Extending tech to pets is hardly new. If anything, this year’s CES 2016 saw a burst in popularity for such products, with the debut of quite a large number of wearables you could latch onto your dog or cat’s collar — whether to track their location, or their fitness activity.
Tracy Trackers is another such device that can track your dog’s location, but it also uses artificial intelligence to monitor your dog’s health. It can also let you know when your dog wants to go out to run, play, and even go to the bathroom. But the best part is that as you keep using the tracker, it learns your dog’s behavioral patterns and becomes more accurate.
The AI monitors your dog’s sleeping, eating, and drinking patterns, then analyzes all that data — along with that of other dogs of the same breed in the database. The tracker attaches to your dog’s collar, and has a 3D accelerometer that senses your dog’s movements to learn activity patterns. All of this data can be viewed in the free iOS and Android app.
“Based on these patterns, the app can say, ‘OK your dog is not feeling well on this day in regards to other dogs in the same breed and weight class,’ and it will give you tips and whether you should go to a veterinarian or not,” founder Artan Mansouri told Digital Trends.
Mansouri says his company, which operates under a team of 10 people in Sweden, is working with a professor of zoology to build and curate a database of dog breeds. The company also gathered data from local dog shelters. All this information in the database tries to provide an overview of what the best practices are for a healthy lifestyle for every dog breed.
Unlike traditional trackers that have a GPS chip and require a SIM card to track your dog, the Tracy Trackers device uses a base station that’s installed in your home and connects to your Wi-Fi. It pairs with the tracker on your dog’s collar, but the base station has a range of up to around six miles. The company crowdsources this data to create a wider net that you can utilize, but one downside is that it works best only if more people install Tracy Trackers in their home.
You can follow a dog’s location in real time, and you can also set up geofences to alert you when your dog leaves a safe zone. The battery lasts for 6 months, so you don’t have to worry about recharging it often.
The waterproof tracker is launching on Indiegogo on Tuesday, with the company looking for funding for mass production. The Tracy Trackers cost $249 each, which includes the base station and the tracker. Additional trackers will cost $99, and the trackers will ship three months after the campaign ends.
