APPARATUS FOR INDICATING AND MEASURING ANIMAL ACTIVITY

• US 3,656,456 A
• Filed: 09/11/1970
• Issued: 04/18/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hakan Christian Mikael Stenram, Jan Wilhelm Lofqvist, Karl Adolf Lennart Stigmark, Nils Ingvar Jonsson
• Original Assignee: Hakan Christian Mikael Stenram, Jan Wilhelm Lofqvist, Karl Adolf Lennart Stigmark, Nils Ingvar Jonsson
• Inventors: Stigmark, Karl Adolf Lennart, Jonsson, Nils Ingvar, Lofqvist, Jan Wilhelm, Stenram, Hakan Christian Mikael
• Primary Examiner(s): Medbery, Aldrich F.
• Application Number:
  US05/071,316
• Time in Patent Office: 585 Days
• Field of Search: 119/1
• US Class Current: 119/421
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/031 Cages for laboratory animals; Cages for measuring metabolism of animals
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating

Abstract

An apparatus for indication of moving activity of animals which are disposed in closed space in which at least one of the walls is provided with a number of small capacitor plates which form at least one capacitor in a balanced bridge. When the animals move the dielectric constant of this capacitor is affected and an unbalance voltage is obtained in the bridge. The variations of this voltage are indicated in an indicator connected to the bridge via a derivating network.

Claims

1. Apparatus for automatic indication of the activity of organisms, especially animals, comprising a space (17) in which the organisms are kept and an indicating device (33) which is affected by the movements of the organisms, the space comprising at least one wall provided with a number of small capacitor plates (22), said plates forming at least one capacitive branch in a transformer bridge, the diagonal of the bridge being connected to a circuit (30,32) sensitive to changes of the balance condition of the bridge, said circuit generating pulses when the balance is affected by activity of said animals and constituting a means for indicating the activity of said animals when the circuit is connected to the indicating device (33).

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which the capacitor plates consist of heads (22) arranged at the end of supporting and connection means (21).

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the ends of the supporting and connection means remote to the heads are connected to each other in accordance with a predetermined pattern (FIG. 3 or 4) some of the heads thus forming one plate of the capacitor, whereas the other forms the other plate of the capacitor.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the heads (22) are arranged on one side of the wall (19, 20) whereas the connections are arranged on the opposite side of the wall.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in, that the space (17) comprises two opposite walls (19, 20) provided with said heads (22).

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in, that one of said walls (20) is slidably movable in relation to the other wall (19).

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in, that a separate cage (25) is arranged between the walls (19, 20).

8. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in, that said circuits (30, 32) comprise a phase-sensitive detector (30) connected to the diagonal of the bridge and a RC-network (32) connected to the output of said detector.