FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a pest control system having event monitoring. Generally, the pest control system collects and manages event data from multiple pest control devices (PCDs) and filters and reports data to a portable electronic device when in range. The invention provides PCDs having sensors and sensor filters that improve the accuracy of determining activity within a PCD as well as systems enabling improved decision making over time.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Pests such as rodents or insects can be a significant problem in a wide range of locations, climates and situations. For example, rodents such as rats and mice have been a problem to humans for thousands of years and have generally followed humans wherever humans have settled around the world. The problems that rodents can cause are varied. For example, in addition to the loss that they can cause by eating foodstuffs, they may also contaminate foodstuffs by leaving behind various contaminants such as their saliva, faeces and/or urine in addition to any other contaminants they may carry. Rodents may also cause damage to the fabric of a building by, for example, chewing wiring or nesting within wall cavities. In addition, rodents may harbor and transmit a number of diseases. They may also carry parasites, such as fleas and ticks. Rodent populations can also grow quickly.

Similarly, various insects such as termites, ants and many others can also be a significant problem and cause similar effects. As a result, effective and timely action to prevent or deal with a pest infestation including both rodents and insects remains an important problem.

Throughout history, humans have devised many solutions for controlling or reducing pest populations and there are presently thousands of businesses whose primary services are the control/reduction of pests.

In a typical modern insect or rodent control system, multiple pest control devices (referred to herein as “PCDs”) are placed around a facility (e.g. a warehouse, a farm, a home or an office block). PCDs are generally kill-type devices that lure the pest to the trap with a bait and that then kill the pest by various devices or poison-type devices that utilize a bait laced with a poison. Depending on the climate, environment or situation, facilities may commonly have fifty or more PCDs deployed throughout the facility. Pest control agents (referred to herein as “PCAs”) are employed to manually check these PCDs periodically (e.g. weekly or monthly). In order to manually check the PCDs, the PCAs must locate the PCDs (by finding them or knowing where they are) and inspect the PCDs (e.g. visually) to determine whether they have been activated and/or require attention.

Some rodents, such as rats, are instinctively wary of things new to their environment, including various types of PCDs (eg. live-, kill- or poison-type PCDs. Manually inspecting a PCD may impart a new smell onto the PCD and/or change the position of the PCD which may lead to the rodents avoiding the PCD and thereby reducing PCD efficacy. In addition, rodents may also colonize in almost any type of structure or location including attics, burrows, under concrete and porches, in wall voids and other hard-to-reach places in buildings as well as many locations within a commercial building or warehouse including within goods and/or industrial equipment. As it is generally desirable to place PCDs near to where a problem may exist, manual inspection of PCDs located in or near these areas undesirable and/or difficult for the PCA.

As such, operating and maintaining pest (e.g. rodent) control technology often requires significant labor, with most of the time and hence costs in controlling pest populations incurred from monitoring PCDs.

By way of example of a typical scenario, a warehouse facility having a pest problem will engage with a pest control company to deploy and monitor a number of PCDs throughout one or more warehouses. The warehouse facility can cover a significant land area having both inside and outside areas which may include a variety of storage areas interconnected by various walkways which may be on a single level or may include several different levels interconnected by stairs or ladders. As noted above, when PCDs are deployed they are preferably placed in locations where the pest problem is perceived to be greatest and which may be in inconvenient places. The pest control company will document where the PCDs have been deployed and then based on an agreement with the facility/business owner, monitor the PCDs on a regular basis.

Depending on the type of problem (e.g. rat, mouse, insect), different types of PCDs may be deployed.

As noted, PCDs may be categorized as poison type PCDs, live trapping PCDs and mechanical kill PCDs, each of which have various advantages and disadvantages depending on the specific situation and objectives.

A poison type PCD is designed to lure the pest into the PCD, commonly referred to as a bait station, whereupon ideally the pest retrieves bait containing a poison, leaves the bait station and then subsequently consumes the bait. The pest will then die away from the PCD. In the case of rodents, the rodent may also carry enough poisoned bait away from the PCD to feed other animals (e.g. young) that do not enter the PCD.

Live traps can be designed to trap an animal or capture part of the animal's body within a chamber whereupon depending on the design will either allow the animal to die or enable retrieval of the live animal which can then be released in another location unharmed. These traps may use various mechanically activated systems to close off a chamber to trap the animal or may use other systems such as adhesives that cause an animal to become adhered to a surface thus preventing them from leaving.

Mechanical kill traps are generally designed to quickly kill a pest by mechanical force when the pest activates a trigger.

Each type of PCD has various advantages and disadvantages in different situations.

Poison-type PCDs are advantaged by being able to eliminate a larger number of animals from a certain quantity of bait. The poisoned animal will typically perish away from the PCD and hence, the need to dispose of the animal's body may not be required. However, in various situations particularly humid or moist environments, this can also be a disadvantage in that the animal's body may decompose in an unknown location and lead to other undesirable effects including smells and disease propagation. Moreover, the quantity of bait removed is not necessarily correlated to the number of pests that may have been eliminated.

Live PCDs are preferable to some people as a humane alternative if the animal is not killed and can be relocated. However, handling of trapped, live animals can be difficult and is generally more costly due to the equipment and time required to relocate multiple animals. Moreover, by relocating animals, one may simply be transferring the pest problem to another location. Further still, if an animal is trapped and not removed quickly, it may die anyway from hunger and/or thirst, thus defeating the purpose of it being a humane live trap. Hence, in certain situations these PCDs are further disadvantaged by the need to monitor them on effectively a daily basis.

Generally, live PCDs that adhere a pest within the PCD may be quite effective for insect type pests but less so for rodents as a struggling rodent may scare off other pests from entering the PCD. Moreover, such PCDs also require a worker to handle dead, dying and/or decaying bodies of the pest.

Mechanical kill PCDs can be effective and humane but have the disadvantages of often needing to be reset and similar problems of handling dead, dying and/or decaying bodies of the pest. Also, once a mechanical kill device has been triggered, it must usually be manually reset before becoming effective again.

Regardless of the type of PCD, the worker/agent inspecting or monitoring multiple PCDs will be required to expend a certain amount of time within a facility investigating the status of each PCD. Within a facility, a worker is generally responsible for producing a report that indicates the number of PCDs inspected and the number of pests that have been captured or killed over a given time period. For poison type PCDs, the number of killed pests is loosely correlated to the amount of bait removed.

In Applicant's previous patent application (PCT/CA2016/050860), incorporated herein by reference, systems and methods for improving the efficiency of collection of data from a plurality of PCDs are described. More specifically, in that application, a portable electronic device capable of wirelessly connecting to a plurality of PCDs and obtaining data from the PCDs and reporting that data to a central database is described.

The nature of pests' interactions with a PCD is varied and complex. Different animals/pests will interact with a PCD in a number of different ways depending on the type of the PCD, the design of the PCD, the bait being used and other factors. For example, in a bait station type PCD, rodents such as mice will be attracted to the odor of bait that may emanate from the bait station. Drawn towards a bait station, the mouse will generally a) interact with the bait station and retrieve or consume the bait, b) interact with the bait station and not retrieve or consume the bait or c) approach the bait station and not interact. In a given time period, there may also be no interactions by a pest with a bait station.

Each type of interaction can provide useful information to a pest control company that can then be used to learn about a pest problem, the effectiveness of a pest control strategy, reporting to the customer as well as subsequent adjustment or modification of the pest control strategy.

Ideally, both the pest control company and the customer desire accurate data and the delivery of that data in a cost-effective way. That is, a balance between the cost of trapping equipment and the technical sophistication of the equipment must be made to provide a practical cost to a consumer. In other words, overly sophisticated and expensive equipment will not be effective in the marketplace, particularly in situations where dozens or hundreds of PCDs must be deployed.

Accordingly, there has been a need for improved PCDs and the networks connecting PCDs where the interaction of a pest with a PCD can be accurately measured and data regarding how the pest interacted with the PCD can be obtained and analyzed. More specifically and in addition, there has been a need for systems that improve the process by which pest control service personnel interact with a number of PCDs, as well as improving the accuracy of information collected during monitoring and service. In addition, there has been a need to reduce or eliminate unnecessary visits of the pest control personnel to facilities by remote monitoring.

Different pests (e.g. mice vs. rats vs. insects) each have different physical and behavioral characteristics and will exhibit different patterns of interaction with a PCD. Mice are generally smaller than rats and will generally show different movement patterns. For example, rats may move more slowly as compared to mice. Also, both mice and rats are generally careful creatures and will usually approach a PCD with caution. When approaching or entering a PCD, they will usually not go in right away, may back off for a period of time, may wait in one area before eventually moving to an area where the bait may be. Similarly, insects will show different movement patterns as well.

For a pest control agent (PCA) who is responsible for accessing PCDs and replacing bait and/or removing dead animals, the PCA wants to receive reliable information that accurately reports the status of PCDs and specifically that minimizes both false positives and false negatives with respect to the status of the PCD. That is, the PCA does not want to receive an indication that a PCD status “requires attention” namely that the PCD is empty of bait or has a dead animal in it, go to the trouble of accessing the PCD only to discover that the status of the PCD is fine and does not require attention.

Similarly, the PCA does not want to receive an indication that the PCD status is “good” when in fact the PCD is empty of bait and/or a dead animal is in the trap.

Further still, it is expected that over time, different PCDs with different sensors will evolve such that a new system of PCDs having a particular sensor array improves the accuracy of determining PCD status by the new combination of sensors. In addition, data from different PCDs and different deployment situations will be collected over time that represents the many different types of animate and in-animate interactions of animals and other materials with a PCD. As such, as new field data is collected and analyzed, it is also important to be able to effectively update other PCDs in the system with software so that the accuracy of interpreting interactions within other PCDs can be improved.

For example, a first system of PCDs with new sensors may be deployed in one area and a second series of PCDs with the new sensors are deployed in another area. All the PCDs may be initially deployed with software/firmware that is understood to be effective. The first area may receive very little pest traffic initially whereas the second area receives significantly higher traffic. Over time, data collected from both areas may be uploaded and analyzed where it is learned that changes to the filtering/processing of data results in improved accuracy. It may then be determined that instances of false positives or false negatives can be improved via better filtering or processing of data. Hence, all PCDs in the system and/or portable monitoring devices that receive raw or filtered data from individual PCDs may need to be updated to improve the ongoing accuracy.

PCDs will also be deployed in different areas having different environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity and other conditions related to seasonal and weather changes) and significant variations in the type and number of animals interacting with the PCDs. As such, there is a need to differentiate and understand the nature of those environmental and interaction differences.

Further still, there has also been a need for a system that enables filtering/processing equipment within the system to be upgraded with new processing algorithms over the time of a deployment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect, there is provided a pest control system (PCS) comprising at least one pest control device (PCD) each PCD having: at least one sensor, the at least one sensor configured to detect a body within a region of the PCD; a PCD controller operatively connected to the at least one sensor, the PCD controller configured to receive raw data from the at least one sensor including device event data representing presence or movement of animate bodies adjacent the at least one sensor; and, a wireless communication system operatively connected to the controller for transmitting data from the PCD controller to a relaying communication device (RCD) having an RCD controller.

In various embodiments, additional features of the system include various combinations of the following:a. The PCD controller is configured to pre-filter the raw data as device event data representing presence or movement of animate bodies and non-live data representing presence or movement of non-animate bodies.b. The PCD controller is configured to transmit device event data to the RCD and discard non-live event data.c. The PCD controller is configured to transmit raw data to the RCD.

In further embodiments, the PCS is configured to include one or more of the following:a. The RCD is configured for operative communication with at least one PCD and each RCD is configured to receive data from at least one PCD controller and configured with an RCD analysis algorithm to analyze the data to determine PCD status.b. PCD status is designated as a) does-not-require-attention or b) requires-attention and where the RCD includes a display system configured to display PCD status.c. The RCD includes an input system enabling a user to manually verify if a PCD status as analyzed and displayed is true or not-true, and wherein manually entered verification is defined as verification data.d. The PCS includes a central computer system (CCS) configured to operatively connect to each RCD and upload raw data from each PCD to the CCS.e. Raw data from each PCD is correlated to the verification data.f. The CCS is configured with a CCS algorithm configured to compare the verification data and the raw data to calculate a frequency of false-positive and false-negative events associated with particular raw data patterns.g. The CCS is configured to back test a CCS algorithm on raw data to determine the effectiveness of the CCS algorithm on reducing the frequency of false-positive and false-negative events.h. The CCS is configured to update each PCD and RCD controller with adjusted filtering and analysis algorithms.i. The RCD controller is configured to filter raw data to determine whether a PCD requires attention.j. The PCS includes at least one mesh communication node device operatively connected to at least one PCD and where communication between the at least one PCD, mesh communication node device and CCS is substantially continuous.k. The at least one sensor is a capacitive sensor and the capacitive sensor and PCD controller are configured to monitor a combination of movement and activation signals where movement signals include a frequency of movements adjacent the at least one sensor and an activation signal corresponds to a detection time and duration of a mass adjacent the at least one sensor.l. The PCS is configured such that combinations of movement and activation signals are analyzed by the RCD controller within pre-defined time periods and where number and frequency variations of movement and activation signals within the pre-defined time periods are evaluated as a basis of determining the presence or absence of an animate object.m. The PCS is configured such that the capacitive sensor and PCD controller dynamically adjust an activation threshold for an activation signal.n. The capacitive sensor is a single electrode capacitive sensor.

In another aspect a pest control device (PCD) is provided, the PCD having a PCD body having an entrance region and an event region and at least one sensor, the at least one sensor configured to detect a body within a region of the PCD body; a PCD controller operatively connected to the at least one sensor, the PCD controller configured to analyze raw data received from the at least one sensor; and, a wireless communication system operatively connected to the PCD controller for transmitting filtered data from the PCD controller to a relaying communication device (RCD).

In various aspects of the PCD, one or more of the following may be included:a. The PCD controller is configured to pre-filter the raw data as device event data representing presence or movement of animate bodies and non-live data representing presence or movement of non-animate bodies.b. The PCD controller is configured to transmit device event data to the RCD and discard non-live event data.c. The PCD controller is configured to transmit raw data to the RCD.d. The PCD is a live or kill trap and the at least one sensor is configured to the event region.e. The PCD is a bait station and the at least one sensor is configured to a sensor region located between the entrance region and event region.f. The at least one sensor is a capacitive sensor, the capacitive sensor for detecting the movement of animate objects past the entrance region towards the bait or trap region.g. The capacitive sensor and PCD controller are enabled to monitor a combination of movement and activation signals where movement signals correspond to a frequency of movement adjacent the at least one sensor and an activation signal corresponds to a detection time and duration of a mass adjacent the at least one sensor.h. The RCD is configured to analyze raw data where combinations of movement and activation signals are analyzed within pre-defined time periods and where number and frequency variations of movement and activation signals within the pre-defined time periods are evaluated as a basis of determining the presence or absence of an animate object.i. The sensor is a capacitive sensor and the capacitive sensor and PCD controller are configured to dynamically adjust an activation threshold for an activation signal.j. The sensor is a single electrode capacitive sensor.

In another aspect, the invention provides a method of collecting data from a plurality of pest control devices (PCDs), comprising the steps of: within a PCD having: at least one sensor configured to detect movement of an animate body within a region of the PCD; a PCD controller operatively connected to the at least one sensor and configured to analyze raw data received from the at least one sensor; and, a wireless communication system operatively connected to the PCD controller and configured to transmit any one of or a combination of raw data and pre-filtered raw event data from the controller to a relaying communication device (RCD);a. analyzing raw data from the at least one sensor; and,b. uploading data to a relaying communicating device (RCD).

In further embodiments of the method, the method may include:a. a step of pre-filtering raw data between animate object data and non-animate object data prior to uploading data to the RCD.b. At the RCD, analyzing animate object data from the PCD based on current pattern recognition algorithms and determining PCD status as i) requires-attention or ii) does-not-require-attention and iii) displaying PCD status to a user.c. Enabling a user to manually verify if a PCD status as reported is true or not true, and wherein manually entered verification is defined as verification data.d. Enabling a central computer system (CCS) to operatively connect to each RCD and where any one of or a combination of raw data and pre-filtered raw data from each PCD is uploaded to the CCS.e. Correlating raw data from each PCD to the verification data.f. Enabling analysis of the verification data and the raw data at the CCS.g. Configuring the CCS to back test an adjusted filtering algorithm on past raw data to test the effectiveness of the adjusted filtering algorithm.h. Configuring the CCS to update each PCD and RCD with adjusted filtering and analyzing algorithms.i. Configuring each of the PCD and RCDs to a mesh communication network.j. Where the at least one sensor is a capacitive sensor, enabling the capacitive sensor and controller to monitor a combination of movement and activation signals where movement signals correspond to a frequency of movement adjacent the at least one sensor and an activation signal corresponds to a detection time and duration of a mass adjacent the at least one sensor.k. Analyzing combinations of movement and activation signals within pre-defined time periods and where number and frequency variations of movement and activation signals within the pre-defined time periods are evaluated as a basis of determining the presence or absence of an animate object.l. Dynamically adjusting the capacitive sensor to adjust an activation threshold for an activation signal.

In a further aspect, the invention provides a pest control device (PCD) comprising: a PCD body, the PCD having a floor and a wall system defining at least one passageway from outside the PCD body to inside the PCD body, the floor including an event zone, a sensor zone and an entrance zone, the event zone having means to attract a pest to interact with the event zone, the event zone being positioned within the PCD body such that a pest successively passes through the entrance zone and sensor zone to reach the event zone; and, a sensor system operatively configured to the sensor zone, the sensor system configured to detect movement of a pest from the entrance zone to the event zone, the sensor system including a wireless communication system having an antenna and where the sensor system is configured to the sensor zone and where the communication system and antenna are sealed within a sensor compartment.

In various embodiments, the PCD may further include any one or a combination of:a. A PCD body having an external body and a separate floor and wall system tray configured for placement within the PCD.b. A sensor system including a printed circuit board (PCB), a battery power system and at least one movement sensor and where the printed circuit board, battery power system and at least one movement sensor are positioned flat against the underside of the floor and where the movement sensor is operative through the floor to detect movement on an upper surface of the floor in the sensor zone.c. An antenna projecting through the floor and contained within an antenna cavity.d. A sensor system permanently sealed within the sensor compartment.e. A PCD body including a separate and retro-fit floor system, where the retro-fit floor system can be selectively positioned and removed from the PCD body.f. A capacitive sensor operatively positioned on the underside of the sensor zone.g. The sensor system includes a single electrode capacitive sensor.

