Alert System Texts You When Your Dog Feels Threatened

Dog may be man’s best friends, but while most people would not leave their children home alone, dogs are often left unattended.

For owners worried about their dog’s safety, a new system developed in Israel is able to recognize when a dog feels threatened or is stressed and then send an SMS to the pet owner’s mobile phone.

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According to Bio-Sense, the company behind the technology, “to a human being, all barks sound the same; science tells us they are not.” Bio-Sense says its system can tell tell one bark from another with a patent-protected technology that translates dog barks into digital signals.

Interpreting dog barks

The system, named Telidog, is operated by a sensor that is attached to the dog’s collar. The transmitter analyzes barks of the dog and if it senses stress or danger, it contacts the owner.

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The analysis of the signals is done by a proprietary algorithm, which filters dog barks and captures a specific set of barks that fall into a pre-defined “threat” category. This way, the system can tell the difference between an ordinary bark and a bark that means that the dog senses a threat to its security or owner, Bio-Sense asserts.

According to the company, barks are lower in pitch and longer in duration when a dog is distressed or threatened. Research has shown that different types of barks serve different, specific functions that are universally understood by all dogs.

Security applications

The system also allows dog owners to monitor their dogs’ activity. For example, Bio-Sense mentions, if a dog ran away from home, the company notifies the owner via SMS or if a dog left a certain perimeter that was pre-defined, based on GPS technology.

Bio-Sense says its technology has already been purchased by the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli Air Force, Israel’s Prison Authority as well as some private businesses “that use it for security purposes.”

Bio-Sense has performed numerous field tests in close cooperation and under the supervision of various branches of the Israeli Ministry of Homeland Security and the Israeli Defense Forces.

Founded in 2003 and based in Petah Tikva, Israel, Bio-Sense has 15 employees, including engineers, process signal experts and animal behavior experts.

Photo by QuinnDombrowski