(London) Gone, the loneliness of dogs left alone at home? Thanks to a still experimental device developed by the University of Glasgow, the faithful four-legged companions will be able to make a video call to their masters and interact remotely.
The “DogPhone” was invented by Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a specialist in animal-computer interaction at the University of Glasgow, who seeks to improve the lives of animals through technology with the help of Zack, her black Labrador. age 10, and colleagues from Aalto University in Finland.
It is the “first system of its kind allowing animals to use the internet to contact their owners,” the University of Glasgow said in a statement Wednesday.
Its inventors hope that the DogPhone, whose experimentation continues, will help alleviate separation anxiety in the large number of dogs acquired during the pandemic, who have become accustomed to the omnipresence of humans during confinement and find themselves alone since they returned to the office.
PHOTO FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW WEBSITE
Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, animal-computer interaction specialist at the University of Glasgow, with Zack, her 10-year-old black Labrador.
The system consists of a ball equipped with an accelerometer which, when shaken by the dog, triggers a video call to its owner via a laptop computer connected to the device. The owner can also call his animal, who is free to ignore the call or answer it.
After being instructed on how to use the ball, “lab assistant” Zack was given it back to play with for a period of 16 days spread over three months.
Despite a few accidental calls, the Labrador used the prototype to contact his owner and show him the toys they often play together, “suggesting he wanted to interact with his owner,” the statement said. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas showed him her workplace, a restaurant, and even a street musician, prompting her pet to prick up its ears and approach the screen.
“Of course, we can’t be sure that Zack is aware of the causal link between picking up the ball and making a call, or even that some of the seemingly accidental interactions are really accidental,” commented the researcher.
“But it’s clear that in some cases he was really interested in what he was seeing, and that he adopted some of the same behaviors that he shows when we are physically together,” she added.