Patent Application
20220312729
This invention relates to lost pets. More particularly, it relates to a device for locating lost pets.
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence and relatable personalities, but some pets may be taken in on an altruistic basis (such as a stray animal) and accepted by the owner regardless of these characteristics. Two of the most popular pets are dogs and cats; the technical term fora cat lover is an ailurophile and a dog lover a cynophile.
Pets provide their owners (or “guardians”) both physical and emotional benefits. Walking a dog can provide both the human and the dog with exercise, fresh air and social interaction. Pets can give companionship to people who are living alone or elderly adults who do not have adequate social interaction with other people. There is a medically approved class of therapy animals, mostly dogs or cats, that are brought to visit confined humans, such as children in hospitals or elders in nursing homes. Pet therapy utilizes trained animals and handlers to achieve specific physical, social, cognitive or emotional goals with patients.
People most commonly get pets for companionship, to protect a home or property or because of the perceived beauty or attractiveness of the animals. A 1994 Canadian study found that the most common reasons for not owning a pet were lack of ability to care for the pet when traveling (34.6%), lack of time (28.6%) and lack of suitable housing (28.3%), with dislike of pets being less common (19.6%). Some scholars, ethicists and animal rights organizations have raised concerns over keeping pets because of the lack of autonomy and the objectification of non-human animals.
Pets are descendants of wild animals of their species. At times, an owner or caretaker of the pet will allow the pet to roam in the outdoors to use the restroom, feel freedom as their ancestors had, etc. Although this is well-intentioned, pets sometimes escape for leashes or can find their way around, under or through fences. At other times, the pets may be stolen as some pets are monetarily valuable. There is currently no good way to track a pet other than insertion of a Global Positioning System device under the skin of the pet, which is costly and is seldom removed from the pet even after the battery has expired or the device is no longer in working order. The loss of a pet can be devastating on a person and/or family. The pets have become a family member taking their position along with the parents and children of the household,
Accordingly, and in light of the foregoing, there is a desire for a device that can be inserted into the skin of an animal and can register with a device for tracking of an owner. There is also a desire for the device to have a Global Positioning System (GPS) device and a wireless connectivity to an app on a smartphone, computer and the like.
The phrases “in one embodiment,” “in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. Such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. Such terms do not generally signify a closed list.
“Above,” “adhesive,” “affixing,” “any,” “around,” “both,” “bottom,” “by,” “comprising,” “consistent,” “customized,” “enclosing,” “friction,” “in,” “labeled,” “lower,” “magnetic,” “marked,” “new,” “nominal,” “not,” “of,” “other,” “outside,” “outwardly,” “particular,” “permanently,” “preventing,” “raised,” “respectively,” “reversibly,” “round,” “square,” “substantial,” “supporting,” “surrounded,” “surrounding,” “threaded,” “to,” “top,” “using,” “wherein,” “with,” or other such descriptors herein are used in their normal yes-or-no sense, not as terms of degree, unless context dictates otherwise.
Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. While embodiments are described in connection with the drawings and related descriptions, there is no intent to limit the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents. In alternate embodiments, additional devices, or combinations of illustrated devices, may be added to, or combined, without limiting the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein.
Referring to
Although the pet location devices 100, 200 are different embodiments, similarities will be described for both the pet location devices 100, 200. The first pet location device 100 is preferably a semi-circular shape, however other shapes are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, star, rectangular, square, oval, etc. The second pet location device 200 is preferably a circular shape, however other shapes are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, semi-circular, star, rectangular, square, oval, etc.
Each of the pet location devices 100, 200 have a gem 110, 210 and a connector 150, 250. The gem 110, 210 will be described in
The bottom 152, 252 of the connectors 150, 250 is preferably point shaped, however, other shapes are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, flat, hexagonal, square, etc. The connectors 150, 250 preferably made of a titanium material, however other types of material are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, plastic, aluminum, steel, etc. In
Moving now to
In
The first and second gem 110, 210 are preferably made of a shatterproof glass material, however other types of material is hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, glass, plastic, etc.
A solar panel 115, 215 is coupled to the top 114, 214. The solar panel 115, 215 for capturing the energy produced by the sun and is coupled to a battery 116, 216 to store the converted energy.
A GPS chip 118, 218 is coupled to the inside 113, 213 of the gem 110, 210. The GPS chip 118, 218 communicates with satellites to receive GPS coordinate information. The GPS chip 118, 218 is electrically coupled to the battery 116, 216.
A wireless communications chip 119, 219 is electrically coupled to the battery 116, 216. The wireless communications chip 119, 219 is communicatively coupled to external devices by a signaling protocol 300, see
A computing device 120, 220 is coupled to the inside 113, 213 of the gem 110, 210. The computing device 120, 220 is electrically coupled to the battery 116, 216. Further, the computing device 120, 220 is communicatively coupled to the GPS chip 118, 218 and receives GPS coordinate information via the GPS chip 118, 218. The computing device 120, 220 is communicatively coupled to the wireless communications chip 119, 219. The computing device 120, 220 receives incoming messaging received at the wireless communication chip 119, 219 via wireless signaling protocol 300. The computing device 120, 220 further sends commands and information to the wireless communications chip 119, 219 to be sent via wireless signaling 300 to other devices.
A memory device 121, 221 coupled to the inside 113, 213 of the gem 110, 210. The memory device 121, 221 being electrically coupled to the battery 116, 216 and communicatively coupled to the computing device 120, 220 for storing data and retrieving of stored data.
The incoming messages received by the computing device 120, 220 may include commands from an exterior device such as the smart phone 900 shown in
Furthermore, the computing device 120, 220 receives the GPS coordinate information from the GPS chip 118, 218 and calculates the location of the pet, such as the dog 800 shown in
Referring now to
Each of a first and a second antennae 400, 500 have a connector 410, 510 and a surface 450, 550. The surface 450,550 is substantially concave, so as to create a larger area for receiving wireless signaling 300 of
A top 411, 511 of the connector 410, 510 is securely coupled to a bottom 451, 551 of the surface 450, 550. The bottom 412, 512 of the connector 410, 510 has a first end 413, 513, a second end 414, 514 and a middle stake 415, 515. The middle stake 415, 515 is inserted into an ear 801 of a pet 800 (shown in
In
A pet 800 is preferably a dog, however, other types of pets are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, cats, cows, rabbits, etc. Although, this application is directed towards pets, it is hereby contemplated that it can be used on others such as the handicapped or elderly. Instead of the connector 150, 250 of the pet location device 100, 200, the connector may be an earring connector, or other typical type of connectors to a person.
In
In the numbered clauses below, specific combinations of aspects and embodiments are articulated in a shorthand form such that (1) according to respective embodiments, for each instance in which a “component” or other such identifiers appear to be introduced (with “a” or “an,” e.g.) more than once in a given chain of clauses, such designations may either identify the same entity or distinct entities; and (2) what might be called “dependent” clauses below may or may not incorporate, in respective embodiments, the features of “independent” clauses to which they refer or other features described above.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specific exemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies are representative of more general processes and/or devices and/or technologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filed herewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.
The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features of other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
