One dreary Monday in November, as I was enjoying my morning tea, my phone alerted me that my cat, Avalanche, was getting less exercise than usual. For the past six weeks, Avalanche has been wearing a sophisticated black and gold collar that tracks her every move. When and how often they sleep, run, walk, eat, drink, and even groom themselves. This notification tells us that her energy is lower than normal and she needs to be careful with her food and water intake. As an experienced hypochondriac, I momentarily wondered if this was the first sign of something horribly serious. Then I opened the smart collar app and felt secure there. My lazy 7-year-old tabby only got 45 seconds of exercise before this morning, compared to a full minute the day before.
These days, Americans treat their furry companions like family members and pay for them. premium food and expensive medicine To keep them healthy for longer. We also have pet treadmills, supplements, and a luxurious spa. The US pet market is approximately 200 billion dollars Sales increase by the end of the decade. At the same time, humans have become accustomed to a more quantified life than ever before, with watches and cell phones passively tracking heart rate and step counts. For more detailed information, gadgets such as continuous blood glucose monitors are available. Of course, we’re entering the era of quantified pets, tracking the eating, sleeping, and exercise of our four-legged companions just like we do ourselves.
This technology guarantees your pet’s health. Animals are unable to verbally communicate when they feel unwell, but it is thought that the data could reveal behavioral or medical problems early and make them easier to treat. But being flooded with data can make it difficult to recognize real health concerns. It totally stressed me out too.
Many pet owners wonder what their animals do when humans are not around. Are they running around the house? Are you rummaging through the cupboards for your Greenies? (A few years ago, while I was on vacation, Avalanche and her brother Rewi stole a bag of treats from the basket.) Avalanche’s Smart Collar ” Thanks to “Catlog” we got to know some of her secret activities. After I go to bed, I have a drink and a snack before settling in for the night. She often sleeps the whole time I’m in the office.
Other information was not very helpful. Avalanches drink water an average of four times a day, eat about five times, exercise for about two minutes, and spend about 30 minutes grooming. According to the Catlog app, this number is slightly lower than for similar cats. (My Apple Watch can’t even tell how often I’m eating or grooming myself.) In fact, most of what she does is sleep. (I might have said that if I didn’t have an Apple Watch in my kitty.) Still, most days since I downloaded the app I’ve received at least one notification informing me of a change in Avalanche’s activity. It popped up and made me eat more, exercise less, and just seem to have less energy overall. — and I had no idea if it mattered at all. After a few weeks, I noticed that I tended to ignore notifications completely.
My experience seems to be common. Ileena Hirschi-Douglas, a pet technology expert at the University of Glasgow, told me she had stopped checking the data on her dog’s tracking collar. “I kept getting notifications of how much she walked,” she said. “It was very difficult to understand what that information meant,” said David Roberts, who studies animal-computer interactions at North Carolina State University. spoke. “None of these systems have yet cracked the code on how to get something measurable and derive the kinds of insights their owners want.”
The pet wearables market is approximately double By the end of the decade, and with its expansion, there will be an opportunity to provide truly useful information to some pet owners. Jennifer Weiler, a nurse who lives in Brooklyn with seven cats, wears smart collars for each cat from a company called Moggie, and says the app gives her peace of mind when she’s working long hours. spoke. “It’s kind of reassuring to be able to check in and make sure they’re still getting time to play,” she said. Roberts the study How to use computers to train and evaluate potential service dogs. For example, AI and sensors can be combined to look for signs of stress and other indicators. He told me about a colleague whose dog is a beta tester of such a wearable device. The technology consistently predicted that her dog would make a great service dog, but one day that wasn’t the case. It turns out our dog has a bad staph infection that can become serious if left untreated.
Wearable devices could be especially helpful for cats, who are notoriously cryptic and tend to hide their pain until the condition is well advanced. My first cat died mysteriously at age 7 with a dangerously elevated white blood cell count. Just two days later, I noticed that she was lethargic and was crying in distress. Perhaps if the wearable device had alerted me sooner, and importantly if I had been able to identify the warning signals in the endless noise of notifications, she might have received better treatment. I don’t know.
A spokesperson for Rabo, the Japanese company that develops Catlog, did not share the criteria the company’s AI uses to trigger alerts. “Alerts are designed to detect significant changes in your cat’s behavior or health data so you can take action when needed,” she said. The company also sells toilet mats that monitor weight and toilet usage. a product video We assure users that we can prevent all these data from becoming huge. But while I’ve gotten a lot of information from Catlog, so far nothing has helped me pinpoint the actual problem. When I took Avalanche in for his annual checkup, I asked the vet about some of the things Catlog pointed out. According to the app, Avalanche was eating, drinking, and running around less than other cats, which made me think he was depressed or ill. The vet looked at me with an expression that was somewhere between confused and bewildered. Are you crazy?
The over-notification may not only have been an attempt to warn me about the cat’s behavior, but also a ploy to engage me. “I think these notifications are just ‘we want you to pay attention to our app,'” Roberts told me. the study have shown Many pet wearables collect a surprising amount of data not only about pets but also about people. one study It has been discovered that some pet-related apps are collecting data such as the owner’s address and home time. Catlog’s privacy policy states that it may track information about your online activities and share it with third parties. A company spokesperson told me that “the primary purpose of collecting data from human users is to ensure that our apps and devices provide maximum value to cat parents,” and that the company’s privacy policy is “It’s a broad statement designed with potential future uses in mind.” ” does not necessarily represent the information currently collected by the app. Hirschi-Douglas said wearable companies could also share the information they collect with pet insurance companies and others, in the same way that some auto insurance companies track users’ driving and driving habits. Ta. life insurance company It may track your health. (She also said some people use trackers to monitor dog sitters to see if they’re actually walking the dog.) And the product that’s catching the attention of pet owners is Catlog Not just that. Moggie offers an AI chatbot that impersonates a user’s cat and answers health questions from the cat’s perspective. There is countless Options for dogs.
Sometimes, while I’m at work or on the subway, I’ll casually open the Catlog app and see, for example, that Avalanche recently ran for three seconds and then took a 32-minute nap. It feels like texting your best friend or scrolling through your Instagram feed just because you care about her. Spying on my cat is fun, but not fun enough to justify the anxiety it causes. (My husband, who is not a hypochondriac, didn’t find the app all that stressful, but he also didn’t find it helpful.) The day before I wrote this story, the battery in the collar died. I don’t feel like charging it yet.
