Animals of the future: how will electronics change the world of pets?


    Image Source: Rick and Morty.

    Smart gadgets not only help people by counting calories and compensating for lost limbs, but they are gradually changing the animal world of the planet. After the person in line for a brighter future are our pets. You may have heard about devices that allow you to track the movement and location of animals, but in addition to this, electronics expands the physical capabilities of the "Murok" and "huskies" (and even hamsters) and the ways we interact with them.



    Love for animals sometimes manifests itself in a very peculiar way and is reflected in how and what technologies we transfer to them. According to Emily Antes, author of Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up To Biotech's Brave New Beasts, this is part of the natural process of developing wearable electronics technology. Many people treat pets as if they were their children, or at least family members - this explains the desire to know where the pet is and what it does.

    Antes also believes that specialized gadgets will help owners control the physical and psychological health of animals, because our smaller friends are not able to describe their feelings, make it clear where it hurts and what bothers them. And with the help of external or internal (implantable) devices, we could quickly receive data on the state of animals.

    The biologist Kon Slobodchikov agrees with this approach. According to him, cats and dogs can not only understand the meaning of what they are told, but also recognize our emotional state.in this moment. At the same time, they try to adapt to the mood of a person.

    Logs of animal life




    Smart watches and trackers record and record some parameters of our daily lives: the number of steps, kilometers traveled, heart rate dynamics, etc. Thanks to these data, we receive important information about our lifestyle and health status. The same applies to pets: modern fitness trackers for animals record heart rate and respiration, record the level of physical activity and location. Gadgets have appeared on sale that allow you to remotely communicate with an animal and even play.

    As a simple tracker, you can use a gadget from the Whistle company , which is attached to the collar and detects the movement of the animal with the help of a three-axis accelerometer. Logs are available for viewing on a smartphone.



    A more advanced solution is offered by Fitbark . The device records the level of activity, sleep periods, notes the dynamics, and also allows you to share the data received over the network. In the application, a comparison of the parameters of your dog with the parameters of other representatives of the same breed is available.



    The clever Voice Dog collar measures vital signs, including heart rate and respiration, records periods of activity and rest, and counts calories burned.

    Apparatus I'mTracer tracks the location of the animal. PetTracker tells you what the pet is doing: running, sleeping, wandering or sniffing. BeLuvv Gadgetinforms whether your dog or cat has gone too far. The dimensions of some devices are too big for small animals, but, say, Loc8tor or G-Paws can be attached to a cat collar.

    Otto Pet Care Systems has developed a wireless device for dogs that transmits data to the cloud service, which compares the data of a particular animal with the norm for its breed.



    This device can be paired with an automatic feeder to include in the analysis and data on calories consumed. Clicking on the icon in the smartphone will give the dog a serving of food. In the feeder there is even a camera with a microphone - for fans to watch how the dog eats.

    Maintaining health




    All this is necessary, as you know, in order to notice in time any problems with the health and emotional state of the animal. If it is important for you how much your pet will live and how, then it is advisable to periodically monitor its vital signs and behavior, especially in cases where the animal is undergoing treatment, or is recovering from surgery or an illness. It is difficult to find out how many breaths an animal takes in a minute, to find out if it has a steady pulse and if there are any heart problems without gadgets.

    You can not discount the purely "sports" function of wearable electronics for animals. If you set out to train your dog, then you can track its progress using a device like K9FITvest .

    Fitness trackers also serve to study the effect of nutrition on the condition of animals. For example, in 2012, data were collected in the United States according to which 52% of dogs and 58% of cats are overweight or obese. And according to a 14-year study commissioned by Purina, maintaining an ideal weight can extend the life of a dog by an average of 15%. For labradors, for example, it's almost two years. Data was collected using complex and expensive motion sensors, because when the program started, wearable electronics did not exist. Modern gadgets are cheaper, more reliable and can collect much more information.

    Fitness trackers for animals allow you to indirectly control the health ... of the owners. Small changes in the pet's behavior signal some problems in the people with whom he lives. This is especially pronounced in dogs of lonely old people. Moreover, the dogs are sensitive not only to poor health, but even to the poor mood of the owner - for example, when he is depressed.

    Cameras and games




    Cameras are used both for monitoring and for introducing diversity into the daily life of an animal. Dropcam is used to communicate with the animal, since the device is equipped with a microphone and speaker, although formally this is not a wearable gadget, but a camera for home observation.

    If you live in a private house, you can attach the camera to the door for the cat / dog to know when the animal comes out and returns. Detailed instructions are on Github .

    Lightweight waterproof action cameras for cats and dogs are manufactured by Eyenimal. Three shooting modes are supported: continuous, when motion is detected, and guidance mode.



    The Petcube device uses animal weakness to points from laser beams. The gadget is equipped with a camera and a low-power laser with a servo drive. While you are not at home, you can play with a cat or dog by controlling the laser using a smartphone. Through Facebook, you can even transfer laser control to your friends.

    Biological Upgrade Technologies




    Scientists have found that the level of intelligence and consciousness of dogs can be compared with human children . And there is a possibility that in the future wearable electronics will be used for soft biological upgrade of animals, increasing their already considerable mental abilities, as it turned out. But we must understand that the animals themselves do not need this, and therefore there is a risk that such technologies will be used with malicious intent. At least for the sake of deeper exploitation, and not for the sake of facilitating their lives.

    Georgia Tech Research Team Creates FIDO Experimental Device(Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations - facilitating interaction with service dogs). The gadget is designed to simplify and improve the work with guide dogs, search and rescue dogs and police dogs.



    FIDO allows animals to remotely send messages to humans. For this, the device is equipped with a special module that the dog can pull, bite and poke his nose. The development is still far from complete, but the creators are full of hopes to implement a full-fledged wireless communicator that transfers data to a smartphone or smart glasses.



    If the developers succeed, then with the help of FIDO the efficiency of guide dogs, service dogs and dogs providing medical (psychological) assistance will increase. In everyday life, such devices will “teach” the dog to talk: she will let you know when she is hungry or wants to go out.

    A similar system is being developed at the University of North Carolina. In this case, developers are interested in search and rescue tasks. DeviceIt is a kind of harness (or harness), equipped with sensors and able to interpret the different behavior of the dog and its posture, as well as transmit human commands using the speaker and vibromotors. In addition, the system also records the vital signs of the dog: heartbeat, body temperature, and much more.



    Auburn University creates a device for controlling a dog using a mobile application. And do not forget about the crowdfunding project No More Woof (no more barking), thanks to which "the animal’s thoughts are translated into human speech."



    True, it is still difficult to say whether this will become another zilch or not. According to the developers, the device reads electrical impulses in the dog’s brain and tries to interpret its feelings and thoughts. But given the certain limitations of electroencephalography, the success of the project has to be doubted.

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