SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
North Carolina State University researchers have developed a suite of technologies that can be used to enhance communication between dogs and humans, which has applications in everything from search and rescue to service dogs to training our pets.
“We’ve developed a platform for computer-mediated communication between humans and dogs that opens the door to new avenues for interpreting dogs’ behavioral signals and sending them clear and unambiguous cues in return,” says Dr. David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-lead author of a paper on the work. “We have a fully functional prototype, but we’ll be refining the design as we explore more and more applications for the platform.” The platform itself is a harness that fits comfortably onto the dog, and which is equipped with a variety of technologies.
http://news.ncsu.edu/2014/10/bozkurt-dogs-2014/
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=6914468 [Paywalled]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @02:35PM
i know, right? i can't imagine how this will benefit anyone other than the inventors and manufacturers of this technology. man has been training dogs for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. one of the great things about using dogs is that they are an abundant and cheap resource. if you have to strap tech-gear to each one that costs hundreds of dollars, they aren't cheap and abundant anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @04:54PM
Americans spend $61 billion on their pets annually. [usnews.com]
"Cheap" hasn't been the operative term for at least a decade.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:39PM
compared to children or other potential human laborers, animal laborers are dirt cheap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @07:43PM
also, note that i used the phrase 'benefit anyone'. yes, there are suckers born every minute that will buy this for their pets. i doubt it will do them much good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 04 2014, @08:02PM
Ah another one of those people who hide behind completely ambiguous escape clauses.
Some people think discussion is to increase understanding among the group and then there are those like yourself who think discussion is best used for public masturbation - most people will just roll their eyes but a few of them will watch rapturously and may even applaud.