Mobile telephone dog training tool and method

• US 8,839,744 B1
• Filed: 05/24/2013
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Specifi-Kali, LLC
• Original Assignee: EB Partners
• Inventors: Bianchi, James C., Holland, Robert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): ABBOTT, YVONNE RENEE
• Application Number:
  US13/901,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20140251233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 487 Days
• Field of Search: 119/720, 119/721, 119/712, 119/719, 340/573.1, 340/573.2, 340/573.3
• US Class Current: 119/720
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/021 Electronic training devices specially adapted for dogs or cats
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions

Abstract

A mobile telephone adapts to use as a gundog training tool by interfacing with a dog collar using a wireless communication device, such as a WWAN text or IP interface, a WLAN interface or a radio transceiver that couples to the mobile telephone and is accessible to a training application running on the mobile telephone. The dog collar includes a GPS receiver to provide position information to the mobile telephone and a shock device to provide training stimulus to the dog. A wireless headset interfaces with the mobile telephone to provide audible indications of position to an end user, such as a dog point and tone indicators of directions to the dog. A wireless handset interfaces with the mobile telephone to accept inputs for application to the collar, such as training stimulus.

Claims

1. A dog training tool comprising:

a mobile telephone having a WPAN interface;

an adapter having a WPAN interface operable to communicate with the mobile telephone WPAN interface and a wireless communication module operable to communicate with a wireless radio signal;

a collar adapted to couple to a dog, the collar having a GPS receiver and a wireless communication module operable to communicate GPS positions of the GPS receiver to the adapter wireless communication module with the wireless radio signal;

a training application stored in memory of the mobile telephone and operable to execute on a processor of the mobile telephone, the training application operable to retrieve the GPS positions from the adapter through the WPAN interface and to present the GPS positions at a display of the mobile telephone;

an accelerometer and gyroscope disposed in the collar and operable to detect acceleration and orientation information of the collar; and

a virtual inertial navigation system executing on the mobile telephone and operable to apply the acceleration and orientation information to estimate a position of the collar;

wherein the adapter receives the acceleration and orientation information through the wireless radio signal and provides the acceleration and orientation information to the mobile telephone through the WPAN.

2. The dog training tool of claim 1 wherein the wireless communication module comprises a transceiver having selectable UHF and VHF frequencies.

3. The dog training tool of claim 2 wherein the selectable UHF and VHF frequencies comprise a first frequency of approximately 900 MHz and a second frequency of approximately 150 MHz.

4. The dog training tool of claim 3 wherein WPAN comprises Bluetooth communication.

5. The dog training tool of claim 4 further comprising a Bluetooth WPAN integrated with the collar and wherein the training application is further operable to configure the dog collar and adapter by pairing the mobile telephone through Bluetooth communication with the dog collar and adapter to exchange identifiers.

6. The dog training tool of claim 1 further comprising input buttons disposed on the adapter and operable to accept end user inputs that hot toggle between at least first and second presentations at a display of the mobile telephone.

7. The dog training tool of claim 1 further comprising an integrator disposed on the dog collar and operable to analyze the acceleration and orientation information to provide the acceleration and orientation information as a velocity vector to the adapter.

8. A method for communicating position information from a collar, the method comprising:

gathering position information at the collar;

powering up a transceiver at predetermined times to receive wireless radio signals from the collar with the position information;

selectively transmitting the position information from the collar at less than all of the predetermined times; and

presenting the position information at a display associated with the transceiver;

wherein selectively transmitting the position information from the collar further comprises;

sensing accelerations at the collar;

analyzing the accelerations to determine that the collar has moved less than a predetermined amount since a previous transmitting of the position information; and

in response to analyzing, maintaining a transceiver at the collar in a powered down state for a predetermined time.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the position information comprises a GPS position provide by a GPS receiver disposed at the collar and the predetermined times comprise times based at least in part by a clock signal provided to the GPS receiver from a GPS signal.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein selectively transmitting the position information from the collar further comprises:

comparing a current position of the collar with a previous position of the collar;

determining that the current position and previous position are less than a predetermined distance from each other; and

in response to determining, suppressing transmitting of the current position from the collar at one or more of the predetermined times.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the transceiver comprises an adapter interfaced with a mobile telephone through a WPAN and the display comprises a display integrated in the mobile telephone.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the transceiver comprises a UHF radio.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the transceiver comprises a VHF radio.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising automatically adjusting the type of information presented at the display based upon the position information.

15. A system for training a dog, the system comprising:

a mobile telephone having a processor, memory and display, the mobile telephone operable to communicate with a mobile telephone network to support wireless telephone calls and to communicate through a WPAN, the mobile telephone having a GPS receiver operable to present the position of the mobile telephone on a map presented at the display;

plural dog collars, each dog collar having a GPS receiver operable to determine the position of the dog collar and at least one wireless communication device to communicate the position of the dog collar with a wireless communication signal; and

an adapter operable to receive the positions from the dog collars with a wireless communication device that receives the wireless communication signal, to communicate a wireless communication signal with the wireless communication device to each of the plural collars, and to communicate the position of the dog collar to the mobile telephone through the WPAN for presentation of the dog collar position at the display;

wherein each of the dog collars has one or more time slots assigned for transmitting the wireless communication signal, the one or more time slots stored in memory of each dog collar, and each of the dog collars references a GPS clock signal determined by the GPS receiver of the dog collar to transmit the wireless communication signal in the time slot so that communications between the dog collar and adapter are synchronized at least in part based upon the GPS clock signal.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the dog collar suppresses communication of the position if the position is within a predetermined distance of a previous position transmitted to the adapter.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the adapter comprises one or more hot buttons operable to command a predetermined presentation at the display of the mobile telephone.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein each of the dog collars is further operable to communication through the WPAN with the mobile telephone, the mobile telephone operable to command communication of the position of each dog collar directly to the mobile telephone by the WPAN instead of the wireless communication device when each dog collar is in range of the WPAN and by the wireless communication device to the adapter when each dog collar is out of range of the WPAN.