The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 13, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 24, 2002
Tetsuo Kuroda, Kanagawa, JP;
Hidemitsu Otsuka, Tokyo, JP;
Ichiro Kamiya, Tokyo, JP;
Yuzo Narasaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Ebara Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method and an apparatus for measuring the moisture content of the soil in order to enable pF value based control of irrigation in cultivation on the soil, as well as a method and an apparatus which use the first-mentioned method and apparatus to enable pF value based control of irrigation. To attain these objects, the invention provides a method for measuring the pF value (soil moisture tension) of the soil, comprising the steps of (a) preliminarily determining the correlation between pF value and volumetric water content of the soil to be measured, (b) measuring the volumetric water content of the soil, and (c) converting the value of the volumetric soil water content of the soil measured in the above step (b) to the corresponding pF value on the basis of the correlation between pF value and volumetric water content predetermined in the above step (a). Also a method and an apparatus for controlling the irrigation of the soil based on the measurement of the pF value by the method.