Non-invasive automatic monitoring of pet animal's core temperature

Inventors

Zakharov, Michael • DAGAN, Asaf • BUKCHIN, Michael • Menkes, Abraham

Assignees

PetPace Ltd • Petpace Ltd

Abstract

A system, device and method monitoring whether a core temperature of a warm-blooded pet animal is within a normal range for the pet animal comprises a sensing assembly including (i) a skin temperature sensor positioned such that a sensing surface of the skin temperature sensor faces the animal, the skin temperature sensor configured to produce a skin temperature output, (ii) an ambient temperature sensor spaced away from the animal and configured to produce an ambient temperature output, and (iii) an accelerometer for sensing an acceleration of the pet animal and producing an acceleration output; and a processor for receiving the outputs, calculating an activity level from the acceleration data and determining whether the core temperature of the pet animal is within the normal range based on a pre-defined function relating the skin temperature TS, the ambient temperature TA, and the activity level of the pet animal.

Core Innovation

The invention is a non-invasive collar-based system for monitoring a health of a warm-blooded pet animal, where the pet animal is a dog or cat. The collar is positioned on a neck of the pet animal and on a single integrally connected body part of the pet animal, and it outputs ambient temperature, skin temperature, acceleration level, and at least one of heart rate and respiration using an acoustic sensor.

A sensing assembly includes a skin temperature sensor positioned to face the body of the pet animal, an ambient temperature sensor positioned on an outer surface, an accelerometer for sensing acceleration level including posture and movement, and an acoustic sensor with multiple elastic projections shaped to penetrate fur and absorb noise from friction due to movement of a head of the dog or cat. One or more processors receive the skin temperature output Ts, the ambient temperature output TA, and the acceleration level output, and determine an activity level A from the acceleration output.

The processors use TA to select one of three zones, including a thermoneutral zone, a zone below lower critical temperature Tlc, and a zone above upper critical temperature Tuc. Using the selected zone, the processors use a pre-defined function TMODEL=a*TA+b to calculate a baseline model skin temperature, then use c1*A+d1 and c2*A+d2 to calculate an adjustment of the baseline model skin temperature yielding a lower margin and an upper margin of a tolerance range, respectively.

The processors determine if Ts is within the tolerance range and, under a rule that if and only if Ts is within the tolerance range, determine if the core temperature is within the normal range. The system is configured to operate in ambient temperature environments spanning the three zones.

Claims Coverage

The partial content provides two independent claims, a system and a method, each grounded in multiple inventive features. The independent features center on a non-invasive collar sensor arrangement and a zone-based, coefficient-based function that combines skin temperature Ts, ambient temperature TA, and an accelerometer-derived activity level A to decide whether core temperature is within a normal range under an if-and-only-if rule.

Across the two independent claims, the main coverage is a non-invasive neck collar for dogs or cats that non-invasively produces Ts, TA, acceleration-derived activity A, and acoustic vital sign data, then uses TA zone selection and a coefficient-based baseline model plus activity-dependent tolerance margins to apply a strict if-and-only-if rule for determining whether core temperature is within a normal range.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications