Wireless location assisted zone guidance system incorporating a system and apparatus for predicting the departure of an animal from a safe zone prior to the animal actually departing

• US 10,251,371 B1
• Filed: 03/18/2015
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GPSip, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GPSip, Inc.
• Inventors: Landers, Rodney P., Nieuwsma, Kevin L., James, Chad R., Erickson, Michael D., Anderson, Gregory M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Monica L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rodziwicz, Aaron M
• Application Number:
  US14/662,229
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 119721
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/021 Electronic training devices specially adapted for dogs or cats
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/023 Anti-evasion devices
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 27/009 with electric-shock, sound, magnetic- or radio-waves emitting devices
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A fully self-contained collar monitors the location of a pet. A look-up table has rows and columns representing geographic location, and machine-stored values at each table location represent a particular one of several guidance zones. The real-time guidance zone determination is made by first determining present location. The corresponding table location value representing guidance zone is retrieved. Each guidance zone has an associated set of characteristics used by collar electronics and stimulus generators to generate well defined and positive stimulus to train the pet to stay within a predetermined area. In addition, using location history the collar electronics also predictively alerts the pet of an impending exit from a safe zone. This departure alert may be further combined with inertial validation and dynamic position request intervals to provide a much more reliable and robust system that is then able to much more efficiently and effectively train a pet.

Claims

1. A wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus to notify an animal of an impending safe zone departure, comprising:

a housing;

an electrical power source contained within said housing;

at least one animal stimulation apparatus electrically coupled with said housing and powered by said electrical power source;

a wireless location determination apparatus contained within said housing, powered by said electrical power source, and adapted to operatively generate electrical latitude and longitude information representative of a current position of said housing;

an electrical processor coupled to said wireless location determination apparatus and operative to receive said electrical latitude and longitude information therefrom;

memory electrically accessible by said electrical processor;

a data table stored in said electrically accessible memory having an ordinate and abscissa, a first one of said ordinate and abscissa corresponding to longitude and a second one of said ordinate and abscissa corresponding to said latitude, with each value stored in said data table identifying a one of said at least two assisted guidance zones including said safe zone;

said electrical processor adapted to operatively compare said received electrical latitude and longitude information to said data table to generate a first represented current position within said data table and to generate a second represented current position that is subsequent to said first represented current position, adapted when each of said first and second represented current positions within said data table have a stored value identifying said safe zone to calculate a represented future position in said data table based upon a displacement between said first and second represented current positions, adapted to retrieve a future position value stored in said data table at said represented future position, and further adapted to vary an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to said future position value not representing said safe zone.

2. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data, each one of said plurality of tiles representative of unique geographic latitude and longitude locations.

3. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 2, wherein each one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data further comprises a reference location corresponding to a specific geographic latitude and longitude.

4. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 3, wherein said processor is adapted to operatively selectively load a unique one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data into said memory responsive to reception by said processor of latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus and comparison of said received latitude and longitude information with said tile reference locations.

5. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 1, further comprising a dynamic time interval between sequential receptions of said electrical latitude and longitude information by said electrical processor from said wireless location determination apparatus.

6. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 5, wherein said dynamic time interval is reduced responsive to said future position value not representing said safe zone.

7. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 1, further comprising an inertial location determination apparatus, said electrical processor varying an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to both of said future position value not representing said safe zone and said inertial location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus.

8. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system that generates an advance notification stimulus of claim 6, further comprising a secondary location determination apparatus, said electrical processor varying an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to both of said future position value not representing said safe zone and said secondary location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus, and said electrical processor reducing said dynamic time interval responsive to said secondary location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information not corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus.

9. A wireless location assisted zone guidance system adapted to assist in the training and management of an animal, comprising:

a wireless location determination apparatus;

at least one animal stimulation apparatus;

a processor coupled to said wireless location determination apparatus and operative to receive latitude and longitude information therefrom and coupled to said at least one animal stimulation apparatus and adapted to operatively control a generation of stimulation;

memory coupled with and accessible by said processor;

a data table stored in said memory as a two-dimensional array having a first index adapted to operatively represent an ordinate and having a second index adapted to operatively represent an abscissa; and

a plurality of geographically defined guidance zones operatively stored in said data table, a first one of said ordinate and abscissa corresponding to longitude and a second one of said ordinate and abscissa corresponding to said latitude, respectively, with each value stored in said data table identifying a one of said plurality of geographically defined guidance zones;

said processor adapted to operatively receive said latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus, retrieve a value stored in a location in said data table using said longitude information as said first array index and said latitude information as said second array index, and use said retrieved value to determine a one of said plurality of guidance zones that said latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus is associated with, and adapted to operatively compare said received electrical latitude and longitude information to said data table to generate a first represented current position within said data table and to generate a second represented current position that is subsequent to said first represented current position, adapted when each of said first and second represented current positions within said data table have a stored value identifying said safe zone to calculate a represented future position in said data table based upon a displacement between said first and second represented current positions, and adapted to retrieve a future position value stored in said data table at said represented future position, and further adapted to vary an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to said future position value not representing said safe zone.

10. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 9, wherein said processor is further adapted to operatively divide said unique geographic latitude and longitude locations into a plurality of tiles each containing unique two-dimensional data.

11. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 10, wherein each one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data further comprises a reference location corresponding to a specific geographic latitude and longitude.

12. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 11, wherein said processor is adapted to operatively selectively load a unique one of said plurality of tiles of two-dimensional data into said memory responsive to reception by said processor of said latitude and longitude information from said wireless location determination apparatus and comparison by said processor of said received latitude and longitude information with said tile reference locations.

13. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 9, further comprising a dynamic time interval between sequential receptions of said electrical latitude and longitude information by said electrical processor from said wireless location determination apparatus.

14. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 13, wherein said dynamic time interval is reduced responsive to said future position value not representing said safe zone.

15. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 9, further comprising an inertial location determination apparatus, said electrical processor varying an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to both of said future position value not representing said safe zone and said inertial location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus.

16. The wireless location assisted zone guidance system of claim 14, further comprising a secondary location determination apparatus, said electrical processor varying an output of said at least one animal stimulation apparatus responsive to both of said future position value not representing said safe zone and said secondary location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus, and said electrical processor reducing said dynamic time interval responsive to said secondary location determination apparatus generating electrical latitude and longitude information not corresponding with said electrical latitude and longitude information generated by said wireless location determination apparatus.