These two graphics are from a patent application we find mildly baffling. Titled “METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE BIOLOGICAL AGE OF A COMPANION ANIMAL,” US patent application #12/395,924 was filed on March 2, 2009 to inventors Allan John Lepine [pictured here], Dennis Richard Ditmer, Lori Lee Halsey and John Russell Burr. The description is brief (the body of the patent adds considerable detail, if not enlightenment):
A method for determining the biological age of the companion animal. A companion animal ambulates from a first region to a second region of a pressure detection unit and the footfall data is utilized in the determination of the biological age of the companion animal.
The same inventors filed another patent that same day. Application #12/395,935 is titled “MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR THE BENEFIT OF A COMPANION ANIMAL.”
Both documents say the inventors can be reached via the Procter & Gamble Company in Ohio, who presumably are less baffled by these patent applications than we are.