The endearing gadget, which is still in the development stages, allows dogs to contact their owners who have gone to work and alleviate their loneliness during the difficult hours
Get to know the DogPhone, the new gadget thanks to which your dog will (perhaps) agree to be left alone at home, when you go out to work, for example.
It is a soft ball, inside which a sensor is built.
When the dog - or any other animal capable of doing so - picks up or moves the ball, the sensor will send a signal to a laptop, which will initiate a video call with the owner's phone.
From here the owner can answer the call, thus giving his lone dog a few moments of happiness, or sealing his heart and filtering him (unpleasant, but sometimes necessary).
Also, the owner can initiate a conversation with the dog, who will hear the sound of a phone ring and will have to move the ball to start the conversation (or decide to filter himself, perhaps as revenge for the abandonment).
The dog Zack holds the DogPhone in his mouth, Photo: Ilina Hirskij-Douglas / University of Glasgow
This charming development, which is not yet for sale, is the responsibility of Dr. Ilina Hirskij-Douglas of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and her loyal assistant dog, Zack.
"The technology that exists today allows us to monitor our pets and even feed them remotely, but does not give them choice and control," explained the researcher, who claims that pets that are able to make independent decisions feel better.
"This is just one way of demonstrating how dogs can control technology. We can certainly create technology for dogs," she added.
Hirskij-Douglas enlisted her black Labrador dog, Zack, to experiment with the DogPhone.
For 16 days, Zack was left alone at home for eight hours, and the researcher examined his behavior patterns.
While the dog has "called" his owner several times, it is still too early to determine if he made the contact intentionally or accidentally.
On one occasion, for example, Ilina was forced to postpone the call because she was present at the meeting, while other times, when Zack "activated the system with his buttocks, it was difficult to determine whether the operation was performed intentionally," the researcher explained in an article.
"This technology may help pets who are having difficulty parting with their owners. The idea is to give them a choice."