Abstract:
A tamper-proof electronic animal identification tag comprising and antenna card carrying an antenna and a stud carrying a data transmission chip is disclosed. The stud is unidirectionally flexible, and can only be inserted into the antenna card one time and in one direction. Insertion of the stud into the antenna card creates an electrical contact between the data transmission chip and the antenna, extending the communicative range of the data transmission chip.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    The present invention relates animal identification tags. More specifically, the present invention relates to electronic animal identification tags that are resistant to tampering.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    The ability of a rancher to identify an individual animal within his herd has always been important. The ear tag has long been the preferred device for identifying individual animals.  
           [0003]    Conventional ear tags are usually plastic, with an alphanumeric number stamped or printed on the tag in a conspicuous manner. The tags are typically attached to the ear of each animal by clipping or otherwise permanently securing the tag so that it remains attached to the animal during its life. Animal movement, health, weight, and other characteristics are thereby tracked by the number associated with the animal via the ear tag.  
           [0004]    As worldwide concerns regarding food safety and the proper administration of medicines to food animals have grown, so has the technology to verify the health and medical histories of individual animals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,494, to Hogan is directed to an animal syringe which automatically places a mark of ink on an animal proximal to the location of an injection. This invention prevents accidental over-vaccination of animals and makes it easier to verify that (a) the animals have received the necessary injections, and (b) the injections were given in the proper part of the anatomy.  
           [0005]    A significant expansion of the marking syringe technology is currently commercially available as the Vac-Trac Verification System (“VTVS”), marketed by AgEcom, Inc., of Marietta, Ga. The VTVS (pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/477,262) teaches a marking syringe having the ability to—upon actuation—automatically read and record the identity of the animal receiving the injection. The VTVS utilized a receiver to read the unique signal transmitted by a transmitter incorporated into the ear tag on the injected animal. The identity of the animal and the occurrence of the injection are then transferred to a computerized database for review, analysis and verification purposes, among others.  
           [0006]    Despite these quantum advances in tools for verifying important information relating to the production of food animals, an unscrupulous rancher may still find ways to circumvent these systems and detrimentally effect the integrity of the data and the wholesomeness of the animals. One such avenue of potential circumvention relates to re-use or misuse of the electronic ear tag. If a rancher can remove an ear tag and attach it to another animal, the validity of the data is compromised.  
           [0007]    Accordingly, there is a need for an animal identification tag (“AIT”) that is resistant to misuse.  
           [0008]    There is a further need for an AIT that will, upon an attempt at misuse, have more than one failure aspect to prevent successful misuse.  
           [0009]    There is yet another need for an AIT possessing the above-desired characteristics that demonstrates improved performance in the transmission of animal identification data.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    These and other shortcomings relating to electronic animal identification are satisfied by the present invention. The present invention is a tamper-proof electronic animal identification tag comprising and antenna card carrying an antenna and a stud carrying a data transmission chip.  
           [0011]    The antenna card defines an opening therethrough have at least one antenna contact connected to the antenna. The stud has a stud body, a stud head, and a stud shaft. The stud body carries a data transmission chip electrically connected to antenna contact points.  
           [0012]    Importantly, the stud head is unidirectionally flexible to allow a single insertion of the stud head through the opening in the antenna card. The single insertion of the stud aligns and electrically connects the antenna to the data transmission chip and prevents the stud head from being removed from the antenna card.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of the antenna card portion of the present invention.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 depicts a cut-away view of the internal configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the antenna card depicted in FIG. 1.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3 a  depicts a side view of the antenna card of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 b  depicts a cut-away side view of the antenna card of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 a  depicts the stud of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 b  depicts an end view of the stud of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention depicted in FIG. 4 a.    
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 5 depicts a representative partial insertion of the stud into the opening of the antenna card, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 6 depicts a full insertion of the stud through the opening of the antenna card, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS  
       [0021]    [0021]FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of the antenna card portion of the animal identification tag. The antenna card  100  is, generally, a planar portion  120  and an antenna card tab  130 , the antenna card tab defining through its thickness an opening  140 .  
         [0022]    The antenna card  100  is ideally formed of any one of a wide variety of corrosion-resistant plastics. Materials from the plastics family are especially well suited for this application because of their light weight, low cost of production, and the ability to house certain items within the plastic device, such as will be later described with reference to FIG. 2. Importantly, a plastic antenna card is particularly amenable to being formed in any one of a wide variety of different colors, as may be used to identify different groups of animals to which they may be attached. For example, it may be advantageous to use blue antenna cards for male animals and pink antenna cards to identify female animals. Furthermore, an identification number can be easily stamped onto or printed on the planar portion  120  of the antenna card  100 , allowing manual visual identification of the animal.  
         [0023]    In an optional embodiment of the present invention, a solar panel may be attached or otherwise incorporated onto the planar surface  120 , providing a power source for the processor, which will be later-described.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 is a cut-away view of the antenna card  100 . This cut-away view exposes the antenna internal to the antenna card  100 . In the depicted embodiment, a 2-pole antenna is shown. The first antenna pole  210  and the second antenna pole  220  are arranged in a manner so as to provide optimal transmission and signal receiving capability. In the depicted embodiment, the antenna poles  210  and  220  are coiled, though it is well understood to those skilled in the art of antenna design that the antenna can be arranged in any variety of ways to facilitate transmission results. Similarly, it will be understood and appreciated that the antenna may exist, in an alternate embodiment, without the antenna card  100 .  
         [0025]    Each of the antenna poles  210  and  220  are encased within the thickness of the planar portion  120  of the antenna card  100 , with the exception of a single antenna contact for each pole. The first antenna pole  210  is connected to a first antenna contact  230  and the second antenna pole  220  is connected to the second antenna contact  240 . In a preferred embodiment, the antenna contacts  230  and  240  are electrically conductive rings positioned around the inner periphery of the opening  140  defined by the antenna card tab  130 . The antenna contacts  230  and  240  are affixed to the antenna card tab  130  in a secure manner. In an optional embodiment of the present invention, the antenna contacts  230  and  240  may not provide exposed electrical contact about the entire periphery of the opening  140 , but may only be exposed at a portion of the periphery.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 3 a  depicts a side profile view of the antenna card  100 . The antenna card  100  comprises a planar portion  120  and an integrally formed antenna card tab  130 . In the depicted embodiment, the antenna card tab  130  is substantially thicker than the planar portion  120  so that it can accommodate the stud (not shown) and the first antenna contact  230  and second antenna contact  240 . The first antenna contact  230  is located, as previously described, within the opening  140 , and is electrically connected to the first antenna pole  210 . The second antenna contact  230  is also positioned within the opening  140 , and is similarly electrically connected to the second antenna pole  220 .  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 3 b  shows a cut-away view of the antenna card tab  130 , illustrating the first antenna contact  230  and the second antenna contact  240  within the opening  140 .  
         [0028]    Turning now to FIG. 4 a,  a representative preferred embodiment of the stud  400  of the animal identification tag is depicted. The stud  400  comprises, generally, a stud body  410 , stud shaft  430  and a stud head  450 . The physical composition of the stud  400  is the same as the antenna card  100 , for the same reasons of weight, ease of production and durability.  
         [0029]    In the preferred embodiment, the stud  400  carries a data transmission chip  415 . The functionality of the data transmission chip  415  can vary widely, but in the preferred embodiment, it is functional to store a unique code which identifies an individual animal, and to transmit that unique code either continuously or upon excitation by an external stimulus. The data transmission chip may be powered by a power source  420  such as a battery. The power source  420  is connected to the data transmission chip  415  by a power lead  425 . Alternately, power for the chip  415  may be provided by an external source, such as solar power, with the solar panels being affixed in a well known manner to the antenna card  100 . Furthermore, the data transmission chip  415  may be a passive device that receives energy from an externally transmitted signal received by the antenna poles within the antenna card  100 , and transmits a responsive signal with energy derived from the received signal.  
         [0030]    Importantly, a first linear antenna lead  426  and a second linear antenna lead  428  are electrically connected to the data transmission chip  415 . The linear antenna leads  426  and  428  pass from the data transmission chip  415  through the stud body  410  and into the stud shaft  430  where they are electrically connected to a first antenna contact point  436  and a second antenna contact point  438 , respectively. The antenna contact points  436  and  438  are a critical aspect of the present invention in that they provide the electrical link between the stud  400  having the data transmission chip  415  and the antenna card  100  having the antenna poles  210  and  220 . Accordingly, the antenna contact points  436  and  438  are sized so that, upon insertion of the stud  400  into the opening  140  of the antenna card tab  130 , each antenna contact point will make sufficient contact with its respective antenna contact  230  and  240  to allow the transmission of electrical signals between the antenna poles  210  and  220  and the data transmission chip  415 . Additionally, the antenna contact points  436  and  438  should consist or be coated with any of a variety of materials well known to those skilled in the art of electrical conductors to be both highly conductive and corrosion resistant.  
         [0031]    The stud head  450  includes functionality important to the tamper-proof aspect of the present invention. Namely, the stud head  450  includes catch wings  460 . The catch wings may take any of a wide variety of shapes or configurations, but they function to allow the stud head  450  to pass unidirectionally into and through an opening such as opening  140  and the, once it has passed unidirectionally through the opening, the catch wings prevent the stud head  450  from passing back through the opening in the opposite direction.  
         [0032]    In the depicted embodiment, the catch wings  460  are initially biased in an expanded position. Those skilled in the art of mechanical catches and latches are well familiar with biasing techniques for such catches. One such suitable biasing technique is to fixably position a spring between an individual catch wing  460  and the interior of the stud head  450  so that the desired biasing effect is accomplished. In any event, the initial state of the stud head  450  finds the catch wings  460  biased in a open position.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 4 b  is an end view of the stud  400  depicting an animal identification number corresponding to the animal identification number marked on the antenna card  100  and earlier discussed with regard to FIG. 1. These corresponding animal identification numbers on the two pieces of the animal identification tag provide a means to manually verify that the antenna card  100  and the stud  400  are used as intended.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 5 indicates the stud  400  being inserted into the opening  140  within the antenna card tab  130  of the antenna card  100 . As the stud head  450  of the stud  400  is inserted in the direction indicated by directional arrow  500  relative to the antenna card  100 , the distance between opposing points on the catch wings  460  exceeds the diameter of the opening  140 . Continued force in direction  500  urges catch wings into wing recesses  465  (see FIG. 4). As pressure in direction  500  continues, catch wings  460  recede substantially entirely into wing recesses  465  and the shaft head  450  passes through the opening  140 .  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 6 depicts the state of the stud head  450  and the catch wings  460  after the stud head  450  has passed completely through the opening  140 . As the catch wing tips  462  clear the opening  140 , and the closure force exerted upon them by the inner periphery of the opening  140  ceases, the catch wings  460  are returned to their expanded position, as illustrated in FIG. 4 a.  Once expanded, the catch wings  462 —and in particular the catch wing tips  462 —make contact with the antenna card tab  130 , preventing the stud head  450  from returning back through the opening in a direction opposite direction  500 .  
         [0036]    Also illustrated in FIG. 6 is the electrical connection between first antenna contact  230  and first antenna contact point  436 , as well as the electrical connection between second antenna contact  240  and second antenna contact point  438 . The respective antenna contacts  230  and  240  are positioned such that complete insertion of the stud  400  into the antenna card  100  is required for electrical contact with their respective antenna contact points  436  and  438 .