IndexEye : Towards a Smart OCR-Based System for Water Consumption Monitoring

Abstract

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can be summarized as the automatic extraction of textual information from images and scanned documents, this technique become a practical solution for digitizing analog measurements. This paper presents Index Eye, a prototype system for real-time water consumption monitoring based on OCR. The system captures meter images, processes them locally, and stores the extracted readings in a database for subsequent analysis. The system design is detailed in terms of functional requirements, hardware and software selection, and overall architecture. Experimental results show that the system remained stable throughout the test duration, successfully acquiring all meter readings and storing the corresponding data without interruption in both operating modes. Although performance is affected by lighting variability and battery constraints, the results demonstrate that the proposed system is reliable for long-term monitoring as it offers accurate measurements, ease of use, portability, and autonomous operation, making it suitable for practical water consumption monitoring applications.