GB2472192A

GB2472192A - A system for identifying lost pets

Info

Publication number: GB2472192A
Application number: GB0912962A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ceri Phillip Stagg
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-07-27
Filing date: 2009-07-27
Publication date: 2011-02-02
Also published as: GB0912962D0

Abstract

A system for identifying lost pets comprising a fixed electronic wireless base unit 1 and a small electronic receiving unit 2 attached to a pet's collar. The receiving unit receives signals from the base unit which resets an internal timer. If the timer reaches a predetermined value without having been reset the receiving device attracts attention with a light and sound alarm. Both units may have a unique identifier code to ensure signals from other base units do not reset the timer in the receiver unit. The timer may be set to different intervals and the receiving unit may comprise a rechargeable battery.

Description

A system for identifying lost pets, especially cats When a cat gets lost, it is hard for members of the public to distinguish it from a cat that is merely roaming its local area. Whereas a dog roaming loose attracts attention and is likely to be caught and its owner located, lost cats are less likely to be reunited with their owners through the help of other citizens, because the cat's plight will frequently go unnoticed.

To overcome this, the present invention proposes an electronic cat collar attachment that will flash and emit sounds to attract attention if the cat has not been within its home area for a specified period. This will identify it to other citizens as being lost.

An electronic "base unit" transmits frequent short range signal pulses and is set up in an area where the cat usually visits on a daily basis, most obviously its home feeding area. When the collar unit receives one of these pulses, it resets its internal time counter. If this counter ever reaches a specified threshold limit (for example, 48 hours) without having received a reset signal, the collar will switch into the "distressed" state. In this state the collar unit will attract attention with visual and audio signals, identifying the cat as being lost to any observer.

The collar unit also has space for a conventional written note to be contained, enabling the owner to include address and/or telephone contact information.

Certain technologies already exist to allow an owner to track down a missing animal directly.

However, these technologies are complex and expensive. The advantage of the present invention is that for a low cost, it uses simple, known technologies to leverage the search power of the hundreds of other people living in the owner's residential area who could easily help reunite a lost cat with its owner if only they knew reliably that the cat was indeed lost.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrams.

Figure 1 gives an overview of the system.

The "base unit" (1) is plugged into a power outlet and stays there permanently as a small "brick" flush against the outlet. Tt sends short-range wireless signals on a frequent basis (e.g. every ten seconds). Ideally the signal should not travel much further than the extents of the room in which the base unit has been placed. The base unit has a unique identifier number that has been set internally by the manufacturer (flashed onto a memory chip). Each manufactured unit is shipped with a different ID having been set. A 32-bit identifying integer should be sufficient (this would allow over four billion units to be created with unique identifying numbers).

The receiving unit (or "collar unit") (2) is a small cylinder designed to be attached to a pet's collar using a connecting clip (3). Externally the cylinder features one or more LED lamps (4). The receiving unit is not drawn to scale here with either the base unit or the pet's collar.

Figure 2 shows a cross-section of the receiving/collar unit, and illustrates potential augmentation features on the base unit. Again, the collar unit is not drawn to scale with the base unit.

Internally the collar unit has a power cell (1), a microprocessor (2), a wireless signal receiver (3) and an audio emitter (4). Tt has a chamber for a small piece of rolled-up paper to contain written address and/or telephone number information (5). The chamber section can be attached/detached using a screw thread (6). At the base of the chamber section it may be desirable to have a section of

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air-permeable gauze (7) so that sound waves can exit the unit effectively This would offer good sound transmission without a high risk of rain water damaging the electronics of the unit.

Each collar unit has its own small electronic processor aboard. Tts memory has been flashed with the same unique ID UID) as the base unit.

The processor has an internal electronic timer that increments every second. The processor uses the wireless receiver to listen for the base unit's signal. The base unit transmits its UID. When the collar unit receives a signal that carries a UID matching its own UID, it resets the timer, The timer therefore represents the time that has elapsed since the collar last received a signal from its corresponding base unit.

When the collar unifs timer reaches a certain pre-set value (for example, 48 hours) without having received a reset signal, the collar unit switches state into "distress mode". This indicates that the cat has not been close to the base unit for a period sufficient to suggest that the cat is now lost. In "distress mode" the LED(s) begin flashing continuously, and the audio units emits a distress sound.

Ideally this could be a sampled human voice announcing that the pet is lost, and requesting help, although it could be a simpler siren-like or bleeping noise. The noise should be sufficiently loud to help find a pet that was not visible in plain sight and/or aftract attention to it.

The importance of the UID system is that the collar should not have its timer reset by any base unit other than that of the ownet If the cat had strayed across town into the range of a base unit in another house, the collar should not be prevented from progressing into "distress mode" by accepting reset signals from another owner's base unit.

Suggested augmentations: It would be commercially advantageous to allow any collar unit's UID to be set (the memory flashed) by plugging a connector (8) into a corresponding connection port (9) on the base unit with which the owner wished the collar to be associated. This would allow the owner to buy multiple collar units, either as spares or for multiple cats, and have them all work with the same base unit.

A further augmentation would be to have this same connection port charge a rechargeable cell in the collar unit.

Tt would be desirable for the owner to be reassured that the base unit was communicating properly with the collar unit. Every time the collar unit received a reset pulse from the base unit, it could flash one of its LEDs briefly, and perhaps emit a small chirp from the audio unit. (A second internal timer might suppress repeat confirmation flashes/chirps for a certain period afterwards, to prevent the owner being "spammed" by such confirmation flashes/sounds.) It would be desirable for the owner to know that a collar unit had lost most of its cell charge. When the cell was at or below a certain threshold level (e.g. 15%) it could emit, on an intermittent basis, a pattern of LED flashes and/or audio signals that was distinguishable from both the distress signal and the confirmation signal, to let an attentive owner know that the cell needed to be recharged or replaced.

The base unit could also have a simple switch (10) to designate one of a number of possible timer thresholds for moving into "distress mode", for example 1 day, 2 days or 7 days. If the owner had a pet that was known to sometime go several days without being seen, without any obvious problems, this would help prevent unwanted transitions to distress mode. The current timer threshold value could be carried by the wireless signal along with the UID, so changes could be made dynamically without needing to touch the collar unit(s).

Claims

CLAIMS1. A system for identifying lost pets (most obviously cats) comprising a fixed electronic wireless signalling base unit and a small electronic receiving unit attached to a pet's collar that listens for signals from the base unit to reset an internal timer, and attracts human attention with lights and sounds if the timer reaches a certain value without having been reset by a signal from the base unit.
2. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, where both units have a unique identifier integer flashed into memory that allows the receiving unit to reset its timer only when it receives a signal from a base unit with the same unique identifier number.
3. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 2, where the receiver unit can be plugged into a communications port on the base unit to flash its memory automatically with the same unique identifying number as that of the base unit.
4. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, where the base unit features the ability to specify the amount of time that should elapse before any associated receiver unit should begin to attract attention, and to send that information along with every timer reset signal.
5. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, where the receiver unit should emit a small confirmation flash and/or audio signal to let the owner know that a reset signal sent by the base unit had been received successfully by the receiver unit.
6. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, where the receiver unit featured a rechargeable cell that could be charged by plugging it into a charging connector port on the base unit.
7. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, where the receiver unit recognised when its cell was at a low charge and emitted an occasional combination of lights and sounds to communicate this information to the owner.
8. A base unit and receiving unit system according to claim 1, that also contained some or all of the features outlined in claims 2 through 7 in this list.