Visit to the Water Meter Shop

On March 17th, we went to the Water Meter Shop in Santa Monica, where we presented our invention to city employees. This trip followed six months after our initial visit to learn more about the water meters for preliminary research. This time, we discussed the future of the device, including the potential of solar power and waterproofing methods, among other things. These correspondents from the Water Meter Shop also expressed interest in the possibility of integrating the attachment with current procedures and products. They were particularly excited about the prospect of archiving the images and data for up to two years so that disputes about water usage could be settled with photographical proof. Additionally, the data gathered from our device could be sent directly to the city department to save them the time and energy of physically reading each meter.

During the presentation, we had some technical difficulties connecting our tablet to the city’s wifi, and ended up not being able to display the water usage graphs featured in our app. Since then, we’ve been testing our ability to connect to the server in order to figure out what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. We also now know to test this function prior to future presentations and to ensure that the app is connected to a reliable network or personal hotspot.

It was a great chance to practice presenting our invention and to gain insight from water meter experts and potential beneficiaries. Lastly, they gave us awesome reusable water bottles!