Animal body identifying device and body identifying system

• US 6,081,607 A
• Filed: 12/23/1996
• Issued: 06/27/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Tsukada, Mitsuyoshi, Mori, Toru, Kuno, Yuji, Yamakita, Osamu
• Primary Examiner(s): MEHTA, BHAVESH M
• Application Number:
  US08/772,720
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• Field of Search: 382/114, 382/115, 382/113, 382/125, 382/110, 382/100, 351/211, 351/206, 348/77, 348/78, 340/573, 340/825.3, 340/825.34, 340/146
• US Class Current: 382/110
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 11/006 Automatic identification systems for animals, e.g. electronic devices, transponders for animals identification systems for access to feeding pens A01K1/0209; ear tags with electronic identification means A01K11/004
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/00 Other apparatus for animal husbandry
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/1216 for diagnostics of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris

Abstract

An animal body identifying device of the present invention includes a camera for photographing an eye of an animal, a body data capturer for capturing body data for the photographed animal from an image photographed by the camera, a body data registry for pre-storing a plurality of body data and a body data collator for correlating body data stored in the body data registry with body data captured by the body data capturer and identifying whether or not the photographed animal is a registered animal. An animal body identifying system of the present invention includes a body data capturing device for photographing an eye of an animal and capturing body data for the animal and a body data comparing device for collating body data obtained from the body data capturing device with pre-registered body data and determining whether or not the photographed animal is a registered animal.

Claims

1. A device for identifying an animal having a granula iridica comprising:

a camera for photographing an eye of an animal and creating an image;

a body data capturer for capturing body data including granula iridica data of the photographed eye from the image created by the camera;

a body data registry for pre-storing a plurality of granula iridica data; and

a body data correlator for comparing granula iridica data stored in the body data registry with the captured granula iridica data and identifying the photographed animal as a registered animal or a non-registered animal.

2. An animal body identifying device according to claim 1, wherein the body data further includes iris data.

3. An animal body identifying device according to claim 2, wherein the body data capturer has a segmenting part for segmenting regions of the iris and granulae iridica of the animal'"'"'s eye and a characteristic extracting part for extracting characteristics of the iris and granula iridica regions segmented at the segmenting part, with the body data register storing characteristics of iris regions and granula iridica regions for a plurality of animals as registered body data.

4. An animal body identifying device according to claim 1, wherein the camera can be separated from a main body of the body identifying device.

5. An animal body identifying system comprising:

a body data capturing device for photographing an eye of an animal and capturing body data including granula iridica data of the animal, said body data capturing device including a segmenting part for segmenting regions of the iris and granula iridica of the animal'"'"'s eye and a characteristic extracting part for extracting characteristics of the iris and granula iridica regions segmented at the segmenting part; and

a body data correlating device, connected to the body data capturing device, for comparing body data obtained from the body data capturing device with pre-registered body data including granula iridica data and determining whether or not the photographed animal is a registered animal.

6. An animal body identifying system according to claim 5, wherein the body data further includes iris data.

7. An animal body identifying system according to claim 5, wherein a plurality of the body data capturing devices are provided.

8. An animal body identifying system according to claim 5, wherein the body data correlating device has a body data registry for storing pre-registered body data and the body data correlating device compares body data obtained from the body data capturing device with body data registered at the body data registry.

9. An animal body identifying system according to claim 8, wherein the body data correlating device has a host device connected to the body data capturing device via a communications line, with the body data registry being provided at the host device.

10. An animal body identifying system according to claim 9, wherein the body data correlating device has a terminal device connected to the body data capturing device and the host device, and the terminal device correlates body data obtained from the body data capturing device and the body data obtained from the body data register.

11. An animal body identifying system according to claim 9, wherein the host device correlates body data obtained from the body data correlating device and body data registered at the body data registry.

12. An animal body identifying system according to claim 10, wherein an input device for inputting attribute data for body identification use is connected to the terminal device, with attribute data for body identification use inputted from the input device being stored at the body data registry.

13. An animal body identifying system according to claim 8, wherein the body data registry is provided at the terminal connected to the body data capturing device.

14. An animal body identifying system according to claim 13, wherein the body data registry can be separated from the terminal device.