Meter Reading using OCR for Comfort and Cost Optimization

Meter reading and billing are time-consuming activities for power, water and gas providing boards. The existing billing system relies on a manual method of taking meter readings, updating the reading in the server and finally generating the bill amount. In this project, the user simply needs to use an Android application to capture and upload the picture of the meter after performing OCR operation. The processing on the image is performed on the server side using Google Colab and Python. The meter reading obtained from OCR processing is sent to the firebase, which is further pushed to the Android application. And finally the Android application displays the meter reading and the bill amount generated. Our project ensures the safety (from communicable diseases like COVID-19) of both the board staff and the customer as they don't come in contact with each other. This project also helps in cutting down on their expenditure by reducing manpower and travel costs.