Devices such as
Just how many of those will be worn by dogs remains to be seen.
Wearable technology's potential to give animals a voice has led to the program Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations (FIDO). Thad Starner, technical lead for Google Glass, along with Georgia Institute of Technology professor Melody Jackson and research assistant Clint Zeagler, created FIDO to enable clearer communication between service dogs and their human handlers.
It's no wonder that Jackson saw the potential for canine wearable tech. In addition to serving as director of Georgia Tech's Center for BioInterface Research, she's also spent the last 18 years training service dogs.
"We finally made the connection that we could have wearable tech for assistance dogs," Jackson recently told TechNewsWorld. "That blossomed into other types of applications for all kinds of areas -- like military, bomb-sniffing, etc. We found so many utility avenues that we could go with for FIDO, and the more we started thinking, the more applications we found."
FIDO works by outfitting a service dog with a sensor that attaches to a collar or vest. When the dogs interact with the sensor -- a bite, a tug, a nudge with the nose -- the dog's handler receives a corresponding signal. For bomb-sniffing dogs, this could be "explosive device ahead." A dog trained to sense cancer in human patients could trigger an alert for "pancreatic cancer."
Dogs equipped with FIDO technology would be trained to associate a particular scent with each specific sensor, giving them a range of expressions to use when alerting their human partners. The technology is so simple that a dog with previous service training can learn the system and its commands in just 15 minutes.
The implications for technology like FIDO are far-reaching. With FIDO, a rescue dog could communicate the location of an injured person to a handler located safely outside of a hazardous zone. The same can be said for bomb-sniffing dogs, who might one day be able to use FIDO to alert their human partners about just what kind of explosives they've found. Dogs trained to detect diseases may be able to give specifics to doctors about locations and types of illnesses.
But perhaps more immediately useful is FIDO's ability to enable service dogs to better communicate with those living with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments. With a tug of the sensor, a service dog can alert its owner that a bus is coming, or that there's a staircase ahead.
Few others have waded into the field of canine wearables, but if FIDO finds success, competitors will pour into the market. If that happens, within a few years, when your dog tells you he needs to go out, he might actually tell you he needs to go out. Saying "please," however, may require more training.
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