Apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water by using aquatic animals
First Claim
1. A method for determining the presence of toxicant contamination of water using a monitoring apparatus having a basin into which water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bred and a television camera for taking an image of a predetermined area of the basin, said monitoring apparatus includinga memory unit operating as a binary image memory for storing data of a binary image obtained by converting a gray image data taken by the television camera and a processing unit programed so as to execute various operations, comprising the steps of:
- (a) calculating a position of a gravity center of an image of the aquatic animal from the binary image data stored in said memory unit;
(b) discriminating a component of the calculated gravity center in a vertical direction of the water on the basis of plural criteria prepared in advance;
(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) for an observation time period to obtain a distribution frequency of calculated gravity centers with respect to the plural criteria; and
detecting an abnormal behavior of the aquatic animal on the basis of the distribution frequency of the calculated gravity centers obtained at step (c), said detected abnormal behavior indicating the presence of toxicant contamination of the water.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A fish is bred in a transparent basin, into which water to be tested is supplied. A light source and a television camera are arranged in such a manner that images of the fish are taken by the camera as a silhouette. From the thus obtained fish images, the frequency distribution of the gravity centers of the fish images in the direction of the depth of water are obtained. The abnormality of the behavior of the fish is detected by comparison of the obtained frequency distribution with a reference distribution provided in advance.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for determining the presence of toxicant contamination of water using a monitoring apparatus having a basin into which water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bred and a television camera for taking an image of a predetermined area of the basin, said monitoring apparatus including
a memory unit operating as a binary image memory for storing data of a binary image obtained by converting a gray image data taken by the television camera and a processing unit programed so as to execute various operations, comprising the steps of: -
(a) calculating a position of a gravity center of an image of the aquatic animal from the binary image data stored in said memory unit; (b) discriminating a component of the calculated gravity center in a vertical direction of the water on the basis of plural criteria prepared in advance; (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) for an observation time period to obtain a distribution frequency of calculated gravity centers with respect to the plural criteria; and detecting an abnormal behavior of the aquatic animal on the basis of the distribution frequency of the calculated gravity centers obtained at step (c), said detected abnormal behavior indicating the presence of toxicant contamination of the water.
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2. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin into which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bred; a light source, arranged on the side of one of the side walls of said basin, for lighting up said basin; a television camera, arranged on the side of the other side wall of said basin opposite to the one side wall, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the aquatic animal; and
,a processor for processing plural images taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to obtain a frequency distribution of gravity centers of images of the aquatic animal in a vertical direction of the water, and producing an alarm signal, when the behavior of the aquatic animal is judged as being abnormal on the basis of the obtained frequency distribution of gravity centers. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bred; a light source, provided on one side of said basin, for lighting up said basin; a television camera, provided on the other side of said basin opposite to the one side, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the aquatic animal; and a processor for processing plural images taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to obtain a frequency distribution of moving speed of the aquatic animal, and producing an alarm signal, when a total frequency of the movement of the aquatic animal which is slower than an first predetermined speed exceeds a first predetermined frequency or when a total frequency of the movement of the aquatic animal which is faster than a second predetermined speed exceeds a second predetermined frequency. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin into which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bread; a light source, provided on one side of said basin, for lighting up said basin; a television camera, provided on the other side of said basin opposite to the one side, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the aquatic animal; and
,a processor for processing plural images taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to obtain a frequency distribution of acceleration in the movement of the aquatic animal, and producing an alarm signal, when the behavior of the aquatic animal is judged as being abnormal on the basis of the obtained frequency distribution of acceleration.
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11. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin into which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which an aquatic animal is bred; a light source, provided on one side of said basin, for lighting up said basin; a television camera, provided on the other side of said basin opposite to the one side, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the aquatic animal; and a processor for processing plural images of the aquatic animal taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to obtain a frequency distribution of moving speed of the aquatic animal and a frequency distribution of acceleration in the movement of the aquatic animal, and producing an alarm signal, when the behavior of the aquatic animal is judged as being abnormal on the basis of the obtained frequency distributions of moving speed and acceleration.
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12. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin into which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which a fish is bred; a light source, provided on one side of saidbasin, for lighting up said basin, a television camera, provided on the other side of said basin opposite to the one side, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the fish; and a processor for processing plural images taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to obtain a frequency distribution of the amount of movement of fins of the fish, and producing an alarm signal, when the behavior of the fish, and producing an alarm signal, when the behavior of the fish is judged as being abnormal on the basis of the obtained frequency distribution of the amount of movement of the fins.
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13. An apparatus for monitoring the toxicant contamination of water, comprising:
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a basin into which a part of water to be tested is introduced and in which a fish is bred; a light source, provided on one side of said basin, for lighting up said basin; a television camera, provided on the other side of said basin opposite to the one side, for taking an image of a predetermined area of said basin, said image including an image of the fish; and
,a processor for processing plural images taken by said television camera during a predetermined observation time period to count the number of times than an angle of the fish with respect to the surface of the water is larger than a predetermined value, and producing an alarm signal when a counted value exceeds a predetermined value within the observation time period.
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Specification