Patent ID: 7283062

Claim:
In a system for automatically collecting utility data from multiple utility meters, wherein each of the multiple utility meters includes at least a transmitter for transmitting meter data including associated utility consumption data, the system comprising: a mobile utility data collection system, wherein the mobile utility data collection system includes: at least one wireless receiver for wirelessly receiving meter data transmitted by at least some of the multiple utility meters, wherein at least some of the received meter data includes utility consumption data, at least one geographic positioning system for determining geographic positions of the mobile utility data collection system as the mobile utility data collection system travels along a current route, data storage for storing the received meter data, geographic position data associated with the determined geographic positions of the mobile utility data collection system as the mobile utility data collection system travels along the current route, and displayable information associated with a predetermined route, wherein the displayable information includes information regarding a set of the multiple utility meters in a predetermined route and utility meters not in the predetermined route, wherein the received meter data stored in the data storage includes meter data from the set of utility meters in the predetermined route and utility meters not in the predetermined route, and a visual display device for displaying information regarding at least a portion of the predetermined route, including at least some utility meters in the set of utility meters in the predetermined route and some meters not in the predetermined route, at least one processor coupled among the wireless receiver, the geographic positioning system, the display device, and the data storage; and, at least one head end server computer configured to receive information from the mobile utility data collection system, including the received meter data and the geographic position data stored in the storage device, and wherein the server computer is configured to: process the received meter data to determine a modified and optimized route for the mobile utility data collection system to later travel to collect future meter data, and process the geographic position data to provide displayable information regarding the current route, which may be compared to the predetermined route.