# US 2014/0193043 A1 · Apparatus and method for estimation of livestock weight

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- Number: US 2014/0193043 A1
- Document ID: US20140193043A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/207,206
- Filed: 2014-03-12
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2011-04-27
- Inventors: Steve Gomas; John Sweeney; Edward Theil
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140193043A1

## CPC

- G06V 10/46: Descriptors for shape, contour or point-related descriptors, e.g. scale invariant feature transform [SIFT] or bags of words [BoW]; Salient regional features (colour feature extraction G06V10/56)
- A01K 29/005: {Monitoring or measuring activity}
- G06T 7/0004: {Industrial image inspection}
- G06T 7/0012: {Biomedical image inspection}
- G06T 7/12: Edge-based segmentation
- G06T 7/149: involving deformable models, e.g. active contour models
- G06V 10/7553: {based on shape, e.g. active shape models [ASM]}
- G06V 10/76: {based on eigen-space representations, e.g. from pose or different illumination conditions; Shape manifolds}
- G06T 2207/10004: Still image; Photographic image
- G06T 2207/30128: Food products
- G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
- A01K: ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL

## Abstract

A digital image of a target object is received and the image includes a plurality of pixels. The target object is at least a portion of an animal, and the portion of the animal is disposed in the image according to a predetermined disposition. The weight of the animal is determined using the model and at least one characteristic. At least some of the pixels of the image of animal are analyzed to determine at least one characteristic of the image of the animal. The weight of the animal is determined using the at least one characteristic.

## Claims

### Claim at position 1

1-20. (canceled)

### Claim 21

A method of determining an animal weight, the method comprising:
receiving a digital image of a target object, the image comprising a plurality of pixels, the target object being at least a portion of an animal, the at least a portion of the animal disposed in the image according to a predetermined disposition;
analyzing at least some of the pixels of the image of animal and determining a perimeter of an outline of the at least a portion of the animal;
determining an area enclosed by the perimeter; and
determining the weight of the animal using at least the perimeter and the area enclosed by the perimeter.

### Claim 22 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, wherein the determining the weight of the animal further comprises using at least a square of the perimeter and the area enclosed by the perimeter.

### Claim 23 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, wherein the determining the weight of the animal further comprises using at least a quotient obtained by dividing a square of the perimeter by the area enclosed by the perimeter.

### Claim 24 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, wherein the determining the weight of the animal further comprises estimating the weight of the animal using according to at least a following algorithm: W=ƒ(P2/A, α; {a1, a2, . . . , am}); where W is the weight of the animal; P is the perimeter of the outline of the at least a portion of the animal; A is the area enclosed by the perimeter; a1, a2, and am are regression coefficients, and ƒ is a least-squares line associated with the regression coefficients.

### Claim 25 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, wherein the receiving a digital image of a target object includes receiving a single digital image of a posterior view of an animal.

### Claim 26 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21 further comprising receiving a physical characteristic of the animal, wherein determining the weight of the animal comprises determining the weight of the animal using the perimeter and the area and the physical characteristic, and wherein the physical characteristic is selected from a group consisting of an age of the animal, a breed of the animal, animal markings, a previous weight, and identification tag information concerning the animal.

### Claim 27 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, wherein the determining the perimeter of the outline of the at least a portion of the animal further comprises a single iteration of obtaining a current outline and calculating a new outline, the new outline being based upon at least one candidate boundary point from the digital image, and comparing the current outline with the new outline.

### Claim 28 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising notifying a management service of the determined weight of the animal.

### Claim 29 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising comparing the determined weight of the animal to an expected weight of the animal and determining whether the determined weight of the animal meets the expected weight of the animal.

### Claim 30 (depends on 29)

The method of claim 29, further comprising changing a feeding program of the animal upon a determination that the weight of the animal does not meet the expected weight of the animal.

### Claim 31

An apparatus for determining an animal weight, the apparatus comprising:
an interface having an input, the input configured to receive a digital image of a target object, the image comprising a plurality of pixels, the target object being at least a portion of an animal, the at least a portion of the animal disposed in the image according to a predetermined disposition, the interface having an output;
a controller coupled to the interface, the controller configured to:
identify the target object from the image;
determine a perimeter of an outline of an animal;
determine an area enclosed by the perimeter;
determine the weight of the animal by using at least the perimeter and the area enclosed by the perimeter; and
present the weight at the output of the interface.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the weight of the animal by using at least a square of the perimeter and the area enclosed by the perimeter.

### Claim 33 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the weight of the animal by using at least a quotient obtained by dividing a square of the perimeter by the area enclosed by the perimeter.

### Claim 34 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the weight of the animal by estimating the weight of the animal using according to at least a following algorithm: W=ƒ(P2/A, α; {a1, a2, . . . , am}); where W is the weight of the animal; P is the perimeter of the outline of the at least a portion of the animal; A is the area enclosed by the perimeter; a1, a2, and am are regression coefficients, and ƒ is a least-squares line associated with the regression coefficients.

### Claim 35 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the input is configured to receive a single digital image of a posterior view of an animal.

### Claim 36 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the input is configured to receive a physical characteristic of the animal, wherein determining the weight of the animal comprises determining the weight of the animal using the perimeter and the area and the physical characteristic, wherein the physical characteristic is selected from a group consisting of an age of the animal, a breed of the animal, animal markings, a previous weight, and identification tag information concerning the animal.

### Claim 37 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is configured to determine the perimeter of the outline of the at least a portion of the animal via a single iteration of obtaining a current outline and calculating a new outline, the new outline being based upon at least one candidate boundary point from the digital image, and wherein the controller is further configured to compare the current outline with the new outline.

### Claim 38 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is further configured to notify a management service of the determined weight of the animal.

### Claim 39 (depends on 31)

The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the controller is configured to compare the determined weight of the animal to an expected weight of the animal and determine whether the determined weight of the animal meets the expected weight of the animal.

### Claim 40 (depends on 39)

The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the controller is configured to change a feeding program of the animal upon a determination that the weight of the animal does not meet the expected weight of the animal.