Patent ID: 6845177

Claim:
A method for monitoring an analog meter having a set of graduation segments and at least one needle, the method comprising the steps of: recording a first digitized image of the meter; extracting a set of edge points, the points representing the graduation segments; performing a Hough Transform on the set of edge points so as to obtain a center point of the graduation segments; extracting an intensity profile of the image along a path through the graduation segments so as to obtain a set of detected graduation segments and a position of the needle relative to the graduation segments; obtaining a parameter representative of needle position accuracy; recording a second digitized image of the meter; obtaining the position of the needle without performing a Hough Transform so as to obtain a position of a center point when the parameter meets a predefined condition; and performing the Hough Transform so as to obtain the center point when the parameter does not meet the predefined condition.