NON-INVASIVE AUTOMATIC MONITORING OF PET ANIMAL'S CORE TEMPERATURE

• US 20150057963A1
• Filed: 08/21/2013
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Petpace Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Petpace Ltd.
• Inventors: Zakharov, Michael, Dagan, Asaf, Bukchin, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,823,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/131
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/40 Animals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0252 using ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 13/20 Clinical contact thermometers for use with humans or animals
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/427 Temperature calculation based on spatial modeling, e.g. spatial inter- or extrapolation

Abstract

A system, device and method monitoring whether a core temperature of a warm-blooded pet animal is within a normal range for the pet animal comprises a sensing assembly including (i) a skin temperature sensor positioned such that a sensing surface of the skin temperature sensor faces the animal, the skin temperature sensor configured to produce a skin temperature output, (ii) an ambient temperature sensor spaced away from the animal and configured to produce an ambient temperature output, and (iii) an accelerometer for sensing an acceleration of the pet animal and producing an acceleration output; and a processor for receiving the outputs, calculating an activity level from the acceleration data and determining whether the core temperature of the pet animal is within the normal range based on a pre-defined function relating the skin temperature T_S, the ambient temperature T_A, and the activity level of the pet animal.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring whether a core temperature of a warm-blooded pet animal is within a normal range for the pet animal, the system comprising:

a sensing assembly including (i) a skin temperature sensor positioned such that a sensing surface of the skin temperature sensor faces a body of the pet animal, the skin temperature sensor configured to produce a skin temperature output, (ii) an ambient temperature sensor spaced away from the body of the animal and configured to produce an ambient temperature output, and (iii) an accelerometer for sensing an acceleration level of the pet animal and producing an acceleration output; and

a processor for receiving the skin temperature output, the ambient temperature output and the acceleration level output and for determining whether the core temperature of the pet animal is within the normal range based on a pre-defined function relating the skin temperature output, T_S, the ambient temperature output, T_A, and an activity level, A, of the pet animal, the activity level, A, determined by the processor from the acceleration output.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor determines whether the core temperature is in the normal range based on whether the skin temperature output is within a confidence interval.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processor determines the confidence interval based on a kind and/or a size of the pet animal and based on the ambient temperature output, the skin temperature output and the acceleration output.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the confidence interval is defined to be between an upper margin of the skin temperature, the upper margin defined to be equal to c₁*A+d₁, and a lower margin of the skin temperature, the lower margin defined to be equal to c₂*A+d₂, wherein A is the activity level and wherein coefficients c_i and d_i are set depending upon on activity units and animal kind or size.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambient temperature output is an independent variable and the skin temperature output is a dependent variable dependent on the ambient temperature.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the ambient temperature output is split up into segments.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each segment is a zone that is one of (i) a zone below a lower critical temperature (Tlc), (ii) a zone above an upper critical temperature (Tuc) and (iii) a thermoneutral zone between the lower critical temperature (Tlc) and the upper critical temperature (Tuc).

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the zone is a thermoneutral zone between the lower critical temperature (Tlc) and the upper critical temperature (Tuc).

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is also configured to receive, as part of the acceleration data, (i) a waking state of the pet animal, (ii) real-time clock data, and (iii) animal kind and/or size.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined function expresses an equation T_S=a*T_A+b, wherein Ts is a variable of the skin temperature output, T_A is a variable of the ambient temperature output and a and b are coefficients that are set depending upon an animal size and kind.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensing assembly and the processor are positioned non-invasively relative to the pet animal.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the following characteristics of the surface temperature sensor and the ambient temperature sensor are within ten percent of one another:

(i) nominal resistance value, (ii) resistance temperature coefficient and (iii) a surface area of a heat collection surface.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the skin temperature sensor and the ambient temperature sensor are made of the same material.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mounting device for mounting at least the sensing assembly on the pet animal.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the mounting device is a collar having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface configured to conform to a neck of the pet animal.

16. A method of monitoring a core temperature of a pet animal, the method comprising:

a temperature sensor of a sensor assembly facing a body of the pet animal and sensing and outputting a skin temperature of the pet animal;

an ambient temperature sensor on an outer surface of the sensor assembly sensing and outputting an ambient temperature;

an accelerometer of the sensor assembly sensing and outputting an acceleration of the pet animal;

transmitting the outputs of the skin temperature, ambient temperature and acceleration to a processor configured to calculate an activity level of the pet animal from the acceleration, the processor determining whether the pet animal'"'"'s core temperature is in a normal range based on a pre-defined function relating the skin temperature, the ambient temperature and the activity level.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising having the processor determine whether the core temperature is in the normal range by determining whether the skin temperature is within a confidence interval.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising having the processor determine the confidence interval based on the outputted ambient temperature, the outputted skin temperature and the outputted acceleration.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising having the processor determine the confidence interval based on a kind and/or a size of the pet animal and based on the ambient temperature output, the skin temperature output and the acceleration output.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising positioning the sensor assembly and processor of the pet animal non-invasively in relation to the pet animal.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the processor to determine whether the pet animal'"'"'s core temperature is in the normal range by relating the skin temperature T_S to the ambient temperature T_A within a confidence interval that is linearly dependent on the activity level of the pet animal.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the processor to utilize an equation T_S=a*T_A b that is operative within a zone of T_A, wherein T_S is a variable of the skin temperature, T_A is a variable of the ambient temperature and a and b are coefficients that are set depending upon an animal size and kind.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the processor to utilize equations defining an upper margin of the skin temperature to be equal to c₁*A+d₁, and defining a lower margin of the skin temperature to be equal to c₂*A+d₂, wherein A is the activity level and wherein coefficients c_i and d_i are set depending upon activity units and depending upon animal kind and/or size.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the processor to take into consideration a zone of the ambient temperature.

25. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the ambient temperature sensor to be at least two centimeters from the skin temperature sensor.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising situating the processor at a location remote from the sensor assembly and transmitting signals comprising the outputs from the sensor assembly to the processor at the remote station.

27. A method of determining if an animal'"'"'s core temperature is within a normal range, comprising:

sensing, and obtaining data for, a measured ambient temperature T_A, skin temperature T_S, and acceleration data;

calculating activity level, A, from the acceleration data;

using T_A to select a zone from (i) a thermoneutral zone, (ii) a zone below lower critical temperature (Tlc) and (iii) a zone above upper critical temperature (Tuc);

obtaining one or more coefficients;

calculating a baseline of a model;

using activity A and coefficients to calculate a tolerance range; and

determining whether the animal has a normal core temperature based on whether the skin temperature at ambient temperatures within the selected zone is within the tolerance range.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising signaling abnormal core temperature if the skin temperature at ambient temperatures within the zone is not within the tolerance range.

29. A device for monitoring whether a core temperature of a warm-blooded pet animal is within a normal range for the pet animal, the device comprising:

a sensing assembly including (i) a skin temperature sensor positioned such that a sensing surface of the skin temperature sensor faces a body of the pet animal, the skin temperature sensor configured to produce a skin temperature output, (ii) an ambient temperature sensor spaced away from the body of the animal and configured to produce an ambient temperature output, and (iii) an acceleration sensor for sensing an acceleration of the pet animal and producing an acceleration output; and

a processor for receiving the skin temperature output, the ambient temperature output and the acceleration output, calculating an activity level from the acceleration output and for determining whether the core temperature of the pet animal is within the normal range based on a pre-defined function relating the skin temperature T_S output, the ambient temperature T_A output and the activity level of the pet animal.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the surface temperature is within a confidence interval, the confidence interval defined to be between an upper margin of the skin temperature, the upper margin defined to be equal to c₁*A+d₁, and a lower margin of the skin temperature, the lower margin defined to be equal to c₂*A+d₂, wherein A is the activity level and wherein coefficients c_i and d_i are set depending upon on activity units and animal kind or size.