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How we do the first Russian tracker for dogs Mishiko

Hello, readers of Geektimes!

My name is Daniel Dymshits, and I work in a team that is now launching its first product on the market - a smart collar for dogs Mishiko . Here he is:


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This is a device that allows you to find out through your smartphone (iOS / Android) where your dog is and how active it has been during the day. We do not just a gadget, but a whole platform for launching Internet of Things projects, and the first of them is a clever collar for dogs Mishiko .

In this blog, we will talk about how we developed the device, how it works, and, of course, we will tell the stories of the first testers and owners of Mishiko, who already use the device every day. But let's go in order!

How it all began


The idea of ​​the project was born a few years ago, when Intech, a developer of large and complex B2B solutions for telecom operators, decided to try new directions. The Internet of things seemed to be a great start, and, all the more, an adjacent approach with our main telecom business. Then we started generating ideas, stopped at a dog tracker, and started thinking about what he should be able to do and how to look. This is where we started:



Looks easy for now, right?

As can be seen from the inscription on the plaster block, we decided to call the device Spotty.

Then we thought about the idea of ​​a fitness tracker for dogs. That is, a device that would consider the activity of the dog during walks synchronized with the mobile application and showed all this in the form of beautiful graphs. We found a series of studies that said that obesity is one of the main problems in dogs, due to which they lose up to several years of life (more precisely, due to the weight-related diseases).

But in parallel with the start of work on the project, we went “to the fields” and talked in more detail with the dog breeders. It turned out that yes, watching the activity of a dog is, of course, useful (oddly enough, many breeders have come across overweight in domestic dogs). Yes, and tracking the activity of a dog is also a fun and interesting thing, but ... This is not at all the main problem and pain for the owner of the dog. Much more important for everyone with whom we communicated was the search function for the dog in case of its loss. Usually, at this stage, the breeders of the dogs with whom we communicated turned red and began to talk with horror about how they lost their pets.

We studied the market and quickly realized that we can become a truly advanced product only if we can combine GPS tracking and activity monitoring in one device. And, of course, do it all on a fundamentally new level of quality for trackers. We immediately discarded all thoughts about the Chinese base — all Chinese trackers at prices ranging from $ 15 to $ 90, which we tested, worked just awful. A curve software, a wobbly case and a heap of marriage.

It was decided to make a tracker from scratch. So that he had every chance to occupy his niche. We decided not to save on industrial design, not to save on electronic components, not to save on materials. As a result, gradually improving the hull and engineering from gypsum to the first 3D variants that looked like this:



And in the end we came to this:


Mishiko on a wireless charging station: no need to even take off your collar to recharge


Aluminum base of the case for fastening to the collar and SoftTouch cover


Included with the tracker itself is the collar.

What changed


Over the years, everything has changed in the device. First, the project received Western investment and received a new start, already with the support of the European team. Secondly, the name Spotty (which, as we later found out, it was impossible to register as a trademark anywhere except in Russia and the CIS), changed to Mishiko, nicknamed one of the dogs of the European investor.

Now the project has turned into an international one, and the Mishiko tracker itself is a fascinating epic of a Russian device development from the world of the “Internet of things”. Now we are sure that Mishiko is one of the most advanced devices on the market. And that's why:




The project, though international, is also in place!

In the following posts - the first testers reviews, live photos and, of course, DOGS.

Stay tuned!

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/397711/


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