ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,696,874, issued on Aug. 4.
"Graphical shepherding" was invented by Rodney P. Landers (Stillwater, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An assisted guidance region has a plurality of zones, each with an associated set of behavioral guidance characteristics. Behavioral guidance is extended to a wayward dog who has moved outside of an alert zone by providing stimuli to shepherd the dog back in. Calculation of relative movement direction outside of and relative to the alert zone is preferably based upon reading a future position guidance zone value located in a path of sequential future position guidance zone values stored in said data table ...