Have you ever wanted to keep in touch with your dog while you are away at work and your dog is hanging out at home? What if your dog could reach out to you and send a picture of what she was up to? Sound crazy? Two inventive programmers figured this puzzle out.
Greg Baugues, a developer evangelist at Twilio, got the idea to mix some gentle doggy training with some homespun technology to teach his dog to send selfies while Greg was at work. He first noticed how easy it was to get Kaira, his puppy, to press the floor switch of his floor lamp. With the help of generous treats, he used positive reinforcement training to get Kaira to turn on the lamp whenever he said the word “light.” Most of us would stop there and call it a day; but not Greg. Using an old cigar box, a big red button, an Arduino microcontroller, and a camera, Greg concocted a device that would take a picture when the red button was pressed and send it to him via text message. He even documented the process, including code, in a post on the Twilio blog. Now Greg receives selfies all day long.
Baugues credits his inspiration to another inventive dog owner. Chad Hart used Twilio technology for a creative hack too. Chad, a hacker in the best sense of the word, wanted to know what his dog was doing while he was at work. He rigged up a used a webcam, along with computer vision technology to send him an SMS whenever Levy, his large Old English Bulldog, jumped up on the couch while Chad was away at work. Chad, a true technologist employed a remote control robot to coax Levy off the couch. Of course he did. And again, source code included in his blog post on the project.
So, what’s next? Do you want to know if your dog is barking at every passerby in your neighborhood? Will the Twilio API become the next must-have dog technology. Check your local pet store to find out. Here are the links if you want to see photos, videos, and selfies included.
twilio.com/blog/2015/03/how-my-dog-sends-selfies.html
webrtchacks.com/javascript-dog-trainer/
Dennis O’Brien is a karaoke singing, moroccan stew making, elvis-jumpsuit wearing lover of news. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Scoop. His childhood dog, Missy, was the inspiration for this article because for now he only has wild parrots for animal companions due to San Francisco rental rules.
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