Cat taxi

There was a news story from England doing the rounds the other week about a cat, Sergeant Podge, who leaves his home every evening and appears the next morning over a mile away, in the same place. He waits for his "Mom" to drive over and collect him, which she does without fail, and then takes him back home.
Luckily Mom was tipped off about his whereabouts, but my "pet finder" would have saved her some searching!

Check it out here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7092301.stm

Neighborly inspiration

I met my neighbor last night as he was out looking for his cat. He said "I think she's been going further recently, I saw her up the street the other day." As we stood and talked the cat would come close, then run off again, repeating the pattern over again. I left him to scan the bushes with his flashlight, thinking he would almost certainly buy my cat-sized pet tracker. He could locate his cat when he needed to AND know for sure how far she roamed.

It also made me think about including a flashlight functionality... not sure how this would work, but it would be great if you could turn it on from your mobile device, illuminating the pet so you could spot them in the dark (and making them visible to traffic.)

Batteries

I was thinking today that I should power the pet component of my device with a rechargeable battery.
One of the biggest complaints of consumers that use the other pet-tracking devices on the market is that the batteries run down quickly. Using a rechargeable battery could help keep the cost down maybe, if not with the life of the battery.
Perhaps for version 2 I can plan for a dynamo - using the activity of the pet to power the battery!

I like the sound of this company: http://www.greenbatteries.com/

Stats update

Found newer research into pet owners: 63 percent of all U.S. households own a pet, which adds up to more than 69 million households. That’s an increase from 64 million in 2002 and 51 million in 1988. Americans own approximately 73 million dogs and 90 million cats.

Also, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, “the person most responsible for purchasing pet products is a 46 year old woman.” Pew Research shows that 53% of 30-49 year olds deemed a cell phone a necessity and 60% of the same age group said the same about home computers.

This is not the age range you immediately associate with cell phones and mobile technology, certainly not the higher end of the range. This was a valuable reminder to me that, while my application is useful to most dog and cat owners, the demographic buying it may be older than I had first imagined.

Owner demographics

I was looking into my target market and found this info:

- There are more than 60 million pet dogs in the U.S. and nearly 70 million pet cats.
- The average dog visits its veterinarian almost twice as many times as the average cat or horse.
- Dog owning households spent almost 38 percent more in 2001 as they did in 1996.

http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/sourcebook.asp

This tells me that there are a lot of pets out there, and that their owners are spending a lot of money on them! The "pet goods" market is big business, people are willing to spend their money to keep their animal safe and well, which bodes well for my application.

Similar but not the same

I've not found any other applications that do what I'm proposing mine will do, but there are some on the market that do one part or the other:
http://www.clickapps.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=5693&section=PPC&r=dwayhttp://www.clickapps.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=5693&section=PPC&r=dway

www.go2.com/webbrowser/indexPetsLanding.cfm?CFID=11016&CFTOKEN=90864751

www.globalpetfinder.com

More functionality...

A directory of local vets, pet stores, kennels, groomers, pet sitters, etc, should also be available via my application. Maybe with user reviews so owners can get a steer towards the ones worth trying and avoid the not-so-goods.
The website petfinder.com goes some way to achieving this, but I'd like to see more categories.

More for your money

I was thinking about the ways my "pet locator" application could be used aside from the obvious, and realized there are a few ways mobile device users might want to utilize the functionality.

For example, it would be useful to have all the pets details stored somewhere easily accessible. Their health records, food likes and dislikes, pet identification microchip number, etc. Also a calendar just for them, where you can add the dates of vet visits, when medication needs to start and stop, when shots are due, etc etc. And what adoring owner doesn't like to share pictures of their pet? An image gallery would be ideal, allowing you to store and share photos with other people.

I want this application to be practial, helpful and fun - not just useful in an emergency.

Cats don't need watches

So it seems I've been thinking about this project too much - last night I dreamt I was strapping wrist watches around cats' necks, then worrying that the watch would get lost when they went outside!
I reckon it's my subconscious telling me not to include a time-telling functionality in my device!

Still here...

It's been a woefully long time since my last post and I have no real excuse for my absence. However, I have been thinking about my final project idea - a device that tells a person, on demand, where their pet is at that time.
My classmate Ed told me the story of his cat who was "rescued" by a well-meaning stranger who thought he was a stray. She scooped him up and took him to her home, where she kept him for a few weeks before feeling bad about it, and started advertising that she'd found a cat.
Long story short, quite by chance Ed and his cat were reunited. But it struck me that the most proactive thing he could do was put the word out that his cat was lost. This is hugely frustrating for owners of lost pets. A device that could tell you were your cat was would save a lot of heartache.
When a pet gets lost people search far and wide, and often the pet is found very close to where they were last seen. It would be great to call up the info from a tracking device and be told where they were exactly.

A little off topic but...

I was amazed to learn that the UK has passed a law making it illegal to eat or smoke while driving a car. It's long been illegal to drive and talk on the phone (if holding the handset at the same time), but people still do it, much like they do in the US. I'm not a smoker but I wouldn't have thought smoking a cigarette would distract a driver as much as talking or texting, or even eating. I wonder if the same will happen in the US. Drive-thru restaurants might see a drop in business!

Taking it further

I was thinking about what else I would like to be able to do with my mobile phone, apart from be able to use it to locate lost pets.
One of my cats has been sick for a while, and it would be great if I could check on him during the day when I was away from the house. I know people have set up web cams in their homes to check on pets from their computers, but what if you could do this from your phone? Maybe a small camera in every room, that you could move remotely from your phone, like a CCTV system. That way you could see when they were eating, if they'd moved around at all, etc.
This would be a great element to add to a device that could track pets. Almost an all-in-one pet sitter.

Finding lost pets

Researching the subject of my final project - using GPS to find lost pets - I came across this site: http://globalpetfinder.com/

This company sells GPS devices you can attach to your dogs' collar, warning you when they've gone beyond the pre-defined "safe" zone. The owner is alerted by text and email, telling them where the dog is.

It seems to be a good product, effective and easily useable. The devices are suitable for bigger dogs, but what about smaller dogs, and cats? And what happens if the collar comes off, or the animal is lost for hours or days and the batteries run out? What happens if the animal is stolen and taken out of range of the GPS? These are things I need to consider for the product I'd like to design for my final project.

Take me to my vehicle

Crossing the parking lot after class today I headed to the area I had left my car in, but I was uncertain as to the exact spot. I would like a device that would "talk me in" to my car, like playing the "you're getting hotter... colder..." game, guiding me straight to it. This would save time and frustration, and the need to store important-but-dull information in my already crowded head.

When my friend can't find her car in a busy parking lot, she presses the panic button on her key fob and looks for the flashing, noisy car. That's one way to do it, but a less obtrusive solution would be better.

Where am I going?

It's Oyster Festival weekend in Norwalk and today, like last year, I shall be volunteering at the PAWS stall, spreading the word about the shelter's work, selling merchandise and helping answer questions.

Last year my volunteering partner and I got hopelessly lost trying to find the stall from the festival site entrance. We walked around and around until we found it quite by chance. Wouldn't it have been great if we could have got out a phone, opened the paws website, and enabled a GPS signal to track to the stall? I would love to be able to do this.

Price cuts and priority changes

Wow - I'm psychic! In my last post I wished Apple would drop the price of their iPhone, and today they announce they're dropping $200 from the price! From my mouth to Steve Job's ear!

This week I have been working on redesigning the homepage of the Borders web site for a mobile application. It's been an interesting exercise, considering what a user might want from the site when they're on the go. What I might have considered less important when viewed from a home or work computer suddenly seems vital, like the Store Locator feature. And if your phone has GPS, you can find out the address of the nearest store, then get directions too.

iPhone envy

You know how they say you should set your budget before shopping for something important, to save yourself from falling in love with something you can't afford? Well apparently it applies to cell phones as well as wedding dresses!

I'm looking for a new phone, nothing too flashy but ideally something that lets me access the web with a screen big enough to view more than two words at a time. In hindsight this was not the best time to wander into the Apple store in Stamford and pick up the display iPhone.

It is a seriously slick device, good looking, easy to use, and with enough whistles and bells to impress the hardest sceptic. Admittedly my experience is limited to 5 minutes playing with it, but it was enough to make the phones in my price range pale in comparison.

I can only hope they hurry up and drop the price!

Hello readers of helen's moblog! Watch this space...