New DogPhone lets pets video call their owners when they are home alone

Authored by countryliving.com and submitted by philamignon
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Fetching sticks and chewing toys may soon be a thing of the past, as researchers at the University of Glasgow have created a clever ball that allows dogs to video call their owners when they are feeling lonely.

Designed to tackle separation anxiety in pets, DogPhone is a soft ball fitted with an accelerometer (a device that measures movements and vibrations) which will phone owners when dogs shake it. When a movement is sensed, a signal is sent to a laptop which launches a video call.

Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a specialist in animal-computer interaction at the university's School of Computing Science, worked with her 10-year-old Labrador Zack to create the device.

As part of the creation process, Zack was left to play with the toy for 16 days over a period of three months. While there were some accidental calls, researchers found Zack showed Dr Ilyena his ball on the screen, suggesting he wanted to play with her. Dr Ilyena responded back to Zack, talking to him and showing him around her office.

Photographer, Basak Gurbuz Derman Getty Images

With many people heading back to work after the pandemic, its creators hope DogPhone will help address anxiety in pets that are left alone at home.

"What I wanted to do with DogPhone was find a way to turn Zack from a 'usee' of technology, where he has no choice or control over how he interacts with devices, into a 'user', where he could make active decisions about when, where, and how he placed a call," Dr Hirskyj-Douglas told .

"There are hundreds of internet-connected 'smart toys' on the market that dog owners can buy for their pets. However, the vast majority of them are built with the needs of dog owners in mind, allowing them to observe or interact with their pets while away from home.

"Very few of them seem to consider what dogs themselves might want, or how technology might benefit them as living beings with thoughts and feelings of their own."

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robnelle on December 25th, 2021 at 21:05 UTC »

This is a candidate for dumbest idea ever.