Dogs can call their owners by shaking and picking up a new device that allows them to do this.
Devised at the University of Glasgow, the device, called ‘DogPhone’, is a toy ball containing an accelerometer – a device that detects motion of an object.
An accelerometer can sense movement to initiate a video chat on a laptop. Dogs are able to communicate with their owners even while at work by seeing and hearing them.
Dogs may initially be confused when their owner shakes DogPhone. However, they will soon begin to identify touching the phone with their owner.
Over time, they’ll therefore learn to pick up and shake the ball when they’re missing their owner and want to see them – via the internet at least.
DogPhone is a prototype at the moment. It could address separation anxiety in pets that have become accustomed to having humans around during the coronavirus epidemic.
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DogPhone is an electronic toy ball that contains an accelerometer. This device measures the object’s motion. Experts say that dogs can pick up the accelerometer and move it around to hear and see their owners on a computer screen.
DogPhone was developed by Dr Ilyena HIRSKJ-Douglas, University of Glasgow and colleagues from Aalto University (Finland).
Dr Hirskyj-Douglas is a specialist in animal-computer interaction at the University’s School of Computing Science, and owns a 10-year-old labrador, Zack, who helped with developing and testing the device.
According to her, there are hundreds of Internet-connected smart toys that can be purchased by dog owners for their pet dogs, ranging from fitness monitors and remotely controlled treat dispensers.
The vast majority are made with pet owners in mind and allow for them to communicate with their dog while on the road.
“Very few seem to think about what dogs might desire, or how technology could benefit them as living creatures with thoughts and emotions of their own.
“What I wanted to do was to transform Zack into an “user” with DogPhone, where he can make decisions about where and when he places a call.
DogPhone also allows humans to use it to contact their dogs. DogPhone rings to alert the dog when they respond.
However, the dog can ‘freely answer or ignore’ the calls by just ignoring them.
Zack can be seen here holding DogPhone in the mouth. This is as seen via live streaming.
Dr Hirskyj Douglas began by looking at Zack’s preferred toys to build DogPhone. The possibilities of Zack having a stick, a stuffed or soft toy were all considered. She ultimately decided on a soft ball.
Dr Hirskyj Douglas, a colleague at Aalto University built an internet-connected accelerometer that could be hidden inside the ball.
Zack received 16 practice days with the ball over three months after Zack demonstrated how it could be used for starting a video chat.
Zack received 18 calls during the initial iteration, which took place over two days. The majority of them were unintentional calls made while Zack was sleeping on the ball. It suggests that Zack’s accelerometer system wasn’t sensitive enough.
Zack was awake during several calls. Dr Hirskyj Douglas showed him some of their toys and he approached the screen. This suggested that he wanted interaction with his owner.
Only two calls were received in the second phase, which lasted seven days. This suggests that the accelerometer tuning was not being sensitive enough.
DogPhone was invented by Dr Ilyena Hirsch-Douglas from the University of Glasgow. Zack can be seen here.
The third phase lasted seven more days. The accelerometer tuning was again refined to eliminate accidental calls and allow deliberate calls to be made easier. Zack called 35 times in this period, an average five calls per day.
Although many seemed to be accidental, Dr Hirskyj Douglas and Zack had more important interactions.
Zack saw her entire environment through her mobile phone, including her office and underground station. She also saw a street performer.
Zack was again interested in these interactions and began to prick his ears, approaching the screen.
‘Of course, we can’t know for sure that Zack was aware of the causal link between picking up the ball and making a call, or even that some the interactions which seemed accidental were actually unintended on his part,’ said Dr Hirskyj-Douglas.
Screenshot showing online communication between Zack and Dr Hirskyj Douglas. DogPhone could empower ‘pandemic pups’ to stay in touch with their owners
‘However, it’s clear that on some occasions he was definitely interested in what he was seeing, and that he displayed some of the same behaviours he shows when we are physically together.
Over the course of the experiments, Dr Hirskyj-Douglas said she became ‘unexpectedly anxious’ when she placed a call to Zack and he wasn’t in front of the camera or he didn’t approach the screen.
‘I hadn’t considered that this might be a consequence of the two-way communication that DogPhone creates, and it’s something to consider for the next iteration of the system,’ she said.
‘Whatever form that takes, we’ve taken another step towards developing some kind of ‘dog internet’, which gives pets more autonomy and control over their interation with technology.’
Dr Hirskyj-Douglas is presenting a research paper on her work at the 2021 ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces Conference in Łódź, Poland, today.