Find Out How Stressed Out Your Dog Really Is
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/Rose-Eveleth-240.jpg)
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20121203103021saddog1.jpg)
Is this really sad-looking dog actually sad?
How about this one?
One technology company has a new strategy for figuring out what dogs really are thinking. If tracking your own personal feelings, calories, productivity and health weren’t keeping you busy enough, the Japanese company Fujitsu wants you to be able to do it for your dog too! The Wall Street Journal writes:
In what Fujitsu claims is the first pet management service of its kind, the firms says it will launch on Wednesday a new Web-linked pet healthcare management service, called “Wandant”, that will allow owners to count their dog’s every step, stress levels and surrounding temperature even when they are apart.
The Wandant can offer clues on a dog’s stress level by analyzing its “buru buru score”, using a Japanese onomatopoeia that denotes shaking. The device can detect the dog’s shivering motions, which may indicate it has an irritable ear itch. Thermo-hygrometer sensors can also relay external temperature changes.
This app isn’t quite as ambitious as another dog-human communications project that the Japanese company Takara is working on—a Bowlingual app that “translates and emotion from your dog’s barking.” Of course, it’s still being developed, so “depending on the situation to be used, not correct language may be displayed on that occasion. The Bowitter is a fan communication app that encourage close communication between dogs alls owners.”
The examples that Bowlingual gives of some translations are things like “I wish I could be more help!” and “Spend more time to take care of me!”
More from Smithsonian.com:
Top Dogs
Tracking America’s First Dogs
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/Rose-Eveleth-240.jpg)