Do dogs have their own phones?
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Dogs generally appreciate being able to see their owners whenever they want, but they tend to make calls for no reason.
Dogs will be able to make calls too. Scientists have created video conferencing software for dogs so they can call their owners when they are at work. In doing so, they found that dogs in general appreciate being able to see their owners whenever they want, but are prone to making calls for no reason.
Not very productive
Scientists have found that, from a human point of view, letting your pet call you on Zoom whenever they want doesn’t always make the day the most productive.
“Sometimes it was nice. He called me, and I said a few words to him and hung up,” says Ilyena Hirsky-Douglas from the University of Glasgow, who created DogPhone and tried it on her dog Zach. “But if I was busy, it was not always so pleasant. “
The idea for the DogPhone came about after Hirsky-Douglas discovered a clear asymmetry in canine technology. There are dozens of devices that humans can use to communicate with their dogs when they are at work, but none of them allow the dog to gesture back.
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EPA
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Phone inside the ball
Hirsky-Douglas, a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science in Glasgow, felt it needed to be fixed. To implement the DogPhone idea, she settled on a ball, hiding an accelerometer inside, which, when shaken, displayed a video conferencing screen. The downside to this, she found, is that the dogs already enjoy playing with the ball. In one case, as described in an article by Hirsky-Douglas published in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 14 calls due to Zack falling asleep while holding the ball and having exciting dreams… However, she believes DogPhone has a great future. “
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