Patent Publication Number: US-2019183097-A1

Title: Monitoring and Identifying Laboratory Animals through UWB and Other Digital Sensory Signatures

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application 62/378,522, filed Aug. 23, 2016, whose contents are expressly incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     One or more aspects of the disclosure relate to the monitoring of animals in a live animal research setting using various sensors including ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in various fashions including the ability to identify cage occupants through their unique digital sensory signatures. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Animal monitoring of vital signs in various settings, whether it be in pre-operation, surgical, post-operation recovery, home, clinical, or a laboratory setting, all benefit from the use of monitoring techniques which do not require any physical intervention to obtain valid physiological readings. 
     The use of hands free automated monitoring systems is preferable to the animals being handled to take such readings as such a method does not disturb the animal, cause any harm, or increase anxiety levels. Automated monitoring techniques will also result in more accurate readings as identified in clinical research papers what has become known as the “white coat syndrome”. In terms of invasive RFID implants that may provide core temperature, glucose, and other physiology readings, these types of passive RFID techniques usually require a human-operated/hand-based reader to be present within 3 cm of the actual implant or that the animal has to be put into a separate monitoring container. Research papers show that animals consistently react negatively or positively to the close proximity of humans (even as far as varying based on the sex of the veterinary technician). As such, the monitoring of animals may be influenced by the very act of attempting to obtain the readings. This increase in an animal&#39;s anxiety levels or the hiding of pain levels will lead to the capturing of false readings. In a laboratory setting there is continued regulatory pressure to provide an environment that assists in meeting what has become known as the three “R&#39;s” principles of Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction as published by W. M. S. Russell and R. L. Burch. If done properly, the capturing of continuous and more reliable clinical information will allow for the development of more accurate animal computer models and therefore lead to a replacement of laboratory animals where computer models will now suffice. Refinement may be achieved if the automated monitoring environment enhances an animal&#39;s well-being and minimizes or eliminates unnecessary pain or distress. Reduction may be achieved if the amount of information gathered may be maximized from a given number of animals so that in the long run, fewer animals are needed to acquire the same scientific information. 
     Although the use of RFID implants helps in addressing some of the negative aspects of animal handling and their effect on clinical data accuracy, as described above, it is expensive and inconvenient to have technicians approach the animals with RFID wands or place them in temporary RFID reading enclosures. 
     Rodentia, in a live animal research sitting, may also be placed in temporary enclosures to measure their physiology by measuring the animal&#39;s electrical currents as detected through their feet or skin, using a pressure cuff around the tail area, or using photoplethysmography (PPG) on a limb or at the base of the tail. In all cases, the animals have to be physically moved from their base cage to a special temporary cage/container with metal electrodes on the bottom, or put into special animal restraint holders that use various technologies to take readings from their tail, feet, or thigh with a clamp. After taking such readings taken in this fashion, the animals have to be returned to their home cage and the monitoring equipment disinfected for the next batch of test subjects. The above mentioned work flow is both cost prohibitive from a labor and a capital standpoint. Due to these factors laboratories have a difficult time meeting the standards as outlined in the “R&#39;s” as the monitoring solutions cannot be economically propagated across the entire laboratory setting. 
     SUMMARY 
     To address the above issues, the deployment of miniaturized electronic devices is disclosed such that they may be attached to or placed in existing rodentia cages that are in use today in laboratories by various methods and left unattended for continuous monitoring. Technologies employed would include, but not limited to, UWB, mm-wave, IR, ultrasonic, capacitive sensing, RFID, bio-impedance, micro electromagnetic fields (EMF), piezo, passive miniature wireless pressure sensors, positron emission tomography (PET), moisture sensors, and urine and bio-marker analysis sensors, etc. Such a system is designed to be deployed at fraction of the cost of the current solutions in the marketplace to allow for scalability to the entire laboratory population without the associated labor overhead per animal. 
     In one embodiment, a small self-contained paddle is attached under each water delivery system in the cage. Inside of the paddle is a matched pair of ceramic UWB antennas, a control PCB incorporating a microcontroller, memory, and additional sensors such as a 6-axis accelerometer and one or more radios such as LoRA, WiFi and Bluetooth. In other embodiments, only the UWB antenna, accelerometer, and temperature sensors are located in the paddle and the control electronics are located in a central electronics enclosure located at the top of the cage (or bottom of the cage on a side or even on the back of the cage) with a much larger support battery. Such a central control electronics enclosure would also be able to service multiple UWB paddles or like sensors located in the cage. In yet in another embodiment, the cage itself would be situated in a rack that would hold many cages. In this case, the paddles themselves would be connected through an armored cabled (or coax or optical cable) to a small electronic switch on top of the cage. The switch in turn would be networked to a harness that runs along the back of rack across each row of cages. These connections would in turn be connected to a central rack hub on top of the rack itself. This central rack hub would provide power to each of the paddles through the cage top switches, as well as interact with the paddles on a two-way basis to send instructions to the paddles as well as gather the monitoring data. The central rack hub may also monitor, through on-board sensors, various ambient conditions such rack humidity, temperature, light, and rack resonant frequency etc. 
     Whether UWB or other technologies as described above are employed in the rack, which may include dozens of other cages and multiple racks of cages, there is the chance of signal leakage, interference, or conflict with regulatory bodies such as FCC on radio emissions levels. This is further compounded by the fact that there may also be several data transmission radios on board associated with each sensor pod as well. To address these issues, there are several mitigation strategies available which include on-board algorithms to monitor and schedule physiological signal acquisition and data transmission per unit, rack location (i.e., where a given cage is located in a rack of cages)-based algorithms to manage all the cages in a specific rack and room-based algorithms that are controlled by the central server-based analytical system (including but not limited to selectively activating the sensors in one or more cages to determine which sensors of which cages interfere with each other and then schedule—or operate—such that they signals from the cages do not interfere with each other). Techniques could include dithering so that sensors do not fire all at the same time, frequency hopping of transmission channels, and adjustments to the transmission power of the radios. In the case of UWB-based sensors, each individual sensor transmission may include an electronic serial number of the specific sensor transmitting so that even if there was leakage into another receiving sensor&#39;s circuitry, the received signal would be ignored. In the case of individual self-contained paddles, which are not centrally controlled, radio transmission mitigation strategies may include using various techniques as described above except some of them would be administered by the technician directly or by on-board algorithms in their mobile tablet device as the technician is adding, removing, initializing, or decommissioning cage-based sensors. The self-contained paddles would also have sensors on-board to monitor the environment that they are operating in to cease certain types of transmissions if they detect a potential conflicting signal and to schedule and prioritize data transmissions based on radio “quiet” times or based on the importance of the data they are holding. 
     The paddle is attached to the cage through attachment methods that will fit the various cage manufacture&#39;s designs and water delivery systems whether it be plastic, wire or a combination of the two. Such attachment strategies could include using a type of strong elastic bands similar to what is used in human dental appliances, using vice or compression types of connectors or through the use of suction cups attached to the top, bottom or sides of the cage. 
     In one embodiment, to obtain vital sign readings, the rodent while drinking, leans against the paddle triggering the device to turn on. The UWB and other types of on-board sensors record a time stamped heart rate, respiration rate, relative blood pressure, and resonate frequency of the animal. Such readings may be obtained by detecting the micro movements of the heart muscles, blood vessels, and chest muscles. As a by-product of the UWB&#39;s sensing capability it would also provide an indication of a buildup of fluids in the animal&#39;s lungs and/or around its heart as well as a derived heart rate variability (HRV) indicator. 
     The captured data is then spot checked for reasonability and accuracy using on-board algorithms before being stored temporally in the main memory of the paddle device, stored in the top of the cage located control electronics enclosure or stored in central rack-based hub. Such data is then augmented with additional sensor data that may been collected from external sensors along the way such as various RFID implant readings, ambient temperature readings, ambient humidity readings, ambient light readings, and the ambient resonant frequency of the cage system. Paddle sensor activations may also be used to trigger external or internal video-based systems that may be used to monitor the animal&#39;s behavior and/or be used to help identify which animal triggered the sensor array monitoring system. The video system could be in the form a small camera with special filters and capabilities that is placed in the cage over the water delivery system and attached to the top of the cage electronics enclosure. Not only could this camera be used for animal identification by using advanced face recognition software or by reading the ear tag ID markings but it may also be used to measure pain or wellness levels using the image-based rodent grimace scale. Other techniques could include the monitoring of heart rate through image-based PPG technology looking at the minute color changes in the capillaries in the animals face and nose, looking at pre-cursors of diabetes by examining the retina of the animal using diabetic retinopathy and/or identifying the animal by looking at the unique retinal blood vessel pattern of the eyes or the unique resonant frequency pattern of the animal&#39;s whiskers. 
     The base paddle obtained data and augmented data is then transmitted to the local server or the cloud by Ethernet cable, WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, UWB, LoRA, or other types RF technologies. 
     Once the data is at site of the central analytical system it is first scrubbed for accuracy, then coefficients are applied and the fused data goes into the deep learning engine where it is matched against a validated pre-known set of parameters to determine which rodent to assign the acquired sensory data to all based on their unique digital sensory signature. In any case, if the readings are outside a set of preset normal values, an alarm will be triggered that may be communicated by various methods including email, text, flashing the monitor screen and/or flashing LED&#39;s at the cage paddle level and cage control unit level which may be picked up by authorized personnel. 
     In another embodiment the UWB technology is replaced or supplemented with other technologies such as ultrasound, mm-wave, bio-impedance, EFM, capacitive sensing, strain gauges, and RFID implants, etc. 
     In another embodiment, all of the technologies described above may be employed in combination with a common plastic or cardboard rodent retreat (this is where the animal goes for quiet time) usually placed on the floor of the cage. Such an employment of the various technologies may provide important animal physiological readings as well other cage-based measurements such as moisture (waste) levels, urine/waste analysis, biomarker analysis or the detection of water delivery system failures. Proximity sensors are used to detect the presence of a rodent in the rodent retreat and then various technologies as described above may be triggered to capture various physiological signs. Such readings may be transferred to data collection points at the cage, rack or room level using technology as described previously associated with the paddle-based sensor by wireless techniques or directly by armored cable. 
     In another embodiment, all of the electronics and sensors are located in a smart pad that fits either in the bottom of the cage underneath the bedding or fits underneath the cage situated between the bottom of the plastic cage and the rack that is holding the cage in place. If the pad is placed on the floor of the cage, like the rodent retreat as described above, the sensors on the underside of the smart pad have the opportunity to sense and analyze the fluids that collect below the pad including looking for biomarkers with various spectrum analysis or chemical reaction-based sensors. As the cage pad covers the entire surface of the bottom of the cage there is an opportunity to count the number of occupants in the cage and track their movement using the UWB technology as well as measuring heart rate, respiration and blood pressure for each individual animal. These movement artifacts may be valuable to the researcher or the veterinary technician to know when a rodent has had a litter or if one of the occupants has deceased as well as measuring activity and behavior. 
     The animals in question may have RFID implants in them, which among other things may include the ID of the animal. By placing RFID readers around the perimeter of the cage and at important cage locations such drinking, eating, resting, and elimination etc. various behavioral readings may be captured and eventually transmitted to the central analytical system. 
     To measure water consumption and food consumption, small passive RFID strain gauges or other technologies may be placed under where the water bottle sits against the cage and under a pressure plate that the food is loaded on. When the RFID strain gauge is excited by various radio sensors located in the cage, the resulting data would be transmitted and added to the central analytical server for reporting. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a rodent cage in a laboratory in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIGS. 2A-2C  show various paddles in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIGS. 3A-3C  show illustrative examples of rodents being sensed when drinking or feeding in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIGS. 4A-4B  show different configurations of paddles in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIGS. 5A-5D and 6  show various enclosures with one or more paddles in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIGS. 7 and 8A-8B  show alternative sensing systems in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 9  shows a sensor reading sequence in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 10  shows a process for determining which animals have been sensed by the sensors in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 11  shows an illustrative reporting system in accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  shows a rodent cage  100  in laboratory setting that includes two UWB paddles  101  attached to the cage below the water delivery system  102  (possibly including a spigot or tube as known in conventional water delivery systems). In this particular depiction, the paddles  101  have a complete makeup of a microcontroller, sensors, battery, radios and various antennas. Therefore, it may act independently on its own or communicate interactively by various RF techniques such as Wi-Fi  103 , cellular, UWB, LoRA, or other RF techniques  104 , and/or through Bluetooth to a nearby laboratory technician with a tablet or other type of mobile device  105 . Having the tablet close by while setting up the cage with the various occupants would be useful in obtaining confirmation of each rodent as they drink from the water delivery system for the 1st time. This event may be correlated with the obtained digital sensory data to provide a unique digital finger print of each animal back at central analytical system  107 . Such raw, augmented and processed data may then be accessed by knowledge workers  108  located either onsite  109  or remotely located to the central analytical system. 
       FIG. 2A  shows a detailed view of a paddle version that only includes the UWB antennas, the UWB control circuitry and other sensors such as a 6 axis accelerometer and activation sensors of various types. The UWB paddle  101  depicted here is free moving in that it is attached to the cage adapter bracket  110  by a pin  111  and is pushed against the paddle stopper  112  by the spring  113 . When the rodent leans up against the paddle  101  it pushes the paddle backwards while the rodent makes full body contact with the paddle. The presence of the animal may be detected by a mercury switch, the on-board accelerometer, or a proximity sensor to determine that a qualified event is taking place. The UWB sensor or other comparable technology is then triggered to capture various physiological readings. To indicate that a successful reading is taking place, the LED  114  on the side of the paddle changes color. 
     The cage adapter  110  may be attached to the rodent cage in various ways. In  FIG. 2A  there is a depiction of small wings  115  attached to the side of the bracket where strong elastic bands may be attached to one side of the adapter and then threaded through the wire cage over to the other side. This design does not require a cage wire mesh of any particular dimension or spacing. In this particular embodiment the UWB paddles  101  communicate to a top of cage central electronics controller through an armored cable  116 . 
     In  FIG. 2B  an exploded view of the paddle  101  is depicted with the top cover  117 , the electronics and antenna package  118 , and the back cover  119  shown. Also shown is the armored cable  116  that connects directly to the paddle electronics package  118 . Also shown is the stopping bracket  113  and the two “L” shaped downward facing pins  111  that are used to hold the paddle  101  and springs  113  in place. As indicated, the springs  113  have both an upper coiled position and extended straight long position that also inserts into the paddle just like the “L” shaped pins  111 . Included in the electronics package  118  are a matched set of UWB ceramic antennas for RX and TX functions that are either angled or situated on a flat plane. The onboard 6 axis accelerometer may also be used to take the resonant frequency of the rodent as it leans into the paddle as well as obtaining an ambient background resonant facility frequency readings once the paddle returns to its resting position. Such readings may also be used by the UWB algorithms to reject various readings or to re-calibrate the UWB frequency domain filters to better isolate the desired rodent UWB signals. 
     In  FIG. 2C  there is side view representation of the exploded view of the paddles  101  that is different from what is depicted in  FIG. 2B . In  FIG. 2C , the front of the paddle  121 , is slightly curved and has two small protrusions  122  on it which allow the UWB antenna&#39;s  123  to be angled to better obtain UWB readings as well as channel the rodent into the center of the paddle&#39;s  121  front housing. This is in comparison to  FIG. 2C  where the antennas  118  are on flat plane. In this embodiment of the UWB paddle  101 , the unit is totally self-contained in that it includes all of the hardware and software components to operate and communicate independently including its own battery  124 . As most short term toxicology studies are no longer than three weeks in length, this design would suit study protocols where the researcher has instructed the laboratory that no external wires of other electronic enclosures are to be present in the cage. 
     In  FIG. 3  there is a depiction of how the stock UWB paddle  101  may be adapted to the various cage styles and water delivery systems. In  FIG. 3A  the water delivery system  125  is at a 45° angle with a flat nipple  126  and the cage adapter  110  is snug up against side of the cage and water bottle  125 . In this case the rodent  127  displaces the paddle  101  producing a gap  128  between the paddle  101  and the stopping bracket  112  and the electronic readings commence. 
       FIG. 3B  is identical to  FIG. 3A  except that the flat nipple  126  has been replaced with an extension spout  129 . To accommodate this arrangement, the standard cage attachment system is replaced with an extension cage attachment bracket  130  which extends the paddles  101  out further to interact with the rodent  127 . In another embodiment, the cage attachment bracket also has an upright protrusion located further along the bracket  130  with a hole in it which allows the spout  129  to pass through it and therefore providing more support for the entire assembly. 
     In  FIG. 3C  the water delivery systems are at a 90° angle with a flat nipple  126 . In this case a different cage attachment bracket  130  is used that sits around the opening for the water delivery system  125  and then extends out and down to where the paddle  101  may be attached with the retaining pin  111 . Usually these types of water delivery systems  125  allow the rodents  127  to approach the flat nipple  126  from any angle. With this embodiment, the paddle  101  is positioned just aft of the flat nipple so that the rodent  127  may only drink from one side which activates the paddle  101  by deflecting it. In another embodiment, the cage attachment bracket  130  is designed to swivel around the water delivery system  125  opening so that the rodents may drink from any angle by just pushing the paddle  101  around to a position that suits them. 
       FIG. 3C  shows the paddle sensory array reading passive or active RFID chips  131  located inside the animal itself. RFID readers may also be located around various perimeter positions as well as situated under the drinking and eating stations. Various physiological readings may be obtained such as glucose levels, core temperature, EMG, EEG, HR, respiration, bio-markers, and pressures in the brain and body etc. 
     In  FIG. 4A , the opposing wings  132  of the adapter are not fixed but moveable and they may be adjusted to grab the wire cage, of any dimension or spacing, in a vice like fashion by using an Allen key placed in the socket  133  of a threated bolt  134  to compress or expand the wings  132  position relative to each other. 
       FIG. 4B  shows an example for an all-plastic cage top. In this case, the adapter  130  uses suction cups  135  attached to the wings  136  of the UWB paddle cage attachment which will in turn attach to the underside of the plastic cage top, bottom, side of the plastic cage. The mounts that the suction cups are on also swivel  137  as well as they may be designed to extend or retract the suction cups  135  to allow for flexibility in attaching to various surface shapes other than just flat surfaces. 
       FIG. 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5D  show different views of one version of the rodentia electronic cage system which includes a lower unit  138 , the top unit  139  that holds the food and water system, the top lid  140  the UWB paddles  101 , the water delivery system  125  the connecting armored cables  116  and the top mounted cage control electronic enclosure  141 . The top mounted control electronic enclosure may also contain RFID antennas for interrogating implants inside the animal as well communicating with other types of external RFID sensors. These types of external sensors could include flat microchips that measure the amount of moisture or liquid in the bottom of the cage and/or analyze the actual urine for specific bio-markers. Such data collected could assist in identifying which cages need cleaning attention and/or provide valuable research data. 
     In  FIG. 6  what is depicted is a rack  142  that holds several cages with bottoms  138 , tops  140 , water delivery systems  125  and UWB paddles  101 . In this embodiment the paddles  101  connect through the cables  116  to a small switch  141  that is located on top of the cage top  140 . This switch in turn is attached to a wiring harness  143  that runs along the back of the rack  142  up to a central rack control box  144 . The rack control box includes a power management system for supplying power to all of the cages in the rack. It also provides a central place to store all data collected from the paddles  101  and as well as other sensors that are part of the overall system, such as humidity, light levels, RFID readings, and motion artifacts etc., wherever they may be located. The central rack control box also provides various ways to communicate to the local or in cloud analytical system  107  such using Ethernet cables, Wi-Fi, LoRA, Bluetooth, cellular or other RF technologies etc. 
       FIG. 7  depicts an alternative way in the cage  138  to employ sensors of various technologies, such as UWB. In this embodiment, a typical plastic rodent retreat house with enclosure  145  is placed in the cage. The enclosure may be transparent, translucent, or opaque. It may also have various tints—if any—clear, blue, red, yellow, and the like. The enclosure may have various cross sections including square, rectangle, circular, oval, and may be combinations thereof (e.g., a square cross section with rounded corners). Attached to the plastic housing by clips  146  or other means, is an electronics enclosure  147 . In another embodiment the electronic enclosure actually sits inside the plastic enclosure and not attached to the bottom. Regardless of its position, the enclosure includes a PCB containing a micro-computer, memory, a battery  148 , proximity sensors and radio antennas  149 . Physiological sensors, including RFID readers  150 , are located both on the top of the electronics enclosure and on the bottom of the enclosure. There are also radio transmission antennas  151 , LED indicators  152  and an on/off switch  153 . As the animal enters the enclosure  145 , a proximity sensor  149  activates the sensors  150  and starts the monitoring process. In another embodiment, the actual electronics pad may be designed and manufactured to be much thinner as the bulky electronic items such as the battery, LED&#39;s and switches  148 ,  152 ,  153  etc., may be moved to the side or the end of the unit in a form of a tab. Data from this type of design may be transferred to the central analytical system  107  using various on-board radio technologies or by an armored cable attached to a switch  141  on the top of the cage. All previously mentioned techniques for managing sensor data as described above at the cage, rack, or room level are also applicable. 
     In  FIG. 8  there is a depiction of a smart cage-based pad in two different versions.  FIG. 8A  depicts a typical rodent cage  138  where the smart cage pad  154  is situated on the bottom of the cage. The pad has an array of sensors  155 , including UWB sensors, located on the top of the pad and other sensors located on the bottom of the pad  156 . The pad has area designated to provide a user interface  157  in the form of LED&#39;s and a switch in this example. This user interface may be situated on the side of the pad as depicted here or it may be on the end facing out for veterinary technicians to review similar to what is depicted in  FIG. 8B . In  FIG. 8B , there is a depiction of a smart cage pad that is placed under the cage  138  bottom between the cage bottom and the top a racking system that holds many cages (not shown here). In this depiction, the user interface as described in  8 A is replaced with an electronics tab  158 . This tab may hold bulky electronic items such as the battery, LED&#39;s switches etc., allowing the pad to be much thinner. The increased size of the electronics tab allows for the inclusion of a display screen (not shown) versus just relying on LED&#39;s to convey important operational status information of the smart pad. Regardless of location, the smart pad may perform all of the operations of the rodent retreat pad as described in  FIG. 7 , except the when the pad in placed under the cage bottom it of course does not have direct access to the waste material therefore it would have to rely on other technologies on the top side of the sensor array to perform analysis of the waste material and liquids. In either case, as the cage pad covers the entire surface of the bottom of the cage there is an opportunity to count the number of occupants in the cage and track their movement using the UWB technology as well as measuring heart rate, respiration and blood pressure for each individual animal. Either of depictions shown they may also be connected directly to cage-based or rack-based external power supplies and communications modules by an armored cable (not shown). 
       FIG. 9  shows a flow chart of the sensor reading sequence that may be used on various embodiments described herein. Once the UWB paddle sensor  101 , the electronic rodentia retreat  147  or the smart electronic cage pad  154  has been activated  159 , by either the animal triggering the on-board accelerometer, mercury switch or proximity switch etc., it checks  160  see if a reading is scheduled. If so, the system then performs mitigation strategies  161  to see if there are any conflicting RF signals inside the electronic enclosure itself, at the cage level, at the rack level, or at the room level. If all is clear, the sensors in the paddles, retreat pad, smart cage pad begins and/or suspends its UWB sensing or RF communicating sequence  159 . If a reading is not scheduled, the sensors return to a resting state  159 . Once the UWB reading sequence is finished, the quality of the reading is analyzed locally  163  to determine if there were any gross noise artifacts that would disrupt the reading process such as the paddle  101  not being displaced totally or that the duration of the reading was too short etc. In the case of error conditions, the counter would not be incremented and the sensors would return to a resting state  159 . If the readings were deemed successful, the readings would then be stored locally  164  and made available for the next scheduled data transmission  165  and the paddle returned to the resting state  159 . 
       FIG. 10  depicts the logic work flow for determining what possible readings could be obtained by the sensors when they are activated and by which animal  159 . In this case the data from all sensors and sources connected to the system is available to the central analytical system  107 . As well as the facility, rack and cage number, this may include animal ID  166  as obtained through RFID implants or video analysis (ear tag etc.), blood pressure  167  HR and HRV readings  168 , respiration readings  169 , ambient facility/rack/cage temperature  170 , core temperature, glucose levels, and pressures levels within the animals&#39; body and brain  171  as recorded through RFID implants, image-based sensors and/or infrared (IR) sensors located on the paddles, the electronic rodentia retreat pad, or the smart cage pad, the time of the encounter  172 , resonant frequencies and activity levels of the animal  173  and the ambient resonant frequencies of the cage itself. 
     In another embodiment, additional readings may be obtained at the paddle level with the addition of two metal contacts which may be designed to make contact with the rodent&#39;s front paws as they lean up to drink. Once contact is made, a small electrical current may be passed through one paw to the other paw and electrical impedance myography (EIM) signals may be obtained to derive the animal&#39;s body composition  174 . Such a reading is more than likely to be unique in comparison to the other cage occupants and therefore provides yet another variable to assist in deriving a unique digital signature per cage rodent. 
     In another embodiment, small external RFID moisture, urine and other bio-marker waste material analysis sensors  175  may be placed in the bottom of the cage or on the bottom of the rodentia retreat&#39;s electronic pad or the smart cage pad that may provide insight into various reactions that the rodents are having to the protocol or to indicate a leak/flood in the water delivery system. 
     As mentioned previously, another embodiment is the inclusion of a small video camera attached to the cage that is operated externally or connected by various means to the top of the cage central electronic enclosure  144 . Not only could this image-based analysis provide possible ID&#39;s of which rodents at which time were being monitored, but they could also provide important clinical indicators based on the grimace scale (GS)  176  to monitor pain levels. Another aspect of video analysis is using retina scanning looking for early signs of diabetic retinopathy as well as using the unique vein pattern of the retina for animal identification purposes  177 . 
     All of these values are compared  179  on a raw data basis and on a data fusion basis to all prior confirmed readings located in the verified history database  180 . If the readings  181  provide a high enough confidence factor that they match a specific rodent, they are then transferred  182  to the verified history file  180 . If the readings look like total outliers, then they are dumped  183  into the reject data file  184 . For valid but unknown animal readings they are marked as such  185  and recorded in the composite cage health file  186 . In both the known and unknown rodent readings, instances of the data are also sent to the alarm processing module  187  which is used to determine whether  188  an alarm should be raised and sent out by various electronic or display methods  189  otherwise no alarm is sent  161 . Alarms may also be based on water, food, or waste levels being monitored. 
     Periodically all three files will be re-analyzed as new data becomes available, from the sensors or from the direct observational methods, looking for better ways to derive individual digital signatures of each animal and to re-assign data from one category to another, if necessary, using the deep learning engine. 
       FIG. 11  shows a reporting system that provides both trending and a snapshot of the results obtained, augmented and processed. In the graph the bottom scale is for respiration rate per minute  190  and the top part of scale is representing heart rate per minute  191 . Along the bottom of the graph is a time slide bar  192  based on timed readings of 60 times an hour that allows for the researcher to move the slide bar to specific time intervals of the day  193  or to the beginning of an alarm interval etc. Below the graph, the researcher may select either sensor array A  193  or sensor array B  194  in the cage or a combination of the two  195 . Along the top of the graph is the identification row of information related to the specific cage being reviewed including the date  196 , cage location  197 , cage number  198 , and rodent ID  199 . Situated directly below is an information scroll bar of all of the possible physiological signs available such as glucose  200 , core temperature  202 , ambient temperature  203 , blood pressure  204 , etc. The researcher may scroll  200  through all of the available data that is related to that specific animal and time interval selected  192 . 
     A number of embodiments have been described where it is understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.