The automatic identification of the pointer type meters provides an effective technical method for the real-time monitoring and information management of the shipboard equipment. In this paper, the method of automatic reading of pointer type dials is studied by using visual technology. In order to realize the recognition of many kinds of meters, the recognition process is divided into several parts, such as the dial partition, the scale identification, the pointer recognition and the type identification. The central projection and atlas classification comparison are used, to determine the dial pointer position and the meter category. And the automatic identification of pointer type meters is realized. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is verified by experiments and error analysis.