By Kyle Ellington
Dogs are some of the smartest and most loyal animals on the planet people train them to do specific tasks for them such as helping blind people or even being rescue dogs. Now Ben-Gurion University in Israel, researchers have found a new way to interact with these animals: Giving dogs a haptic jacket that can be used to provide instructions through specific vibrations. With this vest people could communicate with dogs from a far distance using the click of a mouse or the tap of a mobile device in scenarios when other forms of communication are not available. Researcher Yoav Golan said, “We developed a dog vest that has four embedded vibration motors” the team used their prototype device to demonstrate that it is possible for dogs to learn multiple haptic commands in a way that could prove useful. They were able to demonstrate that dogs could tell the difference between two different-but-similar signal patterns. They taught the dog a “spin” command, as well as a “walk backward” command.
The first of these was signified by a constant vibration on its front-right side. The second was signified by a pulsing vibration at the same location. The dog was successfully able to tell the difference between the two commands, showing that a small number of motors can be used to send a potentially large number of different commands.
For the next step in theses stages researchers aim to test out the technology on many dogs of varying breeds, ages and training backgrounds. This will give a better idea of how quick some dogs are to learn haptic commands, what type of commands are easier to distinguish, and details such as how different types of fur affect received sensations.
The device presents a lot of positive possibilities on how rescue dogs will be used in the future. To be able to just send a signal of various commands to dogs will make things far more efficient during times of natural disasters or even search and rescues especially since you can send them at a long distance.
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