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tive human-computer interaction for people with severe disabilities. FIDO was a group idea that came about last fall, when she, Pryor, Zeagler and Starner “had an ‘a-ha’ moment when we realized we could do textiles for pet applications,” she said. “By December we had proposals to send to funding organizations and last semester student teams built the sensors. We’ve come a long way in eight months.” Dr. Moore Jackson says FIDO is in the “very preliminary, initial research stage” and that it will require “several years of field testing in real scenarios” before the application of the technology is commonplace. “The goal is commercial use within four years.” “The original idea was to help assistance dogs communicate,” she said. “A friend had epilepsy and her dog detects seizures. When she became unconscious the dog would lick her face. We started thinking, what if the dog could say something and have someone call 911 and then we thought, what if the dog could call 911? We figured dogs could send a text and most smart phones have GPS.
From there, the idea snowballed.” FIDO may revolutionize how bombsniffing dogs and handlers work. “Bomb-sniffing dogs locate a bomb and bark, which is not safe for the dog,” Dr. Moore Jackson said. “Now the enemies know there’s a dog [and people] present. If a dog can go in remotely and tell what kind of bomb it is and pull a tag on the vest, the dog is never in jeopardy. It’s much safer.” Likewise, FIDO can enhance how Search and Rescue dogs operate. “With Search and Rescue the dog can find a person and pull a padded stick on its collar or a tab on the vest. Instead of running back to the handler and then having to go find the person again the dog stays with the person,” Dr. Moore Jackson said. The Drug Enforcement Agency and police K9 departments can also benefit from employing FIDO. Said Dr. Moore Jackson, “With drug-sniffing, the dogs can tell what drugs are present. Often times there are masking agents involved so a dog can alert if there’s a coffee smell, for instance, to let agents know they should check out that package.”
Sky wearing a FIDO vest with a proximity sensor on it
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he breeds used so far have been retrievers – Goldens and Labs, and crossbreeds of them – and Border Collies, but Dr. Moore Jackson said, “When testing is expanded to include military dogs we will be testing German Shepherd Dogs and Belgian Malinois as well.” Dr. Moore Jackson anticipates the technology being used for pet owners to communicate remotely with their pets and for home security, too. In homes that are wired electronically, dogs could let themselves out into the yard and owners could watch them on camera. Dogs can also alert owners if burglars enter the yard or the premises. To illustrate how FIDO can help people with disabilities, Dr. Moore Jackson told an anecdote of one of her blind students being alerted when his guide dog stopped walking, an act of “intelligent disobedience.” The student used his collapsible cane to determine what the problem may be and couldn’t find any. So he forged on and stepped in wet cement. There were no barricades put around the area and the dog was trying to prevent him from proceeding. Had the dog been able to tug on a sensor and send a vibrating text message to a cell phone or audible warning to an earpiece, the accident could’ve been avoided. “It’s been really fun to work on and it’s really wonderful to take my dog to work,” she said. “That’s the greatest privilege.” “It’s funny how life prepares you,” she said. “It’s all come together. I combined my computer background and passion for dogs. I was in industry for years but I love academia because you can have wild ideas and get funding for it and actually find an application and you can do it. We’re going to change how we interact with dogs.” From health and fitness monitors to glasses and other wearable computing devices, Juniper Research expects nearly 15 million wearable units to be sold this year, to the tune of $800 million, with nearly 70 million devices expected to be sold by 2017. While it’s too early to tell how many people will splurge for Google Glass eyewear, or wear fabric that incorporates gas sensors that could monitor your health or a tooth sensor that monitors what you eat, our canine companions just may be trendsetters as they lead the way in the world of wearable computers and FIDO may be at the forefront of the movement.
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