With the inception of the Coronavirus-led pandemic back in early 2020, humans understood the significance of video calls in their lives. While companies improved their video conferencing apps and services for their human users, a researcher from the University of Glasgow developed a nifty device for her pet Labrador that lets the dog video call her for a chat anytime from home. Yes, you read that right!
Aptly named the DogPhone, the device has been developed by Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a specialist in animal-computer interaction at the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science. She’s been working on various technologies to make the dog-human connection more real, and with the DogPhone, she wanted to “give dogs choices or options to do things for enrichment reasons.”
Once a dog picks up the DogPhone and shakes it in a particular motion, the accelerometer detects the movement and automatically places a video call on a laptop that is pre-set in a house. So, dogs can actually choose when to pick up the ball and shake it to make a video call to its owner for a conversation. Owners can also make a video call to their dogs and with the help of the DogPhone, and their dogs can choose to answer their call or ignore it.
You can check out a video showcasing Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas and her bipedal friend using the DogPhone in the video attached right below.
