Patents by Inventor John R. Brethour

John R. Brethour has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Measurement of intramuscular fat in cattle
    Patent number: 5960105
    Abstract: A system determines the number of days livestock should be maintained on feed for maximum profit. In the preferred embodiment, current attributes such as marbling and backfat thickness are used to predict what these attributes, as predicted attribute values, will be at various times in the future. These predicted attributes along with other factors such as projected rate of weight gain, costs of feed and livestock prices are used to determine how many days the livestock should be maintained on feed in order to maximize profit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1999
    Assignee: Kansas State University Research Foundation
    Inventor: John R. Brethour
  • System for measurement of intramuscular fat in cattle
    Patent number: 5398290
    Abstract: A system for measuring intramuscular fat in live cattle uses an ultrasound device to produce ultrasound image of an interior muscle portion. The image contains speckle caused by the scattering of ultrasound waves by the intramuscular fat. Image data representative of the speckle are analyzed in terms of pixel grey areas in the computer to produce measures of intramuscular fat including partial autocorrelation, correlation in a co-occurrence matrix and nonspeckle area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 14, 1995
    Assignee: Kansas State University Research Foundation
    Inventor: John R. Brethour