wish come true for all pet parents out there. Technology has done it all and it brought us the ability to talk with our pets. We can all agree that humans
have tried to talk with their pets since the dawn of time.
As technology is getting the best of us and we seem to be incorporating it in all our activities and fields, it just seems natural to try and leverage technology in order to find out what our pets are trying to say.
And, artificial intelligence plays a big part in this process. More clearly, I am talking about a voice-activated collar that allows your pet to talk back to you – at least try to do so.
John McHale, is a “tech guy”, as he says, based in Texas, Austin, and has developed a company called Personifi AI. His startup tries to develop the means by which it can “personify everything”, the first steps being our furry little friends.
The collar developed by McHale has a speaker on it that has a pre-recorded human voice on it. The voice from the collar responds back and creates the illusion that you are talking to your pet.
The collar is available for cats and dogs and the idea came to life after his dog, Roscoe, had been bitten by a rattlesnake. You do not have to worry about Roscoe, as he is now good, yet he needed to spend 10 days in a pet hospital. But would have been the situation different if the dog could have said what had happened? Well, this is how the idea of the smart pet collar – Shazam – came to life.
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The collar has a chatbot that is not really a chatbot, but rather a synthesized voice that is controlled and created by artificial intelligence. All 27 voice lines from Shazam will be available for preorder. Each voice will have its own personality and each will be played by a human voice actor.
The selection will be needed when you set up the collar and later on, if you desire to change it, it will cost an extra $99. Personify said that each character will have over 8000 lines of dialog, planning to add more. Vocal systemization will more likely be available on the platform eventually.
The voices your pet will have are snappy and even make jokes. Their personas range from silly and cute voices to more personalities that can fit different situations. McHale says “We've really surveyed the market,” and “Almost everybody has an idea as to what the personality is of their pet. It's uncanny.”
One of the conversations might look like something like this: “Roscoe, how are you feeling?” the person asks, the pet – Roscoe.
“Like I could drink a whole gallon of water,” Roscoe’s coller responds.
“Oh, that's why you don't want to go chase squirrels, buddy. You haven't been getting water all day. Shame on us. I still love you, though, Roscoe.”
The pet replies ”Let's go for a walk and you can tell me all about how much you love me.”
The price for this collar will be $495 for cats and $595 for dogs. Even more, there are also subscription fees worth $195 a year for cats and “ultra” collars and $295 yearly for BrainBoost services that “bring all of the truly sentient qualities such as empathy, reasoning, social awareness, and self-awareness.” as the startup states.
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