CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201910503741.4, filed on Jun. 11, 2019, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to animal monitoring, and in particular, to methods and systems for controlling barking of an animal.

BACKGROUND

A plurality of animal control devices have been developed in order to monitor and correct some actions of animals. For example, a commonly used barking control device of dogs may include a remote controller hold by an operator (e.g., an owner of a dog) and a receiver worn by the dog, wherein the operator may need to manually input a control signal via the remote controller to cause the receiver to apply a correction operation (e.g., generate a vibration, an electric shock, etc.) if the dog is barking. This is not only time consuming but also needs human effort. Automatic barking control devices may be able to detect a dog barking and perform a correction operation automatically, but be susceptible to environmental noises. For example, noises having a similar frequency and intensity to a dog barking may be wrongly detected as a dog barking by the automatic barking control device. Thus, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for controlling animal barking in a more efficient and accurate way.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a system for controlling barking of an animal that wears a monitoring device is provided. The system may include at least one storage device including a set of instructions and at least one processor configured to communicate with the at least one storage device. When executing the set of instructions, the at least one processor may be configured to direct the system to perform the following operations. The system may obtain status information of the animal from the monitoring device, and determine whether the animal is barking based on the status information. The system may also obtain a first audio signal representing a first sound from the monitoring device in response to a determination that the animal is barking, and determine whether an anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal based on the first audio signal. The system may further cause the monitoring device to perform the anti-bark operation on the animal in response to a determination that the anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal.

In some embodiments, the monitoring device may include an audio sensor. The status information may include a second audio signal representing a second sound acquired by the audio sensor. The determining whether the animal is barking may include obtaining one or more first voiceprint features of the animal, determining one or more second voiceprint features of the second sound based on the second audio signal, determining whether the second sound is made by the animal based on the one or more first voiceprint features and the one or more second voiceprint features, and determining that the animal is barking in response a determination that the second sound is made by the animal.

In some embodiments, the one or more first voiceprint features may include at least one of a tone, a pitch, a length, a sound intensity, a sound frequency, a rhythm, a linear prediction coefficients feature, a perceptual linear predictive feature, a Tandem feature, a linear predictive cepstral coefficient feature, a Mel frequency cepstrum coefficient feature, a deep feature, or a power-normalized cepstral coefficient feature.

In some embodiments, the monitoring device may include a motion sensor. The status information of the animal may include a motion signal indicating a motion parameter of a mouth or a neck of the animal. The determining whether the animal is barking may include determining whether the motion parameter of the mouth or the neck of the animal exceeds a first threshold value based on the motion signal, and determining that the animal is barking in response to a determination that the motion of the mouth or the neck of the animal exceeds a first threshold value.

In some embodiments, the monitoring device may include a physiological sensor. The status information of the animal may include a physiological signal indicating a physiological parameter of the animal. The determining whether the animal is barking may include determining whether the physiological parameter of the animal exceeds a second threshold value based on the physiological parameter, and determining that the animal is barking in response to a determination that the physiological parameter of the animal exceeds the second threshold value.

In some embodiments, the determining whether an anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal may include determining an acoustic feature value of the first sound based on the first audio signal, determining whether the acoustic feature value is greater than a third threshold value, and determining that the anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal in response to a determination that the acoustic feature value is greater than the third threshold value.

In some embodiments, the determining an acoustic feature value of the first sound may include extracting a target audio signal that represents a target sound made by the animal from the first audio signal, and determining an acoustic feature value of the target sound based on the target audio signal as the acoustic feature value of the first sound.

In some embodiments, the system may further include determining the third threshold value based on at least one of a characteristic of the animal or an environment of the animal.

In some embodiments, the performing the anti-bark operation may include causing the monitoring device to generate at least one of a sound, a vibration, an electric shock, a light, an ultrasound, or spray.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for controlling barking of an animal that wears a monitoring device is provided. The method may include obtaining status information of the animal from the monitoring device, and determining whether the animal is barking based on the status information. The method may also include obtaining a first audio signal representing a first sound from the monitoring device in response to a determination that the animal is barking, and determining whether an anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal based on the first audio signal. The method may further include causing the monitoring device to perform the anti-bark operation on the animal in response to a determination that the anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions for controlling barking of an animal that wears a monitoring device is provided. When executed by at least one processor, the set of instructions may direct the at least one processor to effectuate a method. The method may include obtaining status information of the animal from the monitoring device, and determining whether the animal is barking based on the status information. The method may also include obtaining a first audio signal representing a first sound from the monitoring device in response to a determination that the animal is barking, and determining whether an anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal based on the first audio signal. The method may further include causing the monitoring device to perform the anti-bark operation on the animal in response to a determination that the anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a system for controlling barking of an animal that wears a monitoring device is provided. The system may include an obtaining module configured to obtain status information of the animal from the monitoring device. The system may include a determination module configured to determine whether the animal is barking based on the status information. The obtaining module may be further configured to obtain a first audio signal representing a first sound from the monitoring device in response to a determination that the animal is barking. The determination module may be further configured to determine whether an anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal based on the first audio signal. The system may also include a control module configured to cause the monitoring device to perform the anti-bark operation on the animal in response to a determination that the anti-bark operation needs to be performed on the animal.

Additional features will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The features of the present disclosure may be realized and attained by practice or use of various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below.

