Patent Application
20230146762
The present invention relates generally to the field of pet behavior modification using at least one electronic training collar in combination with at least one base to prevent the pet from entering the area around the base.
The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
Pet owners have many reasons to want their pets to stay out of various areas. Pets could eat another pet's food which could be medicated. With finicky pets, it might be difficult to know if the pet ate its own food or if another pet ate it instead. Dogs might try to eat a cat's food, and the owner might not want to feed the cat on a cabinet or table. Pets could be present at the table when people are eating. The prior art has many examples of ways to overcome this problem, but none as optimal as the current invention.
Electronic collars are well known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,664 (2000) to Lyerly. U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,310 (2012) to Smith. and U.S. Patent Application Publication U.S. 2014/0331942 to Sarazyn all disclose electronic collars but do not include a base or other means to delineate a protected area. U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,310 (2012) to Smith shows a second collar which causes the first collar to activate, so that, for example, a dog could wear the first collar and the cat could wear the second collar and the dog would receive a shock if it came within range of the cat. This patent is limited by the claims to use with cats and dogs.
An electronic collar has been paired with a smart phone in Patent Application Publication 2015/0075446 (2015) to Hu. In this invention, the pet is kept within range of the smartphone, but this again would not help with keeping a pet away from a defined area.
An electronic device has been disclosed that uses motion detection to keep a pet out of a protected area. U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,770 (2003) to Patterson et al. proposes using sound, heat, vibration, and motion detectors to determine that a pet is in a protected area and then produces a signal such as the owner's voice, other tones, or bursts of light to scare the pet away. This has the disadvantage that it scares or startles the pet so that it could not eat. This device also does not use a collar and thus there is no way to distinguish which pet is in the protected area.
International Publication Number WO 2011/032055 (2011) to Hardi et al., shows a base station and pet tags or electronic collars. Hardi et al., shows a remote controller that delivers audible pet training instructions but does not include any shock or other deterrent measures. This would not solve the problem of one dog eating another dog's food.
Several types of automatic feeder mechanisms have been disclosed in the prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,592 (2003) to Maddox et al., U.S. Pat. No. 9,125,380 (2015) to Deutsch, U.S. Pat. No. 9,538,728 (2017) to Womble et al., U.S. Pat. No. 10,058,072 (2018) to Jin, and International Publication Number WO 2006/019488 (2006) to Kates. These may include a collar or not, but all have the limitation that the food would have to be put in a specialized automatic feeder. This would only work for dry food, not canned. All of these automatic feeders have the drawback that the food could become stuck in the mechanism and the pet would not get fed. Also these have the drawback that the pet would have to eat out of a specialized feeder and could not use its own bowl. This could be a drawback in particular for cats who sometimes need a bowl of a particular elevation and angle so that they don't vomit their food.
In a first embodiment of an electronic collar and base system the base has a power source, a microprocessor, and a transmitter. The electronic collar has a collar housing which contains a power source, a microprocessor, a receiver, a shock component, an audio alarm component, and a vibrational signal component.
In a second embodiment of an electronic collar and base system the base has a power source and a beacon transmitter. The electronic collar has a collar housing which contains a power source, a microprocessor, a beacon scanner, a shock component, an audio alarm component, and a vibrational signal component.
A third embodiment of an electronic collar and base system has a base that is shaped like a durable, hand washable mat.
A fourth embodiment of an electronic collar and base system has a plurality of collars paired with one base.
A fifth embodiment of an electronic collar and base system has one collar paired with a plurality of bases.
A sixth embodiment of an electronic collar and base system includes audible tone within the auditory range of the pet or vibration or both when a pet approaches the base and before a shock is administered.
Accordingly several advantages of one or more aspects are as follows: to provide a collar which in combination with a base uses a vibration, audio tone, or shock to keep a first pet from entering an area defined by the base and thus from eating a second pet's food which could be medicated or otherwise unsuitable for the first pet. Some pets could become hypoglycemic if they do not eat their own food and may be finicky, so it is important that an owner be able to put out the food for the day and know that another pet will not eat it. The base could be placed under a table to keep the pet from that defined area. The base could be put in a doorway to prevent pets from accessing a room, for example a baby's room where a cat might suffocate a baby or a dog might wake a baby. Two systems could be used together to ensure that two pets eat their own food. The base could be attached to a TV tray or trash can that pets might get into. This invention modifies the pet's behaviors without requiring human involvement and oversight. In the case of a cat and a dog pet, the cat could be fed on the floor without the dog eating the cat's food, so the owner would not have to feed the cat on a kitchen counter or other high surface where people eat. Other advantages of one or more aspects will be apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
As shown in
The first microprocessor is adapted to receive a first receiver signal from the receiver when the receiver receives the transmitter signal. Upon receipt of the first receiver signal, the microprocessor is configured to send an alert signal to the audio alarm component or the vibrational signal component to send an alert that is audible to the pet or a vibration that is felt by the pet, respectively for a length of time. The first microprocessor is further adapted to receive a second receiver signal from the receiver and to deliver an alert output command to the shocking component at an adjustable level or intensity for an adjustable length of time.
Although there has been shown and described the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made thereto which do not exceed the scope of the appended claims. Therefore, the scope of the invention is only to be limited by the following claims.
