Patent ID: 8550109

Claim:
A gas meter device, comprising: a flow-rate measuring unit which is coupled to a gas supply pipe for homes and measures a gas flow rate; an appliance information input unit; a registration storage unit which stores data registered by the appliance information input unit; an appliance determining unit which compares appliance determining values registered in the registration storage unit with a gas flow-rate value measured by the flow-rate measuring unit to thereby determine a gas appliance being used; and a tamper determining unit configured to: determine whether a particular flow-rate change profile generated by a change in flow rate is different from the appliance determining values registered in the registration storage unit; based on a determination that the particular flow-rate change profile is different from the appliance determining values, determine whether there is a continuation of a given flow rate in the gas flow-rate value measured by the flow-rate measuring unit over a predetermined time period; and based on a determination that there is a continuation of the given flow rate in the gas flow-rate value measured by the flow-rate measuring unit over the predetermined time period, determine the gas used corresponding to the particular flow-rate change profile is used without authorization.