Automatic animal feeding apparatus
OwnerGuessman L. DeLoach, Phillip H. Fosterinventors
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Abstract
An automatic animal feeding apparatus including a sensory mechanism comprising two sensors in the bottom of a feeding trough which sense the absence of food in the trough and activate a means for dispensing additional food into the trough.
Claims11
An animal feeding apparatus including a receptacle having a bottom, means for dispensing conductive animal food into the receptacle, a pair of conductive sensors mounted upon the bottom of the receptacle, means for controlling the dispensing means according to information received from the sensors, means for establishing a flow of electric current between the sensors when conductive food is positioned between the sensors, and means for operating the controlling means to cause the dispensing means to dispense additional food into the receptacle in response to the electric current flowing between the sensors falling below a predetermined level when the level of food within the receptacle is reduced, said predetermined current level being selected to require substantially all of the food within the receptacle to be removed before said predetermined current level is reached.
An animal feeding apparatus including a receptacle, means for dispensing conductive animal food into the receptacle from above the receptacle and approximately uniformly over the surface of the receptacle, a pair of conductive sensors mounted upon insulators connected to the bottom of the receptacle separated by a distance sufficient to allow food to be removed from between the sensors, means for driving electric current between the sensors, means for measuring said current, controlling means for activating the dispensing means for a predetermined period when said current falls below a predetermined value, means for adjusting the duration of operation of the dispensing means and means for adjusting the level of current at which the controlling means activates the dispensing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.