This AI-Powered Dog Collar Translates Your Furry Friend’s Barks Into Emotions

We all wish we could understand what our dogs are saying and the new Petpuls “smart collar” promises to make that a reality.

Every dog owner has spent at least some time wondering what their furry little best friend is thinking. We’ve all wished we could have a conversation with our dogs, but we’re extremely limited in our ability to communicate with each other. Your dog can only understand some basic commands, the tone of your voice, and some of your facial expressions. You can only understand some of your dog’s vocalizations and their body language. Fortunately, technology can help facilitate better communication between you and your dog. The Petpuls dog collar is an Up-style device that translates your pup’s barks so you can understand what they’re saying.

Petpuls, which is pronounced “pet pulse,” had an unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign late last year. It appears that they found another source of funding, because this “smart collar” collar is being sold through their website — though it is currently out of stock. It also won an “honoree” award in this year’s CES Innovation Awards category. The collar is made up of a sleek black box that contains the electronic hardware and an attractive silicone strap that is available in a variety of fun colors. The Petpuls most basic functionality is to act like a Fitbit-style fitness tracker for your dog, so you can see how much physical activity Spot is getting. But that is just a bonus feature and the primary selling point is far more exciting.

Using the same kind of deep learning technology that is used for human voice recognition, this collar can analyze your dog’s barks and translate them into one of five emotions: happy, relaxed, anxious, angry, or sad. The machine learning model was trained on 10,000 bark samples from 50 different breeds in a range of sizes, so it will most likely be able to understand your dog. The collar itself records an audio clip of the bark and sends it to an app on your smartphone so it can be analyzed. That app lets you see what your dog says as well as data about its activity. Over time, the model will also get better at understanding your dog’s vocalizations. Petpuls can only differentiate between those five emotions, which is something you may already be able to do without any technology. It also doesn’t help if your dog isn’t the barking type. But this is still a really cool device for the right person with the right dog.

If you want a Petpuls dog collar, they can be ordered through their website (delivery may be delayed until stock is replenished). A small color with one strap starts at $99.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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