Patent ID: 8854215

Claim:
A system for controlling passage of selected animals through a portal, comprising: providing an access structure defining a portal through which one or more selected animals may pass, said access structure comprising one or more field limiting elements that may be placed (a) in an open condition wherein said selected animals can pass through the portal, or (b) in a closed condition wherein said selected animals cannot pass through the portal; providing an identification tag for a candidate animal, said identification tag providing identity information for said candidate animal; providing a programmable database comprising operating envelope definitions, said operating envelope definitions including user programmable settings for selected animals; providing a plurality of sensors S in a series of sensors S 1 through S N , where N is a positive integer, each of said sensors S providing an output signal at a sensor blink rate, to produce, from each sensor, time indexed output data; providing a system engine, said system engine (a) acquiring data from said identification tag, (b) acquiring said time indexed output data from said sensors S, (c) comparing said time indexed output data from said sensors S with said operating envelope definitions, and determining whether or not said time indexed output data from each of said sensors S is (1) acceptable and is promoted to an action indicator state result, or (2) is unacceptable and is demoted to an inaction indicator state result, (d) determining over a predetermined plurality of times an aggregate measurement result of (1) identification tag data and (2) sensor data (i) determined to provide action indicator state results, and (ii) determined to provide inaction indicator state results, and (e) deciding based on said aggregate measurement result, whether or not to classify a candidate animal as a selected animal, and to instruct said one or more field limiting elements to be placed in an open condition to allow passage of a selected animal therethrough.