US 11,980,170 B2
System for external fish parasite monitoring in aquaculture
Russel Howe, Glendale, CA (US); Zachary Lizer, Burbank, CA (US); James Wallace Sarrett, Sunland, CA (US); Peter Jon Abrahamson, Burbank, CA (US); and Jascha Tucker Little, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to INTERVET INC., Rahway, NJ (US)
Appl. No. 16/769,325
Filed by Intervet Inc., Madison, NJ (US)
PCT Filed Dec. 19, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/085800
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 3, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/121887, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 27, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/608,418, filed on Dec. 20, 2017.
Claims priority of application No. 18154093 (EP), filed on Jan. 30, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2020/0288680 A1, Sep. 17, 2020
Int. Cl. A01K 61/13 (2017.01); G05B 15/02 (2006.01); G06T 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC A01K 61/13 (2017.01) [G05B 15/02 (2013.01); G06T 1/00 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for external fish parasite monitoring in aquaculture, the system comprising:
a camera (52) suitable to be submerged in a sea pen (40) suitable for containing fish (72, 74), the camera being arranged for capturing images of the fish;
and an electronic image processing system (78) configured for identifying external fish parasite on the fish by analyzing the captured images;
characterized in that the electronic image processing system (78) comprises a fish detector (84) configured to recognize a silhouette of a fish in the captured image, and an external fish parasite detector (86) configured to detect external fish parasite within the silhouette of the fish (72) and to detect the anatomical region (94-100) within the silhouette of the fish (72) where the parasite is located;
wherein the system tracks the number of external parasites detected;
wherein the external fish parasite detector provides separate detection statistics for different anatomical regions (94-100) within the fish silhouette and wherein the separate detection statistics for the different anatomical regions (94-100) are used to provide information for identifying the detected external parasite species, sex, and/or life stage.