PetCell GPS tracker phone for dogs

Aw yeah, you know Fido ain't be going nowhere these days if he isn't sporting a cellie, and now he can impress the ladies with some cameraphone action. PetsMobility threw down the PetsCell last year, and now they're losing an "s" and going for broke with their latest version, PetCell. Due next March, the collar mounted phone lets you talk to that furry buddy of yours, and he can even talk back, pleading with you to stop the insanity. You can assign a GPS fence for keeping track of your dog (which would seem to be as effective, though more degrading, for a kid), with his exact location accessible through a call center, and once someone does find the runaway mutt they can phone home with the "call owner" button. The $350-ish phone also supports a wireless camera for "search-and-rescue or bomb-squad missions," but we're sure you can come up with something a bit more frivolous than that.

[Via I4U]

[Erik @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

1. No mention of battery life.

2. If they added a 'shocker' and that you could make a set location via GPS to keep your dog inside (like the invisible fence) they wouldn't be able to keep these in stock.

[Cord @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Save yourself $250 and strap a $99 Mologogo tracking phone on it.
http://www.mologogo.com

[Christen da Costa @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Good point about battery life. I wrote about the article this morning on my blog and i dont recall seeing that either. Probably better then you standard cell, but not something you could let go month or weeks without charging. Soon as you made that call to your dog, you could also run the risk of killing the battery and no longer being able to track it by GPS. Best getting one of those and a micro chip GPS hooked up to the dogs brain to run a small electrical current.

[GPSguru @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I like the geofence capabilities of this unit. When making these GPS fenses people need to keep in the mind the GPS accuracy of the device. Most cell phones are accurate between 50-100 feet. I wonder how strong the GPS signal is on this device?

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I remember when this was announced last year my girlfriend went nuts over it. I guess now she'll be getting some for the doggies

[David Boss @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I agree the Mologogo tracking phone is more cost effective. Save yourself the trouble.

[Grizz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

...I hacked my neibors dog collar and I found out their dog likes to watch them have sex...

[Elias @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

We came up with something like this about 3-4 years ago for a project at FIU... I wonder if that would be considered prior art?

-- Elias

[Furry_Friend @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

"pleading with you to stop the insanity" LOL!

[bangersandmash @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

who cares where the dog is going! make one for the cat! I know she's up to no, good! One of these for a cat and a little GIS software should help me track her movements and thwart her plans to overthrow humanity.

[Anthony Pappano @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! I love my dogs and if they became lost I would want to ensure that I find them quickly but this is ridiculious. GPS tech will one day become a standard for locating people and pets...but not now. Has anyone tried a product called PET-FINDER?

It's a kind of a pet tag, but more like a lost pet calling card. I saw it on the American Humane web site and it's great! You enter 3 contact phone numbers into the system private speed dial system and if a Pet is lost the person finding it dials a toll free number on the tag and is automatically connected directly to any or all of the numbers. The system even lets you change the numbers (and a recorded message) any you need. Best of all its cheap, it sells for around $14 but I paid $10 via an American Humane discount code. If your looking for something thats much better than a regular Id tag and really works, check it out and your pet won't have to wear that amazingly large collar in the picture. http://www.finderproducts.com (for the discount check out http://americanhumane.org)

[Rabidsquirl77 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Why the hell would you want to waste $400 dollars on one of these things anyway? And also whoever posted the questions about battery life, go out and get a life! The other people who need a life are the ones who came up with the idea in the first place

[crysalis @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

ok this is alright, but why don't they just make a GPS tracking device? A device that could show you on a palm pilot or cell phone (via gprs perhaps) exactly where your pet is. It would be way more useful than this, and it would give us exactly what we want. Or at least exactly what i want.

[Barry Stiefel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Someone in our office just called my attention to this blog discussion in as much as it has some relevance to, and mentions a product that our company, has produced, petFINDER. Having reviewed these entries and as we have worked closely with the American Humane Association, I'd like to provide some quick perspective on the issue of GPS as a proactive measure that can be taken against the chance of loosing your pet.

GPS, as the technology exists right now for personal use, is best utilized as a location finding solution for mapping and directions. That is not to say that it doesn't work as a solution for finding pets (or even lost children), its just that it's not very practical at this point. As every one can see from the photo, the unit (and there are in fact other GPS devises for pets) is quite large and would not be suitable for most dogs...and not at all for cats. In time the size issue may be solved but for right now unless your dog is large, it's not for you.

Then there is the issue of cost....for those of us that are owners, cost might not be an issue when it comes to the safety of our pets. However, at around $350 that is not the end of the cost. What the article did not mention is that there is a monthly service fee that will run between $20 to $50 a month....and don't believe any marketing from a company that tells you different or gives you a lower estimate (just wait until the service is up and running and then ask them).

OK...your pet means a lot to you, so you're willing to look past the issues of unit size and cost...but taking those issues into mind, you darn well want to know that the system is going to work....When The Time Comes That Your Pet Is Lost. The final consideration to look at is the reliability factor. Without going into long explanations, GPS reception can be affected by weather conditions and location. for example, just bringing the pet indoors (as someone helpful might do upon finding your pet)can drastically cut down on reception, meaning there could be little or no signal that would register on the devise the owner is using to track their pet.

If he was lost, knowing the exact location of my dog would be great, but things are not there yet. In the mean time, the single best way to ensure that you'll be reunited with a lost pet, is to ensure that the pet has an ID Tag with current info. American Humane is very strong about this and says that an ID tag is "The first line of defense in the return of a lost pet".

Everyone hears about micro-chips, and while they are fine for what they do, there are a lot of people who mistakenly believe that chipping their pet is the ultimate protection....It Isn't! Anybody involved in pet rescue will tell you the chip really only effective if your pet ends up in a shelter and in this regard, is more like a "last line of defense". Micro-chips are not calculated to "quickly" reunite lost pets with owners. They serve their purpose should your pet NOT have a tag and at some point that pet ends in a shelter. AOL news reported a story several months ago about a woman living in Florida that received a call from an animal shelter in California telling her that they had her cat. She was shocked! As it turns it was going on 6 years since she had lost the cat....and she had never been in California! The micro-chip this woman had placed in her cat, did end up working as it was suppose to....but it highlights the point that it should only be thought of as a backup....and not as a first line level of protection.

I'll end these comments by saying that the reason our company began development on our product ,petFINDER, was that we felt that as important as an ID tag was, at the end of the day, it is only a slab of metal with engraved info that can't be changed or updated if the need arises. The simple concept behind our product is that it's like giving your pet a toll-free calling card....for life. At a cost (one time) that's not much more than a traditional ID tag, petFINDER, with a single toll-free call, will automatically connect the person finding a lost pet to its owner at any of 3 contact numbers previously entered into a private system by that owner. If there is no answer on the first number, the system rolls over and tries the next two numbers. Further, should the owner need to change any of the already entered contact numbers, the can make unlimited changes forever.....for new or changed numbers; when traveling with your pet or leaving it with a pet sitter, etc.

We are very proud of what we have developed and believe it represents the future of ID tags.....and for the purposes of this discussion about a pet cell phone, its a "practical" solution...that's affordable.
Barry Stiefel
President