21 results about "Individual animal" patented technology

The present invention provides a method and a system for monitoring the mobility levels of individual farm animals and accordingly determining their corresponding mobility score. The mobility score may be indicative of the health and / or welfare status of the animals. The present invention processes a 2D video recording obtained from an imaging device to detect the movement of individual animals through a space. The video recording is segmented over a set of individual frames and in each frame the individual instances of the animal appearing in the vide frame are detected. The detected instances of each animal over a number of frames are grouped together. From each detected instance of an individual animal a set of reference points are extracted. The reference points are associated with location on the animal body. The present invention determines the mobility score of each animal by monitoring the relative position between reference points in each frame and the relative position of each reference point across the set of individual frames associated with an animal.

The invention relates to a device for analyzing and sorting animals and preferably aquatic animals, comprising: a housing (9); a tunnel (1) extending through the housing (9), comprising tunnel walls (4, 5), the tunnel (1) being positioned within the housing (9) and configured to guide an individual animal through the device, the tunnel (1) comprises: two or more image capturing units (6) positioned within the housing (1) configured to capture images of the tunnel (1), wherein each image capturing unit (6) comprises an image capturing device to capture images of the tunnel (1); configured for capturing images of at least one section of the tunnel (1), wherein said image capturing units (6) are provided laterally behind the tunnel walls (4, 5) on opposite lateral sides of the tunnel (1), said tunnel walls (4, 5) on the lateral sides being transparent; and illumination means (10) configured to provide illumination at said at least one section of the tunnel (1), said upper and / or lower tunnel wall (4, 5) being transparent.

A free-range livestock management server apparatus acquires information related to an individual animal or a location; identifies the individual animal based on acquired information; identifies location based on acquired information; grasps condition of individual animal or the location based on acquired information; monitors an abnormal condition of the individual animal or the location based on acquired information; sorts the information related to identified individual animal, identified location, grasped condition, and monitored abnormal condition for the identified individual animal or the identified location to associate each piece of the information with the identified individual animal or the identified location; stores the sorted and associated information; determines urgency of information related to abnormal condition of the individual animal or the location among the stored information based on a preset criterion; and creates notification information based on the information determined urgent to transmit the notification information to a predetermined terminal(s).

Provided, according to one aspect of the present invention, is a method for analyzing incidents in a herd including a plurality of individual animals, the method comprising the steps of: grouping a plurality of individual animals on the basis of at least one criterion and extracting a reference behavior pattern for each group; generating information related to whether a current behavior is abnormal for each group with reference to the reference behavior pattern; and generating information related to an incident on the basis of the information related to whether the current behavior of each group is abnormal.

The present invention provides a method and a system for monitoring the mobility levels of individual farm animals and accordingly determining their corresponding mobility score. The mobility score may be indicative of the health and / or welfare status of the animals. The present invention processes a 2D video recording obtained from an imaging device to detect the movement of individual animals through a space. The video recording is segmented over a set of individual frames and in each frame the individual instances of the animal appearing in the vide frame are detected. The detected instances of each animal over a number of frames are grouped together. From each detected instance of an individual animal a set of reference points are extracted. The reference points are associated with location on the animal body. The present invention determines the mobility score of each animal by monitoring the relative position between reference points in each frame and the relative position of each reference point across the set of individual frames associated with an animal.

A animal husbandry system, where a group of animals can move about freely in a shed, a plurality of sensors being provided, suitable for monitoring respective different regions of the shed, the sensors being provided in such a way that, collectively, they are suitable for monitoring substantially the complete shed. The animal identification system provided is suitable for identifying and locating individual animals in the shed, and includes processing means operatively connected to the sensors and to the animal identification system, the processing means being programmed for determining for each individual animal a urinating and / or defecating pattern or frequency. In this way, a highly useful system is realized. Firstly, in order to be able to monitor the health status of animals, urinating and / or defecating patterns or frequencies are highly meaningful. Secondly, they render an efficient cleaning of the shed possible.

An animal husbandry system, wherein a group of animals can move about freely in an area, the system comprising at least one weighing unit in the area, video monitoring and analyzing mechanism being provided suitable for establishing in conjunction with the at least one weighing unit whether an animal is positioned suitably on the weighing unit for a correct weighing, storing device being provided for storing data relating to each individual animal, such as weight data, control mechanism being provided, operatively connected to each weighing unit, the video monitoring and analyzing mechanism and the storing device, wherein the control mechanism is arranged to store weight data from each weighing unit in the storing device as soon as it is established that an animal is positioned suitably on the weighing unit for a correct weighing.

Individual animals in a herd are identified using a first camera (140) that registers 3D image data (Dimg) of a back portion of a preselected individual (130). A database (160) stores reference data records, which each is associated with the identity of a parti- cular individual. The 3D image data (Dimg) is processed to extract data (Dext) describing anatomy / topology of the back portion of the individual (130); the extracted data (Dext) are matched against the reference data records; and an identity is assigned to the prese- lected individual (130) in response to a match between the extrac- ted data (Dext) and one of the reference data records, where the assigned identity is the identity associated with the matching re- ference data record. The reference data record for an individual is updated repeatedly if the 3D image data (Dimg) is obtained toge- ther with an independent identification (ID) the individual (130). However, such updating occurs if and only if at least one updating criterion is fulfilled, which relates to a physiology parameter (P), a behavioral parameter (B), a reproductive-cycle parameter (R) and / or a lactation-cycle-related parameter (L) for the individual (130) in question.

The invention discloses an experimental animal screening system and method based on the RFID technology, and the system comprises a demand recognition module which is used for generating a feature standard in a management system; the retrieval module is used for preliminarily screening to-be-verified animal groups conforming to feature standards in the management system database; the retrieval and verification module is used for searching an animal container RFID tag transponder corresponding to the animal group to be verified through the first type of RFID reader-writer device so as to judge the in-cage state of the animal group to be verified; the retrieval positioning module is used for determining the specific position of the animal group to be verified according to the container point location code; and the animal verification module is used for simultaneously communicating with the animal container RFID tag transponder and the animal RFID tag transponder through the second-type RFID reader-writer device so as to verify the consistency of the feature standard, the animal group and the animal individual. The screening efficiency can be improved, the screening accuracy is guaranteed, the management process is optimized, and the labor cost is reduced.

Animal husbandry system, wherein a group of animals can roam freely in an area intended therefor, the system comprising a tracking system with automated tracking means configured for repeatedly tracking a plurality of individual animals in the area and in doing so assigning to the individual animals a track comprising tracking position data and tracking identity data, wherein the system is further provided with at least one autonomously movable vehicle which is provided with identification means configured for determining position and / or identity data of an animal and for transmitting said data to the tracking system. The animals can be tracked efficiently and identified accurately in a cheap and simple manner.

Systems and methods for analyzing milk are described. A plurality of first type sensors are provided, each first type sensor being associated with a respective one of a plurality of teat cup sets of a milking system and configured to analyze milk extracted by the teat cup set from an individual animal to determine at least one first type sensor value of a parameter of the milk across an event period. At least one of a second type sensor associated with at least one of the plurality of teat cup sets is configured to analyze milk extracted by the teat cup set from the individual animal to determine at least one second type sensor value of the parameter of the milk within the event period, wherein the second type sensor is less susceptible to animal-specific bias than the first type sensor. The number of second type sensors in the system is less than the number of first type sensors. Based on the at least one first type sensor value and the at least one second type sensor value of the parameter determined for the individual animal, an animal-specific bias correction is determined for the individual animal. The animal-specific bias correction is applied to the first type sensor values of the parameter obtained from the first type sensors for milk extracted from the individual animal.

An image-based animal weight measurement device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a communication module for receiving an image from at least one camera that captures an object; a memory in which an animal weight measurement program is stored; and a processor for executing the program stored in the memory, wherein the animal weight measurement program inputs a received image into an animal detection model so as to extract feature point information of an individual animal, connects the extracted feature point information so as to calculate the horizontal length and the vertical length of the individual animal, and inputs the calculated horizontal length and vertical length into a weight estimation model so as to calculate the weight of the individual animal.

To realize more suitable sampling by reducing differences in sampling time among individuals for exhalation samples of multiple animal individuals.SOLUTION: A sampling device (1) that individually samples exhaled-gas of multiple mammalian individuals comprises a plurality of sampling sections (11) that samples exhaled-gas of mammals, a switching section (12) that switches the sampling sections for sampling the exhaled-gas, and a detection section (13) that detects presence or absence of a mammal at the sampling sections. The detection section detects the presence of a mammal at the sampling section in association with individual information of the mammal. The switching section selects the sampling section that samples the exhaled-gas such that a difference in cumulative sampling time of the exhaled-gas among the mammalian individuals becomes small, on the basis of the cumulative sampling time of the exhaled-gas for each mammalian individual within a predetermined period.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

To realize more suitable sampling by reducing differences in sampling time among individuals for exhalation samples of multiple animal individuals.SOLUTION: A computer executes a sampling method that individually samples exhaled-gas of multiple mammalian individuals using a plurality of sampling sections that samples exhaled-gas of mammals and includes a switching process of switching the sampling sections that sample the exhaled-gas, and a detection process of detecting presence or absence of a mammal at the sampling sections. In the detection process, presence of a mammal at the sampling section is detected in association with individual information of the mammal. In the switching process, the sampling section that samples the exhaled-gas is selected such that a difference in cumulative sampling time of the exhaled-gas among the mammalian individuals becomes small, on the basis of the cumulative sampling time of the exhaled-gas for each mammalian individual within a predetermined period.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

This invention belongs to the field of pharmaceutical technology, specifically relating to an injectable sustained-release composition, its preparation method, and its application. Through extensive research, this invention unexpectedly discovered that adding specific release modifiers can significantly slow down the early release rate of drugs. Furthermore, there is a synergistic effect between specific release modifiers and specific structure modifiers, which can effectively improve the sustained-release performance of the composition and significantly reduce the coefficient of variation among individual animals.

The utility model relates to the technical field of animal marking equipment, and discloses an individual animal dyeing marking device which comprises a marking table, a placement bin is arranged on the marking table, an inner groove is formed in the end, close to the placement bin, of the marking table, a groove cover is arranged at the upper end of the inner groove, and a tightening belt is arranged on the inner side wall of the inner groove. The lower end of the inner groove is movably connected with a palm pressing plate, and illuminating lamps are arranged on the two sides of the marking table. An animal is placed in the placing bin on the marking table, the inner groove in the marking table is used for placing a small animal to be injected, the animal is fixed through the tightening belt on the inner side wall of the inner groove and prevented from moving in the dyeing process, and the sole pressing plate at the lower end of the inner groove exerts proper pressure on the sole part of the animal, so that the small animal is prevented from being injected. The animal is prevented from shaking in the dyeing process to influence the dyeing effect, and then an operator performs injection dyeing on the animal through the pin hole in the center of the palm pressing plate, so that the dye permeates subcutaneously to form a permanent mark.

Various proxies can be used to qualitatively or quantitatively assess welfare of a poultry flock. For example, as shown and described herein, one or more of a video-based monitoring technique or audio-based monitoring technique can be used. Such monitoring can include a video-based (e.g., image based) technique where indicia of movement of individual members of the flock are automatically tracked. In addition, or instead, an audio-based technique can be used, such as for classification of vocalization. Various metrics can be stored or reported using such techniques and one or more alerts can be generated, such as indicative of flock welfare or a change in flock welfare. Techniques described herein can include identifying paths traversed by respective members of a flock (e.g., individual animals), and then extracting indications such as corresponding to a distribution of such paths. Such paths can be defined by corresponding movement trajectories associated with individual members.

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus (2) for providing a group score for at least a first animal group (6). The control device (16) is configured to: obtain or generate at least one timestamp of a milking event for each animal individual being milked; -storing a first timestamp corresponding to a first animal individual of the first group that is milked; -determining whether the milked animal individuals belong to a second animal group (8), and if so-storing a second timestamp corresponding to the last milked animal individual in the first group; obtaining or generating a milk sample timestamp for each of the plurality of milk samples; -assigning a group score to the first animal group based on a value of a biomarker of the milk or a component in the milk for the milk sample between the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

An animal identification system accepts images, determines if animal faces exist in the images, then transforms those animal faces to permit comparison with known animal faces. The comparison process uses vectorized data to determine the similarity between known and unknown animal faces using, in some embodiments, a distance or difference function calculated on or among vectorized data. The system allows capture of known animal faces and addition of those known animal faces to the stored known animal faces in in the system without retraining the comparison algorithm. The system improves over time, in part, from user feedback.

An animal tagging system for identifying and assaying multiple vertebrate animals, comprising a plurality of identification tags, each identification tag comprising a body with an identifier display area bearing an identifier, further having a male and a female parts, the identification tags applicable to ear- or back skin and readable by human and computer vision from at least 5 cm. At least one controller is designed to monitor and record data from a plurality of sensors. A multi-object tracking software system is operationally coupled to at least one optical sensor, designed to track individual animals by detecting and reidentifying the identification tags, generating trajectories, and aggregating features, using at least one of appearance, motion, interaction, exclusion, and occlusion handling models, synchronized with sensor data via a time-measuring device. At least one physiological software system is designed to analyze sensor and tracking data to measure health parameters.

The invention relates to a computer-implemented method of tracking animals is provided. Such a method typically includes recognizing, by using at least one data processor, individual animals in images of a plurality of the animals; and tracking the animals using a probabilistic tracking-by-detection process. In another aspect, a system for recognizing animals is provided. Such a system typically includes an instance detection and part localization module; a visual marker classification module; a fixed-cardinality track interpolation module; and a maximum a posteriori estimation of animal identity module.