LIVESTOCK HEART RATE MONITORING
According to embodiments, a computer method for monitoring livestock heart rate processes received (optionally hyperspectral) video images to measure a feature on the livestock subject to periodic flushing correlated to heartbeat period. The method applies image processing including identifying a location of the feature, applying pixel amplification to increase periodic light scattering or emission variations, and calculating a heart rate corresponding to a detected period of the flushing.
1 . A computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock, comprising:
receiving a video stream including one or more livestock;
determining, from the video stream, a digital identity of a livestock individual;
finding, in frames of the video stream, a feature of the livestock individual that exhibits heart rate-correlated periodic flushing;
performing pixel amplification at the feature to amplify the periodic flushing;
calculating a heart rate of the livestock individual from a sequence of the amplified periodic flushing; and
outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual on a physical device.
2 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 ,
wherein receiving a video stream including one or more livestock in a pen includes tracking livestock as they mill about.
3 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying a labeled image of the livestock on an electronic display.
4 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein receiving a video stream including the one or more livestock in the pen includes receiving a video stream from a hyperspectral digital image capture device.
5 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual includes physically outputting information corresponding to the heart rate of the livestock individual.
6 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual includes displaying, on an electronic display, a notice that the individual livestock has a heart rate that meets a threshold heart rate indicative of physical distress.
7 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual on an electronic display includes displaying an image, on an electronic display, of the individual livestock exhibiting the heart rate that meets a threshold heart rate indicative of physical distress.
8 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual includes displaying, on an electronic display, an image of the one or more livestock as they mill about with the imaged of the individual livestock exhibiting a heart rate highlighted.
9 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein outputting information about the heart rate of the livestock individual on an electronic display includes outputting a message on a personal electronic device.
10 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the calculated heart rate in a computer readable non-transitory memory including previously calculated heart rates of the livestock individual.
11 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein comparing the calculated heart rate of the livestock individual to a heart rate threshold includes:
comparing the calculated heart rate of the livestock individual to one or more previously calculated heart rates of the livestock individual; and
determining if the calculated heart rate is different than the previously calculated heart rates; and
wherein physically outputting the information corresponding to the heart rate of the first livestock individual.
12 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein finding the feature that periodically flushes with heartbeat includes finding a snout of the livestock individual.
13 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein performing pixel amplification at the feature to amplify the periodic flushing is performed using a Laplacian Pyramid.
14 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 13 , wherein using the Laplacian Pyramid includes:
creating negatives of each image at various resolutions; and
performing image addition with the original image on a frame-to-frame basis.
15 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein performing pixel amplification at the feature to magnify periodic flushing further comprises:
removing high frequency noise from an image addition frame sequence using a maximally flat magnitude filter within a passband corresponding to a livestock heart rate range.
16 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein performing pixel amplification includes performing a Laplacian Pyramid and applying a Butterworth filter to form a video stream having a higher sensitivity to flushing than not performing pixel amplification.
17 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein calculating the heart rate includes performing image analysis on one or more pixel-amplified video frame sequences.
18 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 1 , wherein determining heart rate includes:
obtaining at least three video clips of pixel-amplified intervals; and
applying a filter to ensure the calculated heart rate is representative of an actual heart rate of the livestock individual.
19 . The computer method for measuring heart rate in livestock of claim 18 , wherein applying the filter to ensure the calculated heart rate is representative of an actual heart rate of the livestock individual includes applying a voting algorithm or performing heart rate averaging.