System for Predicting Game Animal Movement and Managing Game Animal Images

• US 20100331086A1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Non Typical Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Non Typical Incorporated
• Inventors: Cuddeback, Mark J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,600,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 31/002 Detecting animals in a given area
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85

Abstract

A system for managing scouting images, including a scouting camera configured to record and store images of subjects at a particular location and an image management device which has a processor that creates a predictive statement based on image content of the images stored on the scouting camera or copies thereof and a display conveying the predictive statement to a user, wherein the predictive statement indicates a portion of a future time period that subjects are most likely to be at the particular location as compared to remaining portions of the future time period.

Claims

1. A system for managing scouting images, comprising:

a scouting camera configured to record and store images of subjects at a particular location; and

an image management device including;

a processor that creates a predictive statement based on image content of the images stored on the scouting camera or copies thereof; and

a display conveying the predictive statement to a user,

wherein the predictive statement indicates a portion of a future time period that subjects are most likely to be at the particular location as compared to remaining portions of the future time period.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the future time period is a single day.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the subjects are game animals and the particular location is a particular hunting location;

the predictive statement indicates relative likelihoods of game animals being at the particular hunting location for multiple portions of the future time period;

at least some of the multiple portions of the future time period occur within a time period that corresponds to a jurisdictionally-defined legal hunting period for the future time period; and

the relative likelihoods are expressed in terms of at least one of a more-or-less indication and a percentage indication.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the predictive statement includes relative likelihoods of subjects being at the particular location for morning portions, afternoon portions, and evening portions of the future time period.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the predictive statement includes relative likelihoods of game animals being at the particular hunting location for multiple morning portions and multiple evening portions of the future time period.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor creates the predictive statement based on images recorded within a user-defined time period.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the subjects are game animals and the user-defined time period corresponds to a jurisdictionally defined hunting season.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the processor creates the predictive statement based on occurrences of the user-defined time period over multiple years.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the predictive statement includes at least one of lunar information and solar information.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the predictive statement includes day-length information.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the display conveys global positioning information of the particular location.

12. A method of managing game animal scouting images, comprising:

recording and storing images of game animals with a game animal scouting camera;

transferring the images from the game animal scouting camera to an image management device;

assigning time-of-day information for each of the images corresponding to a time-of-day when each of the images was recorded; and

generating a predictive statement relating to a likelihood of game animal presence on a future time period based on the time-of-day information of the images and the number of game animals recorded in the images.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein at least one of (a) the time-of-day information and (b) the number of game animals recorded in the images for a user-defined time period are considered to generate the predictive statement.

14. A system for managing game animal scouting images, comprising:

a game animal scouting camera configured to record and store images of game animals; and

an image management device including;

a memory device that stores images retrieved from the game animal scouting camera;

a display device for displaying the images thereon;

multiple classification inputs corresponding to respective ones of multiple game animal characteristics, the multiple classification inputs allowing a user to classify the image as showing a game animal having one or more of the multiple game animal characteristics; and

a sorted database organizing the images according to the user-classified game animal characteristics of the respective images.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the multiple classification inputs are provided in a graphical user interface that is displayed on the display device.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the image management device automatically retrieves the images from the game animal scouting camera.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the game animal scouting camera assigns time and date information to each image.

18. The system of claim 14 further including image-enhancing inputs allowing a user to modify characteristics of the images.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein modifying characteristics of an image does not alter such characteristics of a stored copy of the image.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein images include still-images and video clips.

21. The system of claim 14 wherein the game animal characteristics include gender.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the image management device determines and displays a herd statement on the display device based at least in part on the user-classified game animal characteristics of the respective images.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of male game animals to female game animals.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of mature game animals to immature game animals.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of large-antlered/horned game animals to small-antlered/horned or non-antlered/horned game animals.

26. The system of claim 14 wherein the game animal characteristics include age.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the image management device determines and displays a herd statement on the display device based at least in part on the user-classified game animal characteristics of the respective images.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of male game animals to female game animals.

29. The system of claim 27 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of mature game animals to immature game animals.

30. The system of claim 27 wherein the herd statement conveys a ratio of large-antlered/horned game animals to small-antlered/horned or non-antlered/horned game animals.

31. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device assigns solar-positioning information to an image based at least partially on information relating to the date at which the game animal scouting camera recorded the image and the location of the game animal scouting camera.

32. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device assigns solar-positioning information to an image based at least partially on information relating to the date at which the game animal scouting camera recorded the image and the location of the game animal scouting camera.

33. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device assigns lunar-phase information to an image based at least partially on information relating to the date at which the game animal scouting camera recorded the image and the location of the game animal scouting camera.

34. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device assigns solar-positioning and lunar-phase information to an image based at least partially on information relating to the date at which the game animal scouting camera recorded the image and the location of the game animal scouting camera.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the image management device determines and displays a predictive statement on the display device, the predictive statement based at least in part on (a) the user-classified game animal characteristics of the respective images, (b) solar-positioning information assigned to the images, and (c) the global positioning information assigned to the images and wherein the predictive statement conveys information relating to a likelihood of a user seeing game animals at some future time at the same global position at which the images were recorded.

36. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device is a personal computer.

37. The system of claim 14 wherein the game animal scouting camera and the image management device are integrated into a single apparatus.

38. The system of claim 14 wherein the image management device utilizes global positioning data to determine location.

39. A method of managing game animal scouting images, comprising:

recording and storing images of game animals with a game animal scouting camera;

transferring the images from the game animal scouting camera to an image management device;

displaying the images on a display device cooperating with the image management device;

classifying the images based on characteristics of game animals visible in the images; and

generating a statement relating to game animal herd composition based on image classification information.