463980

Claim:
In a system for gathering data reflecting consumption of a utility, wherein multiple utility meters and associated transmitters transmit utility consumption data to a vehicle, an apparatus for gathering the utility consumption data along a route, the apparatus comprising: an antenna secured to the vehicle; a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, coupled to the antenna, and configured to receive signals from the antenna and produce geographic position data; a GPS splitter module coupled to receive the geographic position data from the GPS receiver and configured to produce at least two streams of universal serial bus (USB) formatted geographic position data; and a single computer secured to the vehicle and configured to receive the at least two streams of USB formatted geographic position data, wherein the single computer is neither a master nor a slave with respect to any other computer that may be coupled to the single computer and that may receive the geographic position data, and wherein the single computer substantially simultaneously runs at least a utility data collection application and at least one other application, wherein the utility data collection and the at least one other applications receive the at least two streams of USB formatted geographic position data, respectively, and wherein the single computer is further configured to convert at least one of the at least two streams of USB formatted geographic position data to a serial stream of geographic position data for use by at least one of the utility data collection application and the at least one other application.