Patent Application
20050145196
The present invention relates generally to collar-mounted electronic “bark limiter” devices, and more particularly to improvements therein which allow monitoring of the amount of barking that actually occurs.
A variety of electronic dog training collars have been utilized for applying electrical shock and/or audible stimulus to a dog when it barks. In many situations it is highly desirable to prevent individual dogs or groups of dogs from barking excessively. For example, one dog's barking in a kennel is likely to stimulate other dogs to bark. This is undesirable with respect to the welfare of the dogs themselves and nearby people. Similar problems occur in neighborhoods in which there are dogs that are kept outside at night: if one dog starts barking others are likely to join in, causing a general disturbance.
The closest prior art is believed to include the present assignee's Bark Limiter product and commonly assigned U.S Pat. No. 4,947,795 by G. Farkas entitled “Barking Control Device and Method”, issued Aug. 14, 1990 and incorporated herein by reference. Above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,795 discloses a bark training device which allows a dog to control the level of electrical stimulus in response to its own barking behavior. This patent discloses circuitry in a collar-mounted electrical device that detects the onset of barking and initially produces only a single low level electrical stimulus pulse that gets the dog's attention, but does not initially produce a highly unpleasant level of stimulation. If the dog continues barking, the stimulation levels of the electrical shock pulses are increased at the onset of each barking episode in a stepwise fashion until the stimulus becomes so unpleasant that the dog stops barking for at least a predetermined time, e.g., one minute. After that minute elapses, the circuitry resets itself to its lowest initial stimultion level and remains inactive until barking begins again, and then repeats the process, beginning with the lowest level of stimulation and increasing the stimulus level if barking continues.
There is an unmet need for an improved bark control device that provides a capability to conveniently determine its own effectiveness by providing a way of conveniently monitoring how often a dog barks over a period of time.
There also is an unmet need for an improved sound vibration sensing device for an animal control device which enables a user to readily determine if the currently set stimulation level is effective.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved bark control device that provides a capability of conveniently determining its own actual effectiveness by providing a way of conveniently monitoring how often a dog barks over a period of time.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved sound vibration sensing device for an animal control device which enables a user to readily determine if the currently set stimulation level is effective.
Briefly described, and in accordance with one embodiment, the present invention provides a collar-mounted electronic apparatus (1) for control of barking by a dog including a housing (2) supported by a collar for attachment to the dog's neck, first and second stimulus probes (5) connected to a top surface (9) of the housing, a vibration sensor (6) supported by the housing for detecting vibrations caused by barking by the dog and control circuitry in the housing having an input coupled to an output of the vibration sensor, the control circuitry including output terminals producing aversive stimulus signals in response to barking by the dog, wherein a counter included in the control circuitry is incremented in conjunction with each occurrence of an episode of aversive stimulus applied to the dog in response to barking by the dog. The counter is incremented in conjunction with valid barking episodes. In the described embodiment, the control circuitry includes a controller which stores and executes program for determining whether vocalization by the dog constitutes a valid barking episode by electronically converting vocalizing sounds from the dog into a sequence of corresponding signals representing the frequencies of the vocalizing sounds, and providing the sequence of signals as an input to the controller. The controller is operated to determine the frequencies of the sequence of signals during a predetermined interval of time and to determine if each measured frequency lies within any of a plurality of predetermined frequency sub-ranges. If so, then cumulative totals of the frequencies which lie in the sub-ranges, respectively, are incremented in to provide a plurality of cumulative totals that represent a frequency spectrum of the vocalizing sounds. The controller is operated to determine whether the barking sounds constitute a valid bark by operating the controller to compare the frequency spectrum to a predetermined valid bark frequency spectrum, and to cause the control circuitry to cause appropriate aversive stimulus signals to be produced between the first and second stimulus electrodes if the vocalizing sounds constitute a valid bark.
In the described embodiment, the controller executes the program for determining whether vocalization by the dog constitutes a valid barking episode only if a signal is received from a motion sensor indicating that the dog's neck has moved in a characteristic manner caused by barking by the dog. In the described embodiment, the controller stores and executes program for setting an aversive stimulus intensity level in response to manual actuation of a switch of the collar-mounted electronic apparatus, wherein a user can experimentally select an aversive stimulus intensity level that effectively causes the dog to reduce the amount of its barking by determining the amount of barking by monitoring the bark counter. The aversive stimulus intensity level is selected in response to manual actuation of a switch.
The described dog bark limiter of the present invention includes a processor that stores and executes “valid bark detection” software wherein a capture and compare routine in the software is executed to generate a frequency spectrum of the received vocalization of the dog and compare it with a predetermined “valid bark” frequency spectrum to determine if the sound constitutes a “valid” bark. A “bark counter” function is provided that counts the number of barking episodes by counting the number of times the bark limiter applies aversive stimulus to the dog in response to detected “valid” barking episodes.
Referring to
A dome-shaped membrane 6 that preferably is integrally formed with the upper housing section 2B is disposed on upper surface 9 and constitutes part of an improved vibration sensor 30, which is subsequently described in more detail with reference to
Membrane switch 17 also can be depressed for a 4 second interval to set bark limiter 1 to a test mode, subsequently described. The above features, except the stimulus probes 5B and 5C, on the upper surface 9 of upper housing 2B are all integrally formed as a single unit.
Referring to the exploded views of
The intensity indicators 10-1,2,3,4,5 become illuminated by light emitting diodes D1-5, respectively, as membrane switch 17 is successively depressed. The five LEDs correspond to indicators 10-1,2,3,4,5 to indicate which stimulation level has been selected by means of the membrane switch 17. The LED corresponding to the intensity level selected by means of membrane switch 17 is the one which blinks. The arrangement of membrane switch 17 and the LED display arrangement including the lens reflector 20 minimizes the possibility of water leakage into the housing of the bark control device. The RB2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 outputs of microcontroller 33 in
Referring to
The output of operational amplifier 31 is connected by conductor 32 to the RA2 input on lead 1 of microcontroller 33 and also is connected to one terminal of capacitor C2 and one terminal of resistor R5. The other terminals of resistors R5 and capacitor C2 are connected to the (−) input of operational amplifier 31. The RA2 input of microcontroller 33 is connected to one input of an internal comparator, the other input of which is connected to the RA0 terminal of microcontroller 33, in order to produce an internal square waveform to be used as an input to the internal microprocessor portion of microcontroller 33, to allow the frequency of the square waveform to be determined. The capacitor C2 functions as a low pass filter that sets the upper cutoff frequency of operational amplifier 31. The resistors R5 and R10 to determine the gain of operational amplifier 31.
Voltage monitor circuit 34 in
The output of the internal comparator of microcontroller 33 is produced on lead 2 of microcontroller 33, which is externally connected to the CCP1 input on lead 2 of microcontroller 33. The CCP1 input of microcontroller 33 is used in the subsequently described compare-capture mode of operation, to measure the periods of the square waveforms on the CCP1 input. This allows the signals produced by vibration transducer 30 and amplified by operational amplifier 31 to be captured within an approximately 120 millisecond interval and, in effect, assembled into a frequency spectrum including sixteen 40 Hz windows in the range from 150 Hz to 800 Hz which can be used to determine if the present sound is a valid bark.
Actuation of the motion sensor 40 in
The RA6 output on lead 17 of microcontroller 33 is coupled to the base of an NPN transistor Q1 having its emitter connected to ground and its collector coupled by a resistor R6 to the base of a PNP transistor Q2 having its collector connected to VBAT and its emitter connected by conductor 38 to one terminal of the primary winding of output transformer 42. The base of transistor Q2 also is coupled by a resistor R2 to VBAT. The RA7 output on lead 18 of microcontroller 33 is coupled to the base of an NPN transistor Q3 which has its collector coupled by resistor R7 to VBAT and its emitter connected to the base of an NPN transistor Q4. The emitter of transistor Q4 is connected to ground and its collector is connected to conductor 38. The other terminal of the primary winding of output transformer 42 is connected to VBAT. The secondary winding terminals 5B and 5C are connected to the two stimulus electrodes 5.
Transistor Q4, when turned on, produces a constant collector current for the entire amount of time that transistor Q4 is turned on. If all of the collector current of transistor Q4 flows through the primary winding of transformer 42, that results in delivery of a maximum amount of energy to the primary winding of transformer 42 and therefore in a maximum amount output energy delivered to the stimulus probes 5 by the secondary winding of transformer 42. However, if transistor Q2 is turned on after the peak Vp of the flyback spike that occurs in the waveform of the voltage on conductor 38 immediately after transistor Q4 is turned off, then some of the decaying current in the primary winding of transformer 42 is shunted, causing the voltage on conductor 38 to rapidly fall to zero. This reduces the amount of energy delivered to the primary winding of transformer 42 for each pulse of the waveform on conductor 39 applied to the base of transistor Q4 by microcontroller 33, and therefore also reduces the amount of stimulus energy delivered through stimulus probes 5 to the dog's neck.
Microcontroller 33 operates to produce a burst of pulses which are applied to the base of transistor Q4 via the Darlington circuit configuration including transistor Q3. The intensity of the stimulation applied to the dog's neck is controlled by synchronously turning on shunt transistor Q2 to divert a controlled amount of the collector current of transistor Q4 away from the primary winding of transformer 42.
Thus, in one embodiment of the invention two control signals are in effect applied by microcontroller 33 to control the energizing of the primary winding of the output transformer, including the constant-width turn-on pulse signal applied to the gate of MOSFET Q4 to establish the constant open circuit voltage produced between the stimulus probes, and also including a shunt control signal which controls the synchronous turn-on of shunt transistor Q2 after the occurrence of the peak value of the flyback voltage on conductor 38 in order to control the amount of energy delivered to the primary winding of the transformer, and therefore the amount of RMS stimulus energy delivered the dog.
The microcontroller 33 used in the improved bark limiter 1 of the present invention preferably is a PIC16F628 available from Microchip Technology Incorporated, which includes several signal conditioning operational amplifiers, and operates so as to perform the same functions of executing the program represented by the flowchart of
By way of definition, the terms “controller” and “microcontroller” are used herein is intended to encompass any microcontroller, digital signal processor (DSP), logic circuitry, state machine, and/or programmed logic array (PLA) that performs functions of microcontroller 33 as described above.
Motion sensor 40 can be a Model #SQ-SEN-001P Ultra Compact Tilt and Vibration Sensor, available from SignalQuest Inc. Motion sensor 40 is of a mechanical ball-in-tube construction, and includes a conductive ball that makes contact with appropriate electrodes in response to motion of the dog's neck in order to send the “wake-up” signal microcontroller 33. The assignee has discovered that dogs move their heads in a characteristic manner when they bark, and that using motion detector 40 improves accuracy in bark detection of “valid” barking. Specifically, the assignee has discovered that when dogs bark, they tend to move their heads and upper torso in a specific motion/pattern motion that can be detected by the above described motion detector 40, although in some instances other types of motion detectors might be used. Motion patterns that are characteristic of barking can be detected using motion detector 40 and, in accordance with the present invention, a captured digitized bark signal can be utilized to provide a frequency spectrum that represents a “valid” bark in order to provide more accurate bark detection that has previously been achieved.
In accordance with the present invention, the vibration detection operation and motion detection operation are combined to determine whether an aversive stimulus signal should be produced between electrodes 5B and 5C. The motion detection is used primarily as part of detection of a valid bark, and is used secondarily to accomplish awakening bark limiter 1 from its sleep mode. Either the subsequently described “valid bark” detection based on the frequency spectrum of signals received from vibration sensor 30 or motion signals based on movement of motion detector 40 could be considered the primary detection function and the other could be considered to be the secondary detection function. The bark limiter could be awakened or powered up in response to barking, and the aversive stimulus could then be triggered by detection of neck motion, or vice versa.
The ON mode includes both the SLEEP mode and the ES LEVEL CHANGE mode. The OFF mode allows the bark limiter 1 to be awakened as a result of a switch trigger signal produced by depressing switch 17, and if that occurs, the program executed by microprocessor 33 checks to determine if switch 17 is depressed for least 0.1 seconds, and if it is not, automatically goes back into the SLEEP mode. If bark limiter 1 is in both the ON mode and the SLEEP mode, and a signal is received from motion sensor 40, it immediately checks for a bark signal from vibration sensor 30 while microprocessor 33 is internally operating at 4 MHz, and if there is no bark signal from vibration sensor 30, and the internal clock signal is reduced to 37 kHz, waits for a period of 2 seconds, and then reenters the SLEEP mode. Thus, a user can determine if bark limiter 1 is in its ON mode by subjecting bark limiter 1 to sufficient motion to cause motion sensor 40 to produce a motion signal and noticing if the light emitting diodes blink several times.
With the foregoing information in mind, it can be seen that the present invention provides an improved technique of “valid bark” detection with software by using the internal “Capture/Compare module” of the PIC16LF627 microcontroller 33 to determine “valid” barks, and uses a bark counter to count the number of valid barking episodes. During a 120 ms (or similar) capture time interval, the periods of the various bark signal frequencies are measured and counted. A window of acceptable frequencies in the range of, for example, 150 Hz-800 Hz, is created by the software. This interval or “window” is divided into 16 “buckets” or “bucket counters” into which the counts of 16 evenly divided frequency ranges are stored. When a bark/sound signal is received, the periods of the bark frequencies are measured during the 120 ms capture interval. The period of the frequency component of the received bark/sound signal is measured, and if the measured period falls within one of the 16 buckets, i.e. frequency ranges, then a software counter assigned to that bucket is incremented. For each complete bark signal/sound captured, the bucket counter totals are compared to predetermined threshold levels for each corresponding bucket counter, respectively in order to determine whether the dog's vocalization (or other detected sound) constitutes a “valid” bark.
A software “bark counter” is executed by microcontroller 33 to count the number of times the dog is subjected to an aversive stimulus episode in response to detection of a “valid barking episode” while bark limiter 1 is mounted on the dog. The contents of the bark counter is determined by the trainer or dog owner when the collar is removed and turned off. This allows the trainer or owner to determine if a particular one of a group of dogs of dogs is a “problem barker”, and also allows the trainer or owner to recognize how effectively the bark limiter 1 is training a particular dog. For example, numerous valid barks being counted early in the use of bark limiter 1, followed by fewer valid barks as the dog is training progresses, indicates effective operation of bark limiter 1. The valid bark count also can provide information that is useful to the user in selecting the most effective setting of electrical stimulus intensity.
Referring to
The program then goes to decision block 57 and determines if the number of stimulus pulses produced by microcontroller 33 is less than or equal to 160 (which corresponds to approximately half a second of electrical stimulation applied between probes 5B and 5C), and if that determination is affirmative, the program goes back to the entry point of block 52 and continues to repeat the foregoing sequence until a negative decision is made in block 57. The program then increments the software bark counter, as indicated in block 57A, and then goes to block 58 and then, as indicated in block 58, starts a 4 second panic guard routine to prevent “panic barking” that can be caused by the electrical stimulus experienced by the dog, and then the program causes microcontroller 33 to go into its sleep mode, as indicated in block 59.
Referring again to
If the determination of decision block 71 is negative, the program goes to decision block 72 and determines if switch 17 is depressed. If switch 17 is not depressed, the program causes microcontroller 33 to go into its sleep mode. If decision block 72 determines that switch 17 is depressed, the program responds in block 74 by determining and storing the new desired stimulus level established by repetitive depressing of switch 17. Specifically, in block 74 the program determines if switch 17 is depressed for more than 1 second, and if this is the case, increments the stimulation level setting from the present level setting (1-5) to the next level setting and saves the new stimulus level setting.
The routine performed in decision block 76 of
The program then goes to block 193 and switches the internal oscillator clock frequency of microcontroller 33 back to 37 kHz to provide low power ON mode operation. The program then returns to the entry point of decision block 76 of
While the invention has been described with reference to several particular embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art will be able to make the various modifications to the described embodiments of the invention without departing from its true spirit and scope. It is intended that all elements or steps which are insubstantially different from those recited in the claims but perform substantially the same functions, respectively, in substantially the same way to achieve the same result as what is claimed are within the scope of the invention.
