Method of reading arbitrary symbols

1. A method of computing an animal identifier, for an animal comprising an arbitrary mark, comprising the steps:

(a) initializing a symbol library;

(aa) reading the mark, deriving a shape from the read mark, associating the shape with a symbol, and adding the symbol and the shape to the symbol library;

(aaa) repeating step (aa) for additional marks, each with a different shape, each additional mark associated with a different symbol, wherein all the different symbols and shapes are in the symbol library;

(aaaa) associating the animal identifier with the animal on whose mark is read in step (aa);

(b) using a predetermined symbol from the symbol library, assigning the associated shape to a current shape and to a prior shape;

(c) reading the mark on the animal, and deriving the now current shape from the read mark;

(d) comparing the current shape to the shapes in the symbol library;

(e) selecting the symbol responsive to the comparing;

(f) computing the animal identifier responsive to the symbol;

(g) updating the prior shape in the symbol library to now equal the current shape;

(h) repeating from step (c) until the mark is no longer available for reading.

2. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the additional marks are arbitrary marks, wherein the additional marks are distinct from each other and from the first arbitrary mark.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional steps:

(b′) assigning a known location on the animal to a prior location and to a current location;

(c′) updating the current location from the reading the mark on the animal;

(e′) updating the prior location responsive to the current location;

wherein steps (b′), (c′) and (e′) occur after steps (b), (c) and (e) respectively.

4. The method of claim 1 :

(a′) initializing a history of shapes;

wherein the comparing is additional responsive to the history of shapes;

wherein the updating step comprises updating the history of shapes responsive to an averaging of the current shape with a subset of shapes in the history of shapes;

wherein step (a′) occurs prior to step (c).

5. The method of claim 4 comprising the additional step:

(g″) re-updating the history of shapes to remove recent shapes responsive to the comparing;

wherein step (g″), occurs after step (g).

6. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional step:

(g′″) warning responsive to the comparing;

wherein step (g′″), occurs after step (g).

7. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the animal comprises multiple marks and the multiple marks are non-continuous.

8. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the animal comprises multiple marks and the multiple marks are continuous.

9. The method of claim 8 :

wherein the animal comprises multiple marks and multiple marks form a vine code with a spine.

10. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the animal is a rodent and the mark is tattooed on the rodent tail.

11. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the reading comprises an averaging of multiple sequential video frames.

12. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the comparing comprises computing a hamming distance in a multi-dimensional space.

13. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the comparing comprises outputting a distribution table comprising a probability for each shape in the symbol library.

14. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional step:

(a″) selecting a selection set comprising symbols;

wherein the selecting selects a symbol from the selection set.

15. The method of claim 1 :

wherein the symbol library in step (a) initially comprises a subset of a font and associated shapes.

16. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional steps:

(i) updating the symbol library responsive to separate reading, comparing, selecting and validating steps on a different animal for the same symbol selected in step (e);

wherein step (i) is performed before or after step (h).

17. A method of computing an animal identifier, for an animal comprising an arbitrary mark, comprising the steps:

(a) initializing a symbol library;

(aa) reading the mark, deriving a shape from the read mark, associating the shape with a symbol, and adding the symbol and the shape to the symbol library;

(aaa) repeating step (aa) for additional marks, each with a different shape, each additional mark associated with a different symbol, wherein all the different symbols and shapes are in the symbol library;

(aaaa) associating the animal identifier with the animal on whose mark is read in step (aa);

(a′″) selecting a selection set comprising symbol groups;

(b) using a predetermined symbol from the symbol library, assigning the associated shape to a current shape and to a prior shape;

(c) reading the mark on the animal, and deriving the now current shape from the read mark;

(d) comparing the current shape to the shapes in the symbol library;

(d′) repeating steps (c) through (d) for additional marks on the animal;

(e) selecting a symbol group from the selection set, responsive to the comparing in multiple steps (d);

(f) computing the animal identifier responsive to the symbol group;

(g) updating the symbol library responsive to the multiple current shapes from multiple steps (c), subject to validating;

(h) repeating from step (c) until the mark is no longer available for reading.

18. An apparatus using the method of claim 1 to identify the animal in a cage comprising an additional animal.

19. A vivarium comprising multiple apparatuses of claim 18 for multiple cages in the vivarium.