By Shubhangi Shah
If there is one vertical within the tech industry that appears to be growing and becoming mainstream by the day, it has to be the wearables sector. From smartwatches and Fitbit to earbuds and smartglasses, a range of products is hitting the market every now and then. Interestingly, these are not just restricted to humans but have expanded to include your canine and feline friends.
Wearable fans to beat the heat
Tech unimaginable elsewhere happens in Japan. So when the county found itself in the grip of an excessive heatwave this year, a Tokyo-based apparel company Sweet Mommy came out with air-conditioned pet clothes last month. Named COOL DOG, these wearable fans can be worn by cats too.
Here is how these work. Designed to protect cats from heatstrokes, this wearable is attached to the pet’s back. Driven by an AAA battery, each of these weighs three ounces (around 85 grams). And it is not like the fan is attached like a collar. It is first attached to a mesh doggy shirt as it helps circulate air across the pet’s body.
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In a conversation with a media house, the wearable fan creator Rei Uzawa said her dog had a tough time due to the soaring heat and that air-conditioned clothing for humans was the inspiration behind the product. The company created this under the guidance of a veterinarian.
The mesh shirts come in different sizes and are made with breathable and cooling fabric.
The fan costs 9,900 yen (over Rs 5,500) buts seems to be currently available only in Japan. However, you can check out some of these adorable dog pics on Instagram and just marvel at where we have come to, the wearable fans not the acute heatwave.
Some other pet wearables
Everyone knows of dog collars. But what you might need is an LED collar. These ensure that your pet is visible at night and during evening walks. These come in different shapes, sizes, and colours from which you can choose to suit your pet’s personality. Although the prices differ, these can cost you somewhere around Rs 3,000 per piece.
If you think that activity trackers are just for humans, you are up for a surprise. This technology is available for pets too and can track a range of things like the number of steps, calories burned, minutes of activity, etc. Hence, this device can be a boon for health-conscious pet owners who dearly care for the amount of activity undertaken by their pets and their overall health. Some of these also carry GPS services to track the pet’s location.
Next coming to another version of pet collars. Yes, these are utilitarian. However, do you know these can also be used to track what your pet is up to while you are away from home? Enter, collar cameras. Worn like a collar, these are used to track the pet’s whereabouts and ensure her safety while the owner is not around.
Can sense emotions too
Now coming to a bit outlandish one. A pet Fitbit, GPS tracker, wearable fans, and cameras are somewhat conceivable. However, do you know there are emotion sensors for pets too?
More than a year ago, a South Korean company, Petpuls Lab, came out with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered dog emotion sensors to track the canine’s different moods. Again a collar, it can detect as many as fine different emotions, viz happy, sad, angry, anxious, and relaxed. It helps to promote pet-owner bonding, a company representative told a media house. Interestingly, in 2015, a company, DogStar Life, came up with TailTalk, a wearable that could be attached to the dog’s tail and could read her emotions based on the movement of the tail. The device was connected to the owner’s phone via Bluetooth.
Although what currently seems to be restricted largely to dogs and at most cats, wearables for other types of pets might be in the pipeline. And given that this vertical of technology is increasingly being adopted, we might see more types of wearables for pets in the future. It might be promoted by a pressing need, like in the case of wearable fans or some tech innovation, or a quirky idea. There are no boundaries in scale or application when it comes to technology.