External and Internal Monitoring of Animal Physiology and Behavior

Abstract

A method and system for the continuous monitoring of animal physiology and behavior through the use of a smart body worn animal harness, smart collar or restraint system which captures, pre-processes, monitors, and transmits data captured from a plurality of externally-based, skin contact-based, and internally located RFID implants to a cloud-based infrastructure for further processing and augmentation to support real time alerting and animal health analytical systems.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a wearable article with a plurality of attachment positions comprising at least a first attachment position and a second attachment position;   a first sensor configured to obtain at least one first physiology reading and wireless transmit a signal related to the at least one first physiology reading;   an electronics enclosure removably attached to the wearable article at one of the first attachment position or the second attachment position, wherein the electronics enclosure comprises:
 a first antenna configured to receive reflected ultrawideband signals; 
 a second antenna configured to receive the signal related to the at least one first physiology reading obtained by the first sensor; 
 a third antenna; 
 a processor configured to interpret the reflected ultrawideband signals as a second physiology reading; and 
 a memory storing:
 a first configuration associated with the first attachment position, 
 a second configuration associated with the second attachment position, and 
 a selection of one of the first configuration or the second configuration, 
 
   wherein, in each of the first configuration and the second configuration, the processor is configured to obtain the second physiology reading,   wherein the processor is configured to send, via the third antenna, the at least one first physiology reading and the second physiology reading,   wherein, based on the selection of one of the first configuration or the second configuration, the processor identifies the second physiology reading associated with one of the first attachment position or the second attachment position, and   wherein the first sensor is configured to operate based on commands from the processor.   
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the wearable article is a collar. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the wearable article is a harness. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a battery located within the electronics enclosure,   wherein the battery is electrically connected to the processor and provides power to the processor.   
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 4 , further comprising:
 an ultrawideband transmit antenna spaced from the first sensor,   wherein the first antenna is an ultrawideband receive antenna,   wherein the processor outputs an ultrawideband signal to the ultrawideband transmit antenna and receives, from the ultrawideband receive antenna, a reflected ultrawideband signal.   
     
     
         6 . The system according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second sensor spaced from the first sensor,   wherein the processor is configured to receive, via the second antenna, a third physiology reading obtained by the second sensor.   
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 4 ,
 wherein the second antenna is configured to receive Bluetooth signals.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein, based on the selection of the first configuration, the processor identifies the second physiology reading as a heart rate reading.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein, based on the selection of the second configuration, the processor identifies the second physiology reading as a respiratory rate reading.   
     
     
         10 . A system comprising:
 a support structure having a plurality of positions;   at least two sensors attached to the support structure, with the at least two sensors selected from a group of three sensors, wherein each sensor is located at one of the plurality of positions;   a memory storing two or more configurations; and   a processor attached to the support structure,   wherein the processor determines which sensors are present and obtains readings from the sensors, and   wherein the processor is configured to transmit readings differently based on a selected one of the configurations.   
     
     
         11 . The system according to  claim 10 , further comprising:
 an ultrawideband transmit antenna spaced from at least one of the at least two sensors; and   an ultrawideband receive antenna,   wherein the processor is further configured to output an ultrawideband signal to the ultrawideband transmit antenna and receive, via the ultrawideband receive antenna, a reflected ultrawideband signal.   
     
     
         12 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from a memory, a first configuration;   receiving, from a first sensor, a first physiology reading;   receiving, from a second sensor, a first ultrawideband radar signal;   interpreting, via a processor and based on the first configuration, the first ultrawideband radar signal as a second physiology reading;   storing the first and second physiology readings;   receiving, from the memory, a second configuration;   receiving, from the second sensor, a second ultrawideband radar signal;   interpreting, via the processor and based on the second configuration, the second ultrawideband radar signal as a third physiology reading; and   storing the third physiology reading.   
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 12 , further comprising:
 determining, via the processor and of a collection of sensor types, a sensor type of the first sensor,   wherein the storing of the first physiology reading is based on a determination of the sensor type of the first sensor.   
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 12 , further comprising;
 determining, via the processor, whether a third sensor is present; and   obtaining, based on a determination that the third sensor is present, a fourth physiology reading from the third sensor; and   storing, in the memory, the fourth physiology reading.   
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 12 , further comprising:
 outputting, via the processor, at least one of the stored first, second, or third physiology readings.   
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 15 ,
 wherein the outputting the at least one of the stored first, second, or third physiology readings is based on one of the first configuration or the second configuration, and   wherein the outputting based on the first configuration differs from the outputting based on the second configuration.   
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 12 ,
 wherein the receiving the first configuration identifies the second physiology reading as a heart rate reading, and   wherein the interpreting the first ultrawideband radar signal as the second physiology reading comprises interpreting the first ultrawideband radar signal as the heart rate reading.   
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 17 ,
 wherein the receiving the second configuration identifies the third physiology reading as a respiration rate reading, and   wherein the interpreting the second ultrawideband radar signal as the third physiology reading comprises interpreting the second ultrawideband radar signal as the respiration rate reading.   
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 12 ,
 wherein the receiving the first configuration identifies the second physiology reading as a respiration rate reading, and   wherein the interpreting the first ultrawideband radar signal as the second physiology reading comprises interpreting the first ultrawideband radar signal as the respiration rate reading.   
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 12 ,
 wherein receiving the first physiology reading comprises receiving a body temperature reading.