Archive for the ‘pet tech’ Category
Ben Heck Wants to Help Your Obese Cat Lose Weight
Tech geek Ben Heckendorn, or Ben Heck as he’s called on his show on element14, is a master of hacking old electronics to create new mods. For folks in the Bay Area, Ben’s the kind o’ guy you’d find at Maker Faire building cool gadgets, or in the case of this year, judging the fair’s Hackerspace Challenge. Appropriately, for the recent Thanksgiving holiday episode, he used electronics “leftovers” to build an automated cat exerciser for cats whose owners are too busy (or too lazy) to exercise them.
I won’t lie — the video was a bit too technical for me to keep my interest (I’m more analog/This Old House), but you can’t help but be impressed by his handiwork. And I love that you can register for a chance to win Ben’s custom cat exerciser! FYI – the contest ends on Dec. 31, 2011, so there’s still time to enter. Read the rest of this entry »
Scannable QR Code ID Tags
PetHub, a Seattle-based software company that makes pet safety products has created a scannable QR code ID tag. The tags were first developed and tested in November 2010 in the Seattle area, but after a successful soft launch, PetHub launched nationwide in March 2011.
My first thought when I heard of these tags is, “Why is this better than a normal ID tag?” It’s an extra step to have to scan the tag, rather than just looking at it and seeing a name and a phone number. And what if your pet is found by some luddite who doesn’t have a smart phone or computer? They might not even know what the hell a QR code is, let alone know you gotta scan the darn thing.
Upon looking into the PetHub tags, what I did like is that the QR codes can hold extra info that your run-of-the-mill pet ID tag can’t, like your pet’s veterinarian contact information, medical information, and dietary information. Owners can easily update this information via the PetHub website, to make sure all the information is current. And if a pet goes missing, owners can use PetHub to send out email/text alerts, display alerts on PetHub.com, and send shelter notifications.
PetHub’s scannable ID tags are $12.95-$29.95, include a free web profile for each animal, and a free “Bronze” subscription that
includes data storage about your animal.
What do you think Pawesomers, is this cool or not? Would you use it?
Smartphone App For Adoption Applications
These days (old person alert!), it seems like more and more day-to-day transactions are happening on smartphones and tablet devices. Yet go to any shelter or rescue group to adopt an animal, and you’re likely to start the process by filling out an old fashioned paper application. But even that may be about to change.
Mad Lips Makes Your Pets Ever Weirder
If you get a kick out of making funny videos of your pets and you own a newer iPhone, you might wanna download Mad Lips, a new app that allows you to make weird moving (and talking) photos of anything and everything, including your own furry, feathered, or finned friend. How it works is simple. First, you take a new or existing picture. Then, you create a separate video (or choose one from your video library), and capture a small element from it (e.g. talking lips, blinking eyes, wagging tongue, etc.). Then you superimpose that moving element on top of your photo. Check out the Mad Lips creation I made of Biggie after the jump. Definitely creepy…
