Overheard/Underheard: A New Collar Gives Dogs a Voice

There is a lot of speech technology innovation around health monitoring and using voice to detect certain medical conditions, but the same technology is now being used to improve the relationship between dogs and their pet parents.

Petpuls is an artificial intelligence-powered dog collar that uses voice recognition technology to detect and analyze five emotional states—happy, anxious, angry, sad, or relaxed—in dogs and tracks their physical activity.

The collar pairs via Wi-Fi with an accompanying iOS or Android app and uses a proprietary algorithm along with a database of more than 10,000 bark samples from 50 breeds of dogs to identify the five emotional states.

Petpuls claims to have an accuracy rate of higher than 80 percent, and it grows even more accurate over time as it records and accumulates the dog’s “voice” data.

This, company executives say, will help dog owners better understand their dog’s emotions and what triggers them.

The collar also functions as an activity tracker, with a built-in accelerometer sensor that automatically calculates the number of calories a dog burns from exercise by the hour, day, week, or month.

Petpuls also comes with a “My Pet Registration” feature for dog owners to create unique profiles of their dogs within the Petpuls Community and a “Pet Favorites” feature that allows dog owners to keep track of their dogs’ food, toys, and other dog friends who are also registered as part of the Petpuls Community

“Petpuls was born from my desire to use AI and IoT technology to help dog lovers better understand their canine companions,” says Petpuls founder and CEO, Vincent Kim. “The AI-driven data accumulated by the Petpuls collar can create more meaningful relationships between dogs and the humans they regularly interact with, [including] dog owners, walkers, caretakers, and veterinarians. We envision the Petpuls platform as a large global community of dog lovers, a community that is safe, fun, playful, and informative, where dog owners not only track their dogs’ emotions and exercise, but also meet other dog aficionados, set up dog play dates, and talk about the latest in dog food, fashion, healthcare, and more.”

Petpuls will retail for $99.

And speaking of non-humans talking to us, if another tech startup has its way, product packaging will be soon be able to tell us all about what’s inside the box. Third Aurora is reportedly working on a packaging prototype that will enable consumers to talk to the products they’re about to purchase.

If the prototype comes to fruition, frustrated shoppers with product-related questions will no longer have to wait idly for store assistants to help them. The product will tell them the answer instantly, all through a speech-enabled smartphone interface.

The concept was challenging for Third Aurora, which had to bring together a complicated mix of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, language processing, and cloud data.

“It’s an exciting concept and an elegant solution,” says digital marketing expert Dave Chaffey, cofounder of Third Aurora. “And it fits the ethos that the best place to find the answer is from the source.”