Systems and methods of video monitoring for vivarium cages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016150758-A1
Application number	US-201414901130-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2014
Priority date	Jun 28, 2013
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The System for Continuous Observation of Rodents in Home-cage Environment (SCORHE) was developed to quantify activity levels and behavior patterns for mice housed within a home cage that, optional, may be disposed in a commercial ventilated cage rack. The SCORHE home-cage in-rack design provides daytime and night-time monitoring with the stability and consistency of the home-cage environment. The dual-video camera custom hardware design makes efficient use of space, does not require home-cage modification, and is animal facility user-friendly. In various embodiments, a software application integrates the two video streams to extract several mouse activity measures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for monitoring an animal in a home cage, the system comprising:
a home cage enclosure to enclose the home cage; where the home cage enclosure comprises:
a door hingedly engaged to at least one sidewall of the home cage enclosure;
a front camera engaged to a first lens and the front camera is further engaged to the door;
a rear camera engaged to a second lens and the rear camera engaged to a rear wall of the home cage enclosure, where the rear wall is engaged to the at least one sidewall and disposed opposite the door;
at least one near-infrared light source; and
a light diffuser.

2 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where the home cage enclosure further comprises:
another sidewall disposed generally parallel to the at least one sidewall; and a bottom surface engaged to the at least one sidewall, the other sidewall, and the rear wall.

3 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , wherein the light diffuser is positioned proximal to the at least one near-infrared light source, such that light emanating from the at least one near-infrared light source is diffused throughout the interior of the home cage enclosure.

4 . (canceled)

5 . (canceled)

6 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where at least one of the first camera and the second camera is configured to transmit data over a data network.

7 . (canceled)

8 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where at least one of the first camera and the second camera capture data from tag associated with the animal.

9 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where the home cage enclosure further comprises at least one power source to power the front camera and the rear camera.

10 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where the door of home cage enclosure further comprises at least one cut-out.

11 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 10 , where the at least one cut-out comprises a transparent material.

12 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , wherein when a home cage is disposed within the home cage enclosure the front camera is proximal to a front wall of the home cage and the rear camera is proximal to a rear wall of the home cage.

13 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 11 , wherein the front camera and the rear camera are positioned near a top portion of the front wall and rear wall, respectively.

14 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , wherein the at least one near-infrared light source is disposed between a pair of parallel light diffusers and one or more light-blocking covers.

15 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 14 , wherein the at least one sidewall comprises the at least one near-infrared light source disposed between a pair of parallel light diffusers and one or more light-blocking covers.

16 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , wherein the at least one near-infrared light source comprises at least one of a high-flux light emitting diode (LED) strip or an LED array in communication with a printed circuit board.

17 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where at least one of the front camera and the rear camera further comprise a light blocking filter.

18 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 17 , where the light blocking filter blocks visible light.

19 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 1 , where the home cage is disposed in cage rack.

20 . The system for monitoring an animal in a home cage of claim 19 , wherein the home cage enclosure is compatible with existing structures of the cage rack.

21 . The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a computing device having at least one processor and memory;
a data storage system; and
the at least one processor to:
receive video data recorded by the front and rear cameras;
segment the video data to identify at least one object in the video data;
combine the video data from the front camera and the rear camera;
determine a first classification for a first position of the object at a first time;
determine a second classification for a second position of the object at a second time; and
generate behavioral data, wherein the behavioral data indicates a behavior of the object based on the first and second classification.

22 - 46 . (canceled)

47 . A method for monitoring an animal in a home cage, the method comprising:
disposing a home cage within a home cage enclosure comprising:
a door hingedly engaged to at least one sidewall of the home cage enclosure;
a front camera engaged to a first lens and the front camera is further engaged to the door;
a rear camera engaged to a second lens and the rear camera engaged to a rear wall of the home cage enclosure, where the rear wall is engaged to the at least one sidewall and disposed opposite the door;
at least one near-infrared light source; and
a light diffuser;
receiving video data from the front and rear cameras at a least one processor; segmenting the video data to identify at least one object in the video data at least one processor; combine the video data from the front camera and the rear camera with the at least one processor; determine a first classification for a first position of the object at a first time with the at least one processor; determine a second classification for a second position of the object at a second time with the at least one processor; and generate behavioral data, wherein the behavioral data indicates a behavior of the object based on the first and second classification with the at least one processor.

48 . A method for monitoring two or more animals in a home cage, the method comprising:
receiving video data from two or more cameras at a least one processing system; identifying an overlapping region of the home cage in the video data from each of the two or more cameras, wherein the overlapping region is a region of the home cage in the field of view of each of the two or more cameras; identifying a non-overlapping region of the home cage in the video data from each of the two or more cameras, wherein the non-overlapping region is a region of the home cage not in the field of view for at least one of the two or more cameras; determining if the at least one object is in the overlapping region; segmenting the video data to identify a plurality of objects in the video data from each of the two or more cameras; when a first object of the plurality of objects is in the overlapping region, identifying the first object as a same animal in the video data for each of the two or more cameras; when the first object of the plurality of objects is a first non-overlapping region and a second object of the plurality of objects is in a second non-overlapping region, identifying the first object and the second object as different animals; and counting a total number of objects in the video data; determining if an occlusion exists; when an occlusion exists, resolving the occlusion by:
searching for a corner point of a suspect object,
identifying significant inward dents in the suspect object blob contour;
passing a line through the corner point and parallel to a r

Assignees

• Us Health

Inventors

• Salem Ghadi
• Dennis John U
• Mitchell James B
• Pohida Thomas J

Classifications

• A01K29/005

  Monitoring or measuring activity · CPC title

• A01K1/031 Primary

  Cages for laboratory animals; Cages for measuring metabolism of animals · CPC title