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The Daily Mail reports that:
Basil the blind dog was picked up by rescuers who noticed he could not walk five yards without bumping into something.
Now, thanks to an innovative new gadget from America, Basil has been given a new lease of life - and his carers hope they will now be able to find a family to permanently house him.
The four-year-old Corgi cross has been given a special guard to wear around his head, which manufacturers call the 'Muffin's Halo'. The light-weight tubular metal ring stops Basil from bumping into objects, allowing him to run around freely without bruising himself. It is attached to his body with a harness and a pillow, which is fashioned to look like angel wings. The 'halo' is designed to be slightly longer and wider than the wearer and when it touches an object, it puts pressure on Basil's shoulders, teaching him to turn away.
Yes, the device is as simple as it sounds but it seems to work and the dog seems happy. Sometimes, going hi-tech just isn't necessary.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by d on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:45AM
IMHO this news is completely offtopic. If we define "innovatve" as "something that didn't exist before", then MAYBE it is innovative, but is this invention any little surprising?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:52AM
How is it significantly different from a cone collar. Oh right, the dog is blind. Let's pretend that makes a difference because it really doesn't.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:03PM
Er it's completely different, perhaps? The cone collar prevents the dog from licking and biting itself. This device allows the dog to do all of that. Gee do you look at anything with wheels and say "these are all cars" be they rollerblades or the landing gear of a 777?
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday July 09 2014, @01:12PM
You asked, so I'll tell you:
The cone collar serves an entirely different purpose. It is designed to prevent the dog from scratching itself either by preventing the rear leg being brought near to the head or by twisting the head around and using the teeth, to to stop the dog licking a wound or the medication applied to a wound. There may be yet more uses for a cone collar. However it does not stop a partially blind dog from walking into things.
This 'halo' does not interfere with the dog's scratching but is, if one will, a white stick replacement usable by the dog.
As I have already said, not everything has to be hi-tech to be a good idea. I hadn't seen such a thing in use elsewhere, it is not commonplace, it is simple and it works. Now, it may be that the article is not scientific enough for your personal tastes. To be honest, I agree with you. But this site has stated that it will try to balance stories such that 60-70% are of a technical nature. This is part of the other 30-40%. Somebody thought it worth spending some time submitting it, and I agree it is of interest, so I edited it. You don't have to like every story that gets published, and it would be an impossible task for us to try to achieve that with every story and for the entire community. Relax, let it wash over you, and enjoy the rest of your day.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Wednesday July 09 2014, @09:52AM
Well, I was surprised that it worked. I was also surprised that it was styled as a halo and wings.
1702845791×2
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Wednesday July 09 2014, @10:13AM
Well it's as newsworthy as "New version of desktop OS released, icons and buttons reshuffled, again" or "New version of mobile OS released, more hops to jump through to get the same functionality as before, as user and/or dev", which would be the honest way of report them :)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @07:08PM
"Now, thanks to an innovative new gadget from America"
America is so unable to make anything innovative that we consider something so simple and mundane as this to be innovative and something worth bragging about and attaching our name to. Have we really devolved this much as a society. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if someone gets sued for patent infringement or ends up paying some patent troll money over this. Our broken and bought legal system prevents anything truly innovative from coming out of America anymore.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing (I think it's a good thing) just that trying to use this as an example of how innovative America is shows how not so innovative we are.