Back to results
US 11,559,044 B2Granted
Method of and system for tracking an animal in a population of animals
AssigneeHoffmann-La Roche Inc.
InventorsPrzemek Idziaszek, Antoni Opolski, Jacek Ziemski, Bartosz Binias
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of tracking an animal in a population of animals is disclosed that includes applying a visual identifier to the animal, associating reference identifier data of the visual identifier to animal data of the animal, capturing a digital image of the visual identifier applied to the animal, recognizing the visual identifier by digitally processing the captured digital image, and identifying the animal upon recognition of the visual identifier.
Claims11
A method of tracking an animal in a population of animals, comprising:
- applying a visual identifier to the animal comprising clipping a combination of toes of at least one limb of the animal;
- associating reference identifier data of the visual identifier to animal data of the animal;
- providing a platform having a transparent essentially flat plate defining a reading area and positioning a camera below the transparent essentially flat plate,
- capturing, by the camera, a digital image of the visual identifier including the combination of clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal
- in the reading area and generating the digital image when the animal is in the reading area;
- recognizing the combination of clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal from the digital image by digitally processing the captured digital image, wherein digitally processing the captured digital image comprises detecting at least one region of interest covering the at least one limb and selecting pixels of the digital image in the detected at least one region of interest which have a color in a range predefined in accordance with the color of the at least one limb to localize the combination of clipped toes of the visual identifier from the digital image;
- comparing the recognized combination of clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal to the reference identifier data of the visual identifier;
- and
- identifying the animal based upon a result of the comparing the recognized combination of clipped toes to the reference identifier data of the visual identifier.
6 more elements
A system for tracking an animal in a population of animals preferably involved in an animal study, comprising:
- a computing arrangement to:
- associate reference identifier data of a visual identifier applied to an animal to animal data of the animal, the visual identifier being applied to the animal comprising a combination of toes of at least one limb of the animal;
- recognize from a digital image of the visual identifier including the combination of clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal by digitally processing the digital image of the visual identifier applied to the animal, wherein the digitally processing the digital image comprises detecting at least one region of interest covering the at least one limb and selecting pixels of the digital image in the detected at least one region of interest which have a color in a range predefined in accordance with the color of the at least one limb to localize the combination of clipped toes of the visual identifier from the digital image, and wherein the system comprises a platform having a transparent essentially flat plate defining a reading area in which the animal is to be positioned for capturing the digital image of the visual identifier applied to the animal via a camera, the camera being positionable below the transparent essentially flat plate for capturing the digital image of the combination of clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal;
- compare the recognized combination of the clipped toes of the at least one limb of the animal to the reference identifier data of the visual identifier;
- and
- identify the animal based upon a result of comparing the recognized combination of the clipped toes to the reference identifier data of the visual identifier.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.