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Smart gadgets not only help people by counting calories and compensating for lost limbs, but also gradually change the fauna of the planet. After a person in line for a brighter future are our pets. You could hear about the 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 the huskies (and at least the 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 development process of wearable electronics technology. Many people treat pets, like their children, or at least family members — this explains the desire to know where the pet is and what it does.
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Antes also believes that specialized gadgets will help the owners to 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 concerns them. And with the help of external or internal (implantable) devices, we could quickly obtain data on the state of animals.

The biologist Con 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 at this moment. At the same time they try to adapt to the mood of the person.

The logs of animal life

Smart watches and trackers record and record some parameters of our daily life: the number of steps, the kilometers traveled, the dynamics of the heart rate, etc. Thanks to this data we get important information about our lifestyle and state of health. The same applies to pets: modern fitness trackers for animals record the pulse and respiration rates, record the level of physical activity and location. Gadgets are on sale that allow you to remotely communicate with animals and even play.

As an unpretentious tracker, you can use a gadget from Whistle , which is mounted on the collar and records 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 registers the level of activity, periods of sleep, notes the dynamics, and also allows you to share the data obtained over the network. In the application, you can compare the parameters of your dog with the parameters of other representatives of the same breed.



The Smart Dog Intelligent Collar measures vital signs, including heart rate and breathing, records activity and rest periods, and counts calories burned.

The iTracer device tracks the location of the animal. PetTracker tells you what the pet is doing: running, sleeping, wandering, or sniffing. The BeLuvv gadget informs you if your dog or cat has gone too far. The size of some devices is too big for small animals, but, say, Loc8tor or G-Paws can be easily 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 mated with an automatic feeder to include calorie intake data and analysis. Clicking on the icon in the smartphone will give the dog a portion of food. There is even a camera with a microphone in the feeder - for those who like to watch how the dog eats.

Health maintenance

All this is necessary, as you understand, in order to notice any problems with the health and emotional state of the animal in time. If it is important for you how long your pet will live and how, then it is advisable to periodically monitor its vital signs and behavior, especially in cases when the animal is undergoing treatment, or is recovering from surgery or an illness. It is difficult to calculate how many breaths an animal makes in a minute, to find out if it has a steady pulse and if there are no heart problems without gadgets.

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

Fitness trackers are also used to study the effect of nutrition on the condition of animals. For example, in 2012, data was 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-old study commissioned by Purina, maintaining an ideal weight can extend the lifespan of a dog by an average of 15%. For labradors, for example, it's almost two years. Data was collected using sophisticated and expensive motion sensors, because when the program began, wearable electronics were not there yet. Modern gadgets are cheaper, more reliable and allow you to 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 with the people with whom he lives. This is especially pronounced in lonely old dogs. Moreover, dogs react sensitively not only to the deterioration of health, but even to the bad mood of the owner - for example, when he is covered with depression.

Cameras and games

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

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

Lightweight waterproof action cameras for cats and dogs are made by Eyenimal. Three shooting modes are supported: continuous, with motion detection 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 servo. While you are not at home, you can play with a cat or a dog, controlling the laser using a smartphone. Through Facebook, you can even transfer laser control to your friends.

Biological upgrade technologies

Scientists have found that in terms of intelligence and consciousness of dogs can be compared with human children . And it is likely that in the future wearable electronics will be used for a 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 it, and therefore there is a risk that such technologies will be used with malicious intent. At a minimum, for even deeper exploitation, and not to make their lives easier.

A team of researchers from Georgia Tech has created an experimental device FIDO (Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations - facilitating interaction with service dogs). The gadget is designed to simplify and improve the work with guide dogs, rescue search and police dogs.



FIDO allows animals to remotely send messages to people. To do 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 realize a full-fledged wireless communicator that transmits data to a smartphone or smart glasses.



If developers succeed, then using FIDO will increase the efficiency of guide dogs, working dogs and dogs providing medical (psychological) assistance. In everyday life, such devices will “teach” the dog to talk: it will inform you when it is hungry or wants to go outside.

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



At Auburn University, a device is being created to control a dog using a mobile application. And let's not forget about the crowdfunding project No More Woof (no more barking), thanks to which “animal's thoughts are translated into human speech”.



True, it is difficult to say whether it 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 specific limitations of electroencephalography, the success of the project has to be doubted.