System, apparatus, and method for geographic positioning of marine fauna
First Claim
1. A system for determining a position of an object that is underwater, comprising:
- a device situated on a first object for receiving and decoding positioning signals transmitted from an external source in order to determine a position of the first object;
a first acoustic transponder situated on the first object;
a second acoustic transponder secured to a second object whose position is to be determined,wherein the position of the second object is assumed to be the position of the first object when said second object is sufficiently close to the first object that communications sent by one of said first and second transponders is received by the other of said first and second transponders,wherein the assumed position is stored in a memory on at least the other of said first and second objects; and
further comprising additional objects having additional transponders situated out of range of the first transponder, said additional transponders including additional devices for receiving and decoding positioning signals transmitted from an external source, wherein when said second transponder passes sufficiently close to one of said additional transponders such that communications sent by one of said additional and second transponders is received by the other of said additional and second transponders, said position of said additional transponder is assumed to be the position of the second object and said position is stored in said memory, thereby enabling the second object to be tracked as it passes by said first object and any of said additional objects.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system, apparatus, and method for determining positions of underwater animals involves emplacement of an acoustic transponder on the animal and establishing communications with a transponder carried by a vessel whose position can be determined by receiving signals from an external source such as a GPS satellite in order to establish proximity of the animal to the vessel, the position of the vessel then being adopted as the position of the animal. Communications can be established either by communicating the position of the transceiver to the equipment on the animal for storage therein, or by communicating the identity of the animal to the vessel whose position has been determined for association with the position, and subsequent local storage on the vessel and/or communication to a central station.
39 Citations
53 Claims
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1. A system for determining a position of an object that is underwater, comprising:
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a device situated on a first object for receiving and decoding positioning signals transmitted from an external source in order to determine a position of the first object; a first acoustic transponder situated on the first object; a second acoustic transponder secured to a second object whose position is to be determined, wherein the position of the second object is assumed to be the position of the first object when said second object is sufficiently close to the first object that communications sent by one of said first and second transponders is received by the other of said first and second transponders, wherein the assumed position is stored in a memory on at least the other of said first and second objects; and further comprising additional objects having additional transponders situated out of range of the first transponder, said additional transponders including additional devices for receiving and decoding positioning signals transmitted from an external source, wherein when said second transponder passes sufficiently close to one of said additional transponders such that communications sent by one of said additional and second transponders is received by the other of said additional and second transponders, said position of said additional transponder is assumed to be the position of the second object and said position is stored in said memory, thereby enabling the second object to be tracked as it passes by said first object and any of said additional objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. Apparatus for tracking aquatic objects moving underwater in an aquatic environment, comprising:
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a tag arranged to be secured to and to move with an aquatic object, which is the object to be tracked; a hydroacoustic transducer in said tag for communicating with a transponder located on a reference object when said aquatic object is sufficiently close to said reference object that communications can be carried out between said aquatic object and said reference object, and reference object including a device for determining a position of the reference object; and a memory situated on one of said reference object and said aquatic object for at least storing data concerning the position of the reference object when the aquatic object is sufficiently close the reference object that said communications can be carried out. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of determining a position of an object that is underwater, comprising the steps of:
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determining a geographic position of a first object; establishing communications between a transponder on the first object and a transponder on a second object whose position is to be determined; upon establishing said communications and thereby determining that the first object is within range of the second object, storing the geographic position of the first object in a memory associated with one of the first and second objects, whereby the geographic position of the first object is assumed to be the geographic position of the second object. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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Specification