JP7125879B2 - Temperature measurement system and temperature measurement method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a temperature measuring system and a temperature measuring method for measuring the body temperature of animals such as livestock.

Conventionally, in order to measure the body temperature of animals such as cows, it has been necessary to insert a contact thermometer such as a thermometer into the rectum or mouth and hold it in place for a certain period of time. Therefore, a great deal of stress and labor was applied to both the measurer and the animal.

Therefore, by using a non-contact thermometer such as a thermography camera, the temperature of the eye and its surroundings (ocular area), which correlates with the deep body temperature (core temperature) of the feeding animal, is measured multiple times without contact. A method for measuring body temperature has been developed to find the average value of the results (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2017-85941 A

However, when measuring the body temperature of an animal in a non-contact manner, if the animal's eye is exposed to wind, there is a problem that the measured eye temperature does not correlate with the core body temperature.

In addition, in Patent Document 1, in order to speed up the measurement of the body temperature of an animal, the part showing the highest temperature from the thermal image of the animal's head taken is determined to be the eye part that correlates with the deep body temperature. Although the temperature is measured, for example, when the atmospheric temperature is high, the temperature difference between the eye and the atmosphere is small, making it difficult to identify the eye. In addition, due to various factors such as individual differences in animals and shooting angles, the part showing the highest temperature in the thermal image is not necessarily the eye part.

As described above, the non-contact body temperature measurement of animals is easily affected by the external environment in which the animal is placed. If such an error occurs, there is a problem that the reliability of health care is impaired.

The present invention was made to solve such problems, and its purpose is to improve the accuracy of body temperature measurement of animals by considering the influence of the external environment, and to improve the reliability. An object of the present invention is to provide a temperature measurement system and a temperature measurement method that can realize health management.

In order to achieve the above object, the temperature measuring system according to the present invention is a temperature measuring system for measuring the body temperature of an animal in a non-contact manner. a body temperature measuring unit capable of measuring a temperature distribution in a range; an extracting unit for extracting the temperature of a part of the animal whose temperature is to be measured from the temperature distribution measured by the body temperature measuring unit; and a control unit for correcting the temperature of the temperature measurement target part of the animal extracted by the extraction unit.

Further, in the temperature measurement system described above, the extraction unit may use an image analysis function learned by machine learning to identify the temperature measurement target part of the animal from the temperature distribution measured by the body temperature measurement unit.

Further, the temperature measurement system described above further includes an air temperature detection unit capable of detecting an air temperature, and the control unit performs the extraction according to the wind information and the air temperature detected by the air temperature detection unit. The temperature of the temperature measurement target part of the animal extracted by the part may be corrected.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, a temperature measuring method according to the present invention is a temperature measuring method for measuring the body temperature of an animal in a non-contact manner, comprising a wind detecting step of detecting wind information with a wind detecting unit; A body temperature measuring step of measuring a temperature distribution in a predetermined range without contact by a body temperature measuring unit, and an extracting step of extracting the temperature of a part of the animal whose temperature is to be measured from the temperature distribution measured by the temperature measuring step by an extracting unit. a correction step of correcting the temperature of the part of the animal subject to temperature measurement extracted in the extraction step according to the wind information detected in the wind detection step by a control unit.

According to the present invention using the above means, it is possible to improve the accuracy of body temperature measurement of animals by considering the influence of the external environment, and to realize more reliable health management.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a temperature measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a temperature measurement control routine executed by a control unit of the temperature measurement system according to the present embodiment;

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of a temperature measurement system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the temperature measurement system will be described below with reference to the same drawing.

The temperature measurement system 1 measures the body temperature of the animal from the outside of the animal in a non-contact manner. A certain eye part E is set as a part to be temperature-measured.

The temperature measurement system 1 mainly includes a nursing bottle 2 that supplies milk, which is the feed for the calf C, a thermography camera 3 (body temperature measurement unit) that measures the temperature distribution in a predetermined range without contact, It is composed of an anemometer 4 (wind detector) that detects wind information, and an arithmetic device 5 that controls the thermography camera 3 and the anemometer 4 and manages the health condition of the calf C.

The nursing bottle 2 includes an artificial nipple 10 that a calf C sucks for feeding, a body portion 11 that supports the artificial nipple 10, and a transport pipe that transports milk from a milk tank 12 that stores milk to the body portion 11. 13. The body portion 11 is composed of a cylindrical portion 11a that supports the artificial nipple 10 at the center of one end face, and a conical portion 11b that extends from the other end of the cylindrical portion 11a to the transport tube 13 in a conical shape.

A support plate 14 is provided on the upper portion of the cylindrical portion 11 a of the nursing bottle 2 , and the thermographic camera 3 and the anemometer 4 are provided on the support plate 14 . The support plate 14 extends in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the artificial nipple 10, and one end is fixed to the top of the cylindrical portion 11a.

The thermography camera 3 is provided on one end side of the support plate 14, and is fixed so that the lens portion faces the head of the calf C during feeding. Note that the thermography camera 3 may be configured so that the direction of the lens portion can be changed manually or automatically.

The thermography camera 3 is a camera capable of capturing a non-contact thermal image (still image or moving image) showing the temperature distribution in a predetermined range based on the amount of infrared rays emitted from the object to be measured, and calculates the captured thermal image. It can be sent to device 5 . In addition, the thermography camera 3 is provided with a temperature sensor 3 a (atmospheric temperature detection unit) capable of detecting the atmospheric temperature, and the atmospheric temperature detected by the temperature sensor 3 a can also be transmitted to the arithmetic device 5 .

The anemometer 4 is provided at the other end of the support plate 14 . In addition, the closer the anemometer 4 is to the object to be measured, the better. The anemometer 4 of the present embodiment is a so-called windmill-type anemometer, and can detect the wind speed as well as the wind direction. Other anemometers include cup type anemometers and the like. Wind information including the wind speed and wind direction detected by the anemometer 4 can be transmitted to the computing device 5 .

The computing device 5 is a computer such as a personal computer (PC) or a server connected to the thermography camera 3 and the anemometer 4 via a wired, wireless, or communication network such as the Internet. It has an output unit 22 , a communication unit 23 and a control unit 24 .

The extraction unit 20 is a part that extracts the temperature of the eye E that correlates with the body temperature (deep body temperature) of the calf C from the thermal image captured by the thermography camera 3 . As a method for extracting the temperature of the eye E, the extracting unit 20 identifies the position of the eye E from within the thermal image and extracts the temperature at that position. The extraction unit 20 in the present embodiment uses an image analysis function learned by machine learning to identify the eye E of the calf from the temperature distribution of the thermal image. For example, the image analysis function forms a large number of thermal images specifying the calf's eye using a learned model trained by deep learning as a learning data set. Note that the machine learning method is not limited to this, and learning may be performed using other methods.

The storage unit 21 stores the temperature of the eye part E of the calf C extracted by the extraction unit 20, the date and time when the temperature was acquired, the thermal image on which the temperature was obtained, the wind information at the time the thermal image was taken, the atmospheric temperature, and the like. , the body temperature data of the calf C calculated based on these information, etc. are stored, and a database of the body temperature data is constructed for each individual calf C.

The output section 22 is, for example, a display or a printer, and is a section that outputs information on the health condition of the calf C such as body temperature on a screen or on paper.

The communication unit 23 is a part that can communicate with an external device as needed. For example, when the control unit 24 determines that the health condition of the calf C is abnormal, the communication unit 23 notifies the terminal or the like possessed by the administrator or the veterinarian. It is also possible to select a destination according to the urgency of the situation. For example, when the calf C is in a less urgent abnormal condition such as a slight fever, the information is sent only to the administrator, and when the calf C is in a highly urgent abnormal condition such as a high fever, the information is also sent to the veterinarian. Furthermore, when an abnormal state is detected, the output unit 22 displays an alert corresponding to the urgency, or emits a warning sound by an alarm (not shown), etc., so that the operator of the arithmetic unit 5 You can call attention.

Then, in order to measure the body temperature of the calf C from the outside of the body without contact, the control unit 24 uses the thermography camera 3 to measure the temperature of the eye E of the calf C that is being sucked through the feeding bottle 2 . The temperature of the eye part E of the cow C is measured. Then, according to the wind information detected by the anemometer 4, the temperature of the eye part E of the calf C extracted by the extraction unit 20 is corrected, and body temperature data of the calf C is calculated.

More specifically, FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a temperature measurement control routine executed by the control unit of the temperature measurement system according to this embodiment, and the temperature measurement control will be described below along the same flow chart.

First, in step S1, the controller 24 detects that the calf C has held the artificial nipple 10 of the nursing bottle 2 (nursing detection).

In subsequent step S2, the control unit 24 captures a thermal image with the thermography camera 3. FIG. Specifically, the focus of the thermography camera 3 is adjusted so that the eye part E of the calf C in front of the feeding bottle 2 and its surroundings are in focus, and the thermal image is obtained using the atmospheric temperature detected by the temperature sensor 3a. After calibrating the temperature distribution of , a thermal image is taken. Note that the number of thermal images captured at this time is not limited to one, and a plurality of thermal images may be captured. In addition to capturing the thermal image, the control unit 24 also acquires information on the atmospheric temperature detected by the temperature sensor 3a.

Next, in step S3, the extraction unit 20 identifies the position of the eye part E from the thermal image by the image analysis function. Then, in step S4, the extraction unit 20 extracts the temperature of the specified eye part E. FIG.

In step S<b>5 , the control unit 24 acquires wind information such as wind speed and wind direction detected by the anemometer 4 .

In step S6, the control unit 24 corrects the temperature of the eye part E of the calf C extracted by the extraction unit 20 according to the acquired wind information. Specifically, the control unit 24 estimates the amount of air that hits the eye E of the calf C from the wind speed and wind direction at the time of thermal image capturing, and calculates the temperature change of the eye E associated therewith. Furthermore, the temperature change of the eye part E is calculated using the atmospheric temperature acquired from the temperature sensor 3a. In calculating this temperature change, for example, a table showing the relationship between the wind speed, the wind direction, the atmospheric temperature, and the temperature of the eye part E may be prepared in advance by experiments or simulations. Then, the control unit 24 corrects the temperature of the eye part E based on the calculated temperature change and uses it as body temperature data of the calf C. FIG.

Then, in step S7, the control unit 24 saves the corrected body temperature data in the storage unit 21, and ends the routine.

As described above, the temperature measurement system 1 according to the present embodiment extracts the temperature of the eye part E of the calf C in a non-contact manner using the thermography camera 3, and corrects the temperature according to the wind information. A more accurate body temperature can be measured in consideration of the wind hitting the cow C.

In addition, the extracting unit 20 identifies the position of the eye E from the temperature distribution of the thermal image using an image analysis function learned by machine learning, thereby coping with changes in the external environment. can be located.

Furthermore, by detecting the atmospheric temperature with the temperature sensor 3a and correcting the temperature of the eye part E using the atmospheric temperature, the body temperature can be measured more accurately.

As described above, according to the temperature measurement system and temperature measurement method according to the present embodiment, the accuracy of body temperature measurement of the calf C can be improved in consideration of the influence of the external environment such as strong wind, high temperature, or low temperature. , more reliable health management can be achieved.

Although the description of the embodiment of the present invention is finished above, the aspect of the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

In the above embodiment, the thermography camera 3 is provided with the temperature sensor 3a, but the temperature sensor for detecting the atmospheric temperature may be provided in a place other than the thermography camera. For example, it may be provided as an independent temperature sensor, or a temperature sensor included in another device such as an anemometer may be used.

1 temperature measurement system 2 nursing bottle 3 thermography camera (body temperature measurement unit)
3a temperature sensor (atmospheric temperature detector)
4 Anemometer (wind detector)
5 Arithmetic device 20 Extractor 24 Control unit C Calf E Eye

Claims (4)

A temperature measuring system for measuring the body temperature of an animal without contact,
a wind detection unit capable of detecting wind information;
a body temperature measuring unit, which is a camera capable of taking a non-contact thermal image showing a temperature distribution in a predetermined range;
an extraction unit for extracting the temperature of the temperature measurement target part of the animal from the temperature distribution measured by the body temperature measurement unit;
Control for estimating the amount of air hitting the part of the animal whose temperature is to be measured according to the wind information detected by the wind detection unit, and correcting the temperature of the part of the animal whose temperature is to be measured extracted by the extracting unit based on the air amount. Department and
temperature measurement system. 2. The temperature measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit uses an image analysis function learned by machine learning to identify the temperature measurement target part of the animal from the temperature distribution measured by the body temperature measurement unit. Furthermore, it has an atmospheric temperature detection part that can detect the atmospheric temperature,
3. The control unit according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control unit corrects the temperature of the target part of the animal for temperature measurement extracted by the extraction unit according to the wind information and the atmospheric temperature detected by the atmospheric temperature detection unit. Temperature measurement system. A temperature measuring method for measuring the body temperature of the animal in a non-contact manner using the temperature measuring system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

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