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First Cell Phone for Dogs
revelCyllufyalP writes "A company called PetsMobility has come out with PetCell, the first cell phone for dogs. The phone will allow users to call their dogs in case the dog gets away and also includes a GPS tracking device if the dog doesn't respond to the call. In addition, the PetCell will feature GeoFence, which will alert owners whenever their dogs wander outside a prescribed area. Will the PetCell actually prove useful to dog owners or is it just another cheap gimmick?"
My dog can pretty much chew through anything it wants. I am not sure I want him chewing on something with a battery inside. If I attach this cell to him, he will think it is his, and think he is allowed to chew on it.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
OK, dis me if you want but I happen to have a $1000 dog. Unusual purebreds come high. When he gets nervous or excited, he can scale a 6-foot fence. I'll likely wait 'till the price drops a bit but it would be a valuable service to know if he leaves the area and to be able to go out and positively track him down. The "call your dog" feature seem to me to be a subset of the other necessary functions. To call and get GPS location, you need full-bore cell functionality anyway. Hey, maybe next they will add a camera and I can see where he is.
Profanity - The sign of a small mind trying to express itself.
Not because of this.
You could still shout "stop you stupid fleabag!" and then using the GPS catch up with the dog waiting for you. Or shout "Go home" or such. Smarter dogs understand it and would obey.
But it won't work, because all the dog will hear would be some nonrecognizable screech. GSM is a psychoacoustic(sp?) audio compression model meant to be understandable and working for humans. Dogs have wider recognizable audio spectrum, focus on other frequencies than humans, and generally catch different features of the voice than humans. Shout "come" and the dog will come. Play the same "come" from mp3 player to speakers, and the dog won't recognize the signal. For dogs things like mp3, computer-generated music etc are just some nondescript noises. Sometimes, rarely they understand some very characteristic noises - barking, cat's meow etc. Audio CDs are for them about the sound quality of 72rpm vinyl records. GSM is just a random noise.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I don't think that'd make much sense. If I were asked to design a similar device, it'd be a stripped-down phone with no audio capability. Just a radio transceiver and all the extra GSM circuitry, including a slot for the SIM card that would provide my dog's phone number, and of course the GPS. It'd work a lot like those mobile services that seem to be popular in countries that have heavy GSM deployments. Maybe I'd text it 'locate' and it would reply with the current readout of the GPS tracker. Or I could call my dog's number, which would immediately hang up and then send me the text message in response. It would notify me by text if the current GPS readout shows that my dog's out of the GeoFence area.
In fact, the GPS may not even be necessary, if one has access to cellsite location information, but of course this approach will never be as accurate as GPS, and the better accuracy for this application, the better the product, naturally.
It's not really "calling" your dog, but figuring out where your dog is.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
I agree. I think good communication between the parent and child is very important. Perhaps a cell phone (GPS enabled?) would be a better device for a child in their teens, where they could call the parent at their discretion, taking responsibility, and knowing full well why such action is necessary.