MONITORING AND DISPLAYING ACTIVITIES

• US 20100321189A1
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David John Michael Gibson
• Original Assignee: David John Michael Gibson
• Inventors: Gibson, David John Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,305,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.3
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/00 Other apparatus for animal husbandry
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for monitoring and displaying the activities and behaviours of animals over a period of time. The display includes a sequence of visual representations correlating to the activities of the animal.

Claims

1. A method for displaying the behaviour of an animal, comprising:

identifying from the movements of said animal a sequence of specific activities;

displaying a sequence of visual representations corresponding to said sequence of specific activities.

4. The method of any one claims 1 to 3, wherein the sequence of visual representations includes at least one representation of an activity that corresponds to an exact match of the movement data with reference data.

5. The method of any one claims 1 to 4, wherein the sequence of visual representations includes at least one representation of an activity that corresponds to a probabilistic match of the movement data with reference data.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein at least one of the visual representations includes at least one fanciful component to improve the distinctiveness of said representation, and said fanciful component does not necessarily correspond to the actual activity of the animal.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the sequence of visual representations includes an indication of the intensity and/or duration of at least one of the specific activities.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the sequence of visual representations further includes indications of the environmental conditions present during the specific activities of the animal.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the sequence of visual representations further includes indications of the physiological state of the animal during the specific activities of the animal.

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the visual representations are computer-generated images.

11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, further including the generation of an alert notification when at least one predetermined activity or sequence of specific activities is identified.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the alert notification is a visual and/or aural signal on a computer system.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the alert notification is an email, SMS or MMS message.

2. A method for observing the behaviour of an animal, comprising:

detecting movements of the animal using at least one sensor attached to the animal;

collecting movement data from the at least one sensor;

identifying from the movement data a sequence of specific activities of the animal;

displaying a sequence of visual representations corresponding at least partially to said sequence of specific activities.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the specific activities are identified by at least partially matching movement data detected by the at least one sensor with reference movement data.

14. An animal monitoring system, comprising:

a sensor arrangement including at least one sensor, for attachment to an animal;

a data collection means for collecting data from the sensor arrangement;

processing means providing;

means for identifying from the sensor data a sequence of specific activities of the animal, and

a sequence of visual representations for display corresponding to said sequence of specific activities.

15. The animal monitoring system of claim 14, wherein the processing means is computer software providing instructions for use by a computer processor.

16. The animal monitoring system of any one of claims 14 to 15, wherein the sensor arrangement includes one or more sensors selected from sensors capable of detecting movement, vibration, tilt, location, sound, temperature, light level, humidity, heart rate, breathing rate, and odour.

17. The animal monitoring system of any one of claims 14 to 16, wherein the data collection means is a wireless receiving station that receives signals from the sensor arrangement by means of a wireless transmitter.

18. The animal monitoring system of any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein the data collection means is linked to a computer network.

19. The animal monitoring system of any one of claims 14 to 18, wherein the data collection means is accessible via the internet.

20. The animal monitoring system of an one of claims 14 to 19, wherein the processing means for identifying the specific activities includes functionality for at least partially matching data detected by the at least one sensor with reference data.

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