Loading patent…
AssigneeDairymaster
InventorsEdmond Patrick HARTY, Shane Joseph BURNS, Alan HANLEY, John Gerard DALY, Liam MULLANE, Niall O'MAHONY, Joseph WALSH, Daniel RIORDAN
Estimating the term…
A rotary milking platform (3) comprises a plurality of stalls (5) and an RFID animal identifying system (9) for identifying animals entering the stalls (5) of the platform (3). A microprocessor (14) reads signals from an image capturing device (15) and computes a feature vector from the captured image of each animal. A plurality of reference feature vectors comprising respective matrices of metrics already derived from images of the respective animals captured by the image capturing device (15) are stored and cross-referenced with the identity of the respective animals. The microprocessor (14) compares computed feature vectors of each animal with the stored reference feature vectors until a best match has been determined with one of the reference feature vectors. The identity of the animal of that matching reference feature vector is then determined as the identity of the animal of that computed feature vector. The determined identity of the animal in the relevant stall (5) is compared with the identity of the animal determined for that stall (5) by the RFID system (9). On a favourable comparison the identity of the animal determined from the captured image of that animal is confirmed as the identity of the animal. In the event of a conflict between the two identities being determined, a conflict alert signal is produced.
1-198. (canceled)
A method for determining the identities of animals of a herd of animals, the method comprising capturing an image of at least a part of the animal with an image capturing device, comparing the captured image or a feature vector computed from the captured image with a plurality of stored reference images or stored reference feature vectors of the respective animals of the herd cross-referenced with the identities of the animals until a best match is detected matching the captured image with one of the reference images, or matching the computed feature vector with one of the reference feature vectors, and determining the identity of the animal based on the best match.
A method for determining the identity of an animal of a herd of animals in or entering a stall of one of a milking parlour and a single stall milking apparatus, the method comprising capturing an image of at least a part of the animal in the stall or as the animal is entering the stall with an image capturing device, comparing the captured image or a feature vector computed from the captured image with a plurality of stored reference images or stored reference feature vectors of the respective animals of the herd cross-referenced with the identities of the animals until a best match is detected matching the captured image with one of the reference images, or matching the computed feature vector with one of the reference feature vectors, and determining the identity of the animal based on the best match.
Apparatus for determining the identity of an animal of a herd of animals, the apparatus comprising a first storing means for storing a plurality of reference images or reference feature vectors of the respective animals of the herd cross-referenced with the identities of the respective animals, an image capturing device for capturing an image of at least a part of an animal, a comparing means for comparing the captured image of the animal with the reference images stored in the first storing means or for comparing the computed feature vector with the reference feature vectors stored in the first storing means until a best match is detected matching the captured image with one of the reference images, or matching the computed feature vector computed from the captured image with one of the reference feature vectors, and a means for determining the identity of the animal based on the best match.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.