Apparatus for controlling growth of organisms

• US 8,689,483 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Beam Gene Corporation, Ltd., Thermo-Link Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Thermo-Link Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Lin, Jung-Hsin, Lee, Den-Hua, Chen, Te-Cheng
• Primary Examiner(s): PALO, FRANCIS T
• Application Number:
  US13/086,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20120260574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 47/17
• US Class Current: 47/17
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/00 Botany in general
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/02 Pigsties; Dog-kennels; Rabbit-hutches or the like
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/00 Other apparatus for animal husbandry

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling the growth of an organism includes a parameter control system, a remote control center, a control box, at least one environment-regulating device and at least one sensor. The parameter control system is stored with a plurality of operation modes, and environmental parameters that correspond to the respective operation modes and govern a variety of growth conditions for different species of organisms. The apparatus can automatically change the environmental conditions from one state to another, so as to meet the user'"'"'s requirements and enhance the productivity without being limited by the ambient conditions.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling the growth of an organism comprising:

a parameter control system stored with a plurality of operation modes and environmental parameters that correspond to the respective operation modes and govern different growth conditions for different species of organisms;

a remote control center connected to the parameter control system;

a control box connected to the remote control center and adapted to generate a control signal;

at least one environment-regulating device mounted at a predetermined position with respect to an organism incubating zone, the at least one environment-regulating device being connected to the control box, so that the control box is configured to accept user input to inform the remote control center of a user'"'"'s selection of one of the different species of organisms to make the remote control center to acquire the operation mode and the environmental parameters corresponding to the selected organism species from the parameter control system and then feedback the corresponding operation mode and environmental parameters, and the control box, upon receiving the operation mode and environmental parameters, sends out a control signal to command the at least one environment-regulating device to automatically provide environmental conditions suitable for the growth of the selected organism species and to command the signaling module to generate a biologically perceptible physical quantity to facilitate the growth of the selected organism species, and wherein the environment-regulating device is selected from a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp unit, a sound-generating module, a temperature-regulating module, a gas-regulating module, nutrient module and a humidity-controlling module;

at least one sensor mounted at a predetermined position with respect to the organism incubating zone and electrically connected to the control box; and

wherein the control box is provided with a microprocessor, at least one storage unit, an operation interface, a power supply module, a signal input/output interface and a signaling module for generating an energy source, a message or a signal, and wherein the power supply module is connected to the microprocessor, the at least one storage unit, the operation interface and the signal input/output interface, and wherein the microprocessor is connected to the storage unit, the operation interface and the signal input/output interface; and

wherein the LED lamp unit is activated, upon receipt of the control signal from the control box, to adjust light emission therefrom in terms of one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of frequency, amplitude, duration, duty ratio and phase shift.

2. The apparatus for controlling the growth of an organism according to claim 1,

wherein the control box is connected to the remote control center via a network.

3. The apparatus for controlling the growth of an organism according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect one or more conditions selected from the group consisting of temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, oxygen concentration, nutrients, water content and humidity.