US Patent Issued to The Southern on Nov. 3 for "Utility meter socket intrusion detection (systems and methods)" (Alabama Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,782,403, issued on Nov. 3, was assigned to The Southern Co. (Atlanta).

"Utility meter socket intrusion detection (systems and methods)" was invented by Charlie Thomas Cook III (Jasper, Ala.) and Brandon Keith Lundy (Hoover, Ala.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electric utility meter tampering detection system, comprising an electric utility meter housing, an electric utility meter located in the housing, and a sensor disposed in the housing. The sensor can be configured to detect the presence of light entering the housing from an area external to the housing."

The patent was fi...