DogCollar
Latest
DIY GPS dog collar helps your pup fulfill its mobile computing potential
Yeah, you love your dog, but is he or she really pulling his or her weight? A new project from Adafruit brings an on-board computer to your roaming canine, tracking the distance to your and your pup's goal with a progress bar. The project is pretty simple, and Adafruit offers up most of the supplies, including the GPS and Atmega32u4 breakout boards -- though you'll have to procure your own fabric to make the big flower and some black nail polish to blot out the bright LEDs. The functionality isn't quite as advanced as, say, products from Garmin -- nor is it going to fill up your Twitter stream, but the collar does have the potential to track your mutt's walks around the neighborhood with a few tweaks.
Garmin upgrades its doggone Astro tracking system with DC 40 collar GPS tracker
Chances are the closest you've come to hunting with a pooch is swearing at that giggle-happy mutt who shames your every miss in Duck Hunt. In the real world, dogs are sent out to flush game and track down new things to shoot at, often way out of sight. Garmin's Astro receiver, combined with the DC 30 collar tracker (pictured above), made it easy to keep the all seeing eye on your very own mutt even when miles away, and now the DC 40 makes it even easier. The DC 40 sports a redesign that should make it a more reliable companion, including a new charging connector that won't get clogged with mud. Also new is the ability to create a PIN so that other Astro users can't spy (and possibly even steal) your pooches. The Astro receiver can track up to 10 hounds at once at seven miles of range, and will even let hunters mark where their companions scurried up some prey for future reconnaissance. The price? Garmin isn't saying just yet, but the current DC 30 and Astro receiver package goes for $599, and we'd expect this to cost about the same, though the DC 40 collar unit itself is also said to be available separately if you just want to make sure your hound has the latest couture. Update: Garmin was kind enough to send us a picture of the new DC 40, above.
AT&T to provide wireless service for Vitality GlowCaps, Apisphere dog collar
We'd already heard about Isabella Product's new Vizit photo frame that relies on AT&T for wireless service (and is available today), but the carrier has just now announced that it will also be providing service to two other fairly unique products. One of those is Vitality's GlowCaps pill bottle caps, which are able to call or text you if you forgot to take your pills, and keep track of each time the bottle is opened and ensure that prescriptions are refilled before the bottle's empty. The other announcement comes from Apisphere, which is working with AT&T on a SIM card-equipped dog collar that will let dog owners keep track of their pet. Details on it are otherwise still fairly light, but pet owners will apparently be able to establish a "geo-fence" where their dog can roam freely, and be able to receive a variety of alerts if Buster slips outside of the established parameters. Unfortunately, there's not even so much as an image of the collar just yet (let alone a price), but it is expected to launch later this year.
Float-a-Pet inflatable collar helps track, save dog's life
While the list of random junk humans can affix to their canine companions is embarrassingly long, we have seen a few meaningful accessories that can prevent dogs from straying too far from home. Jed Berk's latest prototype has apparently wrapped as many beneficial aspects as he thought possible into what outwardly appears to be a run-of-the-mill pet collar (with a NOS tank strapped on for good measure). But the Float-a-Pet -- as the name so aptly implies -- has a few hidden tricks that presumably act to give you the upper hand in locating your pet after it makes a mad dash for that "bump in the night," or makes a not-exactly-premeditated splash into a body of water. The collar sports flexible solar cells that gather energy during the day, and are used to power light-emitting LEDs when a low-light environment is detected. Aside from turning Fido into a light show, a secondary function of the "Swiss Army knife of dog collars" is to automatically inflate around your pet's neck if the integrated "humidity sensor" tips off the built-in CO2 cartridge. You'll probably be happy to know that if your dog takes a plunge at night, not only will the collar inflate as advertised, but it will supposedly activate the blinking LEDs as well to help catch your eye while it wades to safety. Although this hasn't escaped the testing phase just yet, we can definitely envision serious dog aficionados snapping up this extra precaution for their precious pet, but if your canine has a thing for sticking its head way down in the water bowl while replenishing fluids (and this humidity sensor is a bit too sensitive), it could end up in some deep water of a very different kind.
