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US 4,049,950 AGranted
Animal food consumption monitor
AssigneeUniversal Identification Systems, Inc.
InventorsJohn A. Byrne, Charles K. Rhea, Jr., Thomas F. Fleming
Life of this patent
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AssigneeUniversal Identification Systems, Inc.
InventorsJohn A. Byrne, Charles K. Rhea, Jr., Thomas F. Fleming
Estimating the term…
A system for determining and registering the amount of food consumed in a given period of time by each of a plurality of animals, such as cattle, comprising a feed station which the animals can enter individually and separately for feeding purposes. The feed station includes a food hopper mounted on a load sensing means whose output changes as the amount of food in the hopper changes. Means, such as a photo-electric sensing device, are provided to determine the presence of an animal at the feed hopper. The actuation of the photo-electric sensing means will energize a scale weight measuring means which sends a series of pulses corresponding to the weight of food in the hopper to a consumption measuring means. Actuation of the photo-electric sensing means will also energize an interrogation coil which repeatedly sends electromagnetic pulses to the animal to actuate an identification tag attached to the animal. The tag includes a small R.F. transmitter capable of transmitting an R.F. pulse while the interrogation coil is activated. Each tag has its own source of power which will be momentarily engaged during the period of time that the interrogation coil is transmitting. One or more magnetic reed switches in the tag will be momentarily actuated by the electromagnetic pulse from the electromagnetic interrogation coil. The overall apparatus is provided with an R.F. receiver which will receive the pulses from the tag transmitter. The receiver will determine the identity of the animal by the frequency being transmitted by the tag. The receiver will sample the frequency during several time periods to eliminate an incorrect identification resulting from outside R.F. interference. The receiver will then "latch" an identification control means with the identity corresponding to the frequency transmitted by the tag. When the animal leaves the feed station, the weight of food in the hopper will be measured again and subtracted from the weight measured immediately after the animal entered the feed station. The difference between those weights is the amount consumed by the animal. With the identity provided by the identification control means, the information as to the total amount of food consumed by that given animal previous to the feeding period which just ended will be "loaded" into an "additive" means from the memory cells corresponding to that given animal. The cumulation of the amount of food consumed during the feeding period which just ended and the total "loaded" from the memory cells will be determined and "written" into the memory cells corresponding to that given animal by the additive means. After the animal departs, various portions of the apparatus will be returned to zero in readiness for the entry of the next animal. The information in the memory cells is printed out periodically. After the information in the memory cells is printed, the memory cells will be zeroed. An incandescent display is provided to allow visual inspection of the information in the memory cells.
Apparatus for determining and registering the amount of food consumed by each of a plurality of animals comprising a feed station, a scale located at the feed station, a feed hopper containing food mounted on the scale, presence sensing means for sensing the arrival and departure of an animal to and from the feed station, scale weight measuring means connected to the scale and responsive to the actuation of said presence sensing means for determining the amount of food in the hopper, identification means responsive to activation of the presence sensing means by the arrival of the animal to determine the identity of the given animal, consumption measuring means responsive to the scale weight measuring means for determining the increment of food consumed by the animal between its arrival and departure, memory means for storing the cumulative totals of food consumed by each animal individually, additive means responsive to said consumption measuring means for determining and storing in the memory means the cumulation of the previous consumption total stored in the memory means plus said increment of food determined by the consumption measuring means, memory address means responsive to the actuation of said presence sensing means upon the departure of said animal from said feed station and responsive to the identity determined by said identification means for connecting the additive means into that portion of said memory means corresponding to the given animal, means responsive to actuation of the additive means and the completion of its function for returning the consumption measuring means and the identification means to their initial states in preparation for the next animal entry, register means connected to said memory means and intermittently operable to recall and register the identity and corresponding amounts of food consumed by each animal individually as stored in the memory means, said identification means including an electromagnetic coil located at the feed station and responsive to the actuation of the presence sensing means by the animal's arrival for providing electromagnetic pulses, identity means on each animal, each identity means including an internal source of power for the identity means, a transmitter tuned to a specific frequency assigned to the given animal, magnetically responsive reed switch means normally open but closable in response to electromagnetic pulses from said electromagnetic coil to power said transmitter in said identity means, a receiver at the feed station for receiving the transmission of said identity means, a frequency sensitive means in said receiver to determine which of the plurality of identity means is transmitting, and identification storage means connected to said receiver for storing in said storage means the identity determined by said frequency sensing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.