Remote thermographic sensing of livestock
AssigneeUniversity of Prince Edward Island
InventorsDaniel Hurnik, William P. Ireland, Barry W. Stahlbaum, Wendell E. Dawson
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Abstract
The invention provides a method and apparatus for remote sensing of livestock, using a thermographic image sensing system, in order to determine one or more of the number, weight, location, temperature, carcass pH, etc., of animals in a surveillance area. A thermographic image comprising pixels of the area is sent to a digitizing board in a microcomputer, where the image is converted into a number array. The numbers are then interpreted by software to provide the desired information in a decipherable form.
Claims29
An apparatus for remote sensing of weight information about an animal in an area and making said information available in a decipherable form to an observer, comprising:
- means without human operation for remotely obtaining a thermographic image of the area, which image can be used directly or indirectly to provide a weight of an animal in the area;
- means for converting maid image into computer readable form;
- means for interpreting said form to provide said information;
- and
- means for displaying said information in a decipherable form to said observer.
A method of remotely sensing weight information about an animal in an area, which comprises:
- obtaining, without human operation, a thermographic image of the area, wherein the image can be used to provide a weight of an animal in the area;
- converting said image into computer readable form;
- interpreting said form to provide said information;
- and
- displaying said information in a decipherable form to a human observer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.