Pedometer for pets

• US 7,246,033 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2006
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Susan Leeds Kudo
• Original Assignee: Susan Leeds Kudo
• Inventors: Kudo, Susan Leeds
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui; Bryan
• Application Number:
  US11/374,445
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 702/160, 702/57, 702/75, 702/77, 702 94- 97, 702/141, 702/149, 702/150, 702/152, 702/153, 702/158, 702/182, 702/188, 482/3, 482/8, 482/9
• US Class Current: 702/160
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 15/021 Electronic training devices specially adapted for dogs or cats
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2208/14 specially adapted for animals
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/006 Pedometers

Abstract

An exercise monitoring pedometer for pets is directed toward measuring a pet'"'"'s exercise over some, period of time, such as a day or week or month. The pet pedometer includes a solid state three-axis accelerometer, a signal processing unit, a CPU, a memory chip and a display with settable controls, and may include a voice recorder/player; or these functions may reside mainly on an application specific integrated circuit. The settable controls are directed toward providing a setting for pet stride size for conversion for walking and running, and for manual resetting. The pet pedometer auto-selects automatically for a pet'"'"'s stride both a walking stride and a running stride. The present invention may also contain a recorder, typically a solid state recorder, which provide for a recording of the pet “owner'"'"'s” voice, or selected music, so that the owner may record encouragement, etc., to his/her pet.

Claims

1. An attachable pet pedometer, for measuring a number of steps and distance traveled by a walking and running pet, comprising:

a three-axes accelerometer;

at least one amplifier wherein the amplifier amplifies analog output from the three-axes accelerometer;

at least one analog-to-digital converter wherein the amplified analog signals are converted to digital signals;

at least one central processing unit;

at least one solid state digital memory device;

at least one display;

at least one manual control wherein the central processing unit may be accessed and the display may be varied;

a central processor having at least one processor program, fixed in its solid state memory device wherein digital signal information which expresses a motion of the attachable pet pedometer in three-dimensions wherein this motion may be Fourier transformed into frequency space, from time space, and the amplitudes of different frequencies for each of three-dimensions can be ranked and maximum amplitudes timed wherein this information can be expressed as a number of “

steps”

or maximum amplitudes encountered by the attachable pet pedometer;

at least one central processing unit program, fixed in the solid state memory device, wherein the output of the three-axes accelerometer is converted to a number of steps a pet has taken and wherein the display is operated to show said number of steps taken and equivalent distance; and

an attachment device wherein the pet pedometer may be attached to a pet.

2. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1, further comprising:

a voice recording and playback device wherein a pet owner or other record his/her voice and said voice recording and playback device playback owner'"'"'s voice or other voice wherein a pet hears said voice playback.

3. The attachable pet pedometer and playback device of claim 2 wherein music is recorded and played back to a pet.

4. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1 wherein the dimensions of the pedometer are equal to or less than four inches by two inches by 0.5 inches.

5. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1, further comprising:

a solid state 3-axes accelerometer;

at least one solid state amplifier chip;

at least one solid state analog-to-digital chip;

at least one fast Fourier chip;

at least one central processor controller chip;

at least one solid state memory chip; and

at least one input/output solid state chip.

6. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 5 wherein said solid state expression takes the form of an application specific integrated circuit.

7. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1, further comprising

A manual reset control wherein a cumulative number of steps on the display may be reset to zero.

8. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 7 wherein said recording transducer and said playback transducer are the same transducer.

9. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 7 wherein said solid state expression takes the form of an application specific integrated circuit.

10. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1, further comprising:

a time and calendar timer;

an auto-reset wherein the display is reset daily according to the timer; and

number of steps recorded daily are transferred to a pet pedometer memory before said display is reset.

11. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 10, further comprising:

a running storage of average steps per week for n weeks wherein n weeks may be 4 weeks or 8 weeks, or other n weeks, wherein a number of stored weekly averaged steps may be manually recalled to the display in a scrolling manner.

12. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 10, further comprising:

a running storage of average steps per month for 12 months wherein a number of stored monthly averaged steps may be manually recalled to the display in a scrolling manner.

13. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 10 wherein said solid state expression takes the form of an application specific integrated circuit.

14. The attachable pet pedometer of claim 1, further comprising:

a solid state chip-based voice recording and playback unit wherein at least one transducer acts to record a voice and at least one transducer acts to playback a voice.

15. A method of measuring a number of steps a pet has taken comprising:

sensing a pet'"'"'s movement by a three-axes accelerometer;

amplifying the analog output signals from the three-axes accelerometer;

converting the amplified analog signals to digital signals;

performing a Fourier transformation of the digital signals from time space to frequency space,

ranking amplitudes of the frequency components of the Fourier of a z-direction motion along a z-axis;

choosing a dominant frequency wherein said dominant frequency has the largest Fourier coefficient in frequency space and wherein said dominant frequency is stored in a pet pedometer memory;

choosing a dominant frequency for a pet'"'"'s movement when a pet is walking;

storing said walking dominant frequency;

choosing a dominant frequency for a pet'"'"'s movement when a pet is running;

storing said running dominant frequency;

ranking the amplitude of the Fourier analysis of an x-direction along an x-axis and of a e-direction motion along a y-axis;

forming a virtual vertical direction wherein a vector has components in the z-direction, the x-direction and the y-direction equal to or proportional to said dominant component amplitudes on each axis, respectively;

storing the virtual vertical direction;

periodically updating the virtual vertical direction and replacing the prior stored virtual vertical direction with an updated virtual vertical direction;

choosing dominant x-axis and y-axis frequencies;

not recording a step, when the virtual vertical direction shows a pet'"'"'s walking or running dominant frequency wherein the x-axis and y-axis updated dominant frequencies differ substantially from their walking or running dominant frequencies;

detecting which dominant mode is present, walking or running, and utilizing the walking stride length or the running stride length in calculating distance traveled; and

displaying a cumulative number of steps and equivalent distance in real time.

16. The method of measuring the number of steps a pet has taken of claim 15, further comprising:

recording a voice; and

playing back the voice in a manner selected from the group consisting of;

intermittently;

continuously and repeating, and randomizing an order of discrete phrases.

17. The method of measuring the number of steps a pet has taken of claim 15, further comprising:

recording music; and

playing back music for a pet'"'"'s enjoyment and/or training.

18. The method of measuring the number of steps a pet has taken of claim 15, further comprising:

Controlling a manual rest control wherein a cumulative number of steps on the display may be reset to zero.

19. The method of measuring the number of steps a pet has taken of claim 15, further comprising:

utilizing a time and calendar timer;

auto-resetting display wherein the display is reset daily according to the timer; and

recording number of steps daily wherein said number of steps is transferred to a pet pedometer memory before said display is reset.

20. The method of measuring the number of steps a pet has taken of claim 15, further comprising:

storing a running average of steps per week for n weeks wherein n weeks may be 4 weeks or 8 weeks, or other n weeks, wherein said number of stored weekly averaged steps may be manually recalled to the display in a scrolling manner.

21. A method for using a pet pedometer, comprising:

resetting a display of the pet pedometer to zero;

attaching the pet pedometer to a pet;

manually setting the pedometer display to “

set walking”

by scrolling through menu and selecting;

entering a fixed distance into the pedometer display by scrolling through values on the display and selecting a value;

walking a pet, with said pet pedometer attached, over the fixed distance;

manually setting the pedometer to “

set running”

, by scrolling through menu and selecting;

running a pet over the same fixed distance;

manual resetting pedometer to “

time”

, by scrolling and selecting;

selecting time, day, month, year by manual scrolling;

selecting manually resetting pedometer to “

normal”

; and

wherein such utilization of the pet pedometer allows for monitoring of a pet'"'"'s activity and exercise facilitating a pet owner to better observe and maintain the exercise of a pet and allows a pet owner to ensure a pet receives enough exercise to maintain a pet'"'"'s health.