Seed planter monitoring system with fiber-optic sensors
CA 2221165 C · Owner: Phoenix International Corporation · Inventors: Batcheller, Barry D.; Hauck, Douglas L.; Mertins, Karl-Heinz O.
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
An optical seed counting system (36) for counting seeds (18) that are dispensed through a plurality of seed tubes (24) associated with a multiple row seed planter (12). Each seed tube (24) includes an optical sensor (38) having an emitter (66) and a receiver (68). The emitter (66) and the receiver (68) each include lens components for shaping an optical beam (170). Optical fibers (42 44) connect the emitter (66) to an optical beam generating device (142) and the receiver (68) to an optical beam detecting device (148) both positioned remotely from the seed tubes (24). The detecting device (148) generates a pulse signal where the period of the pulses represents the intensity of the optical …
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Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed May 13, 1996 and granted October 3, 2000. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended May 13, 2016.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by May 13, 2018.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
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Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.