Can robot pets comfort us as well as the real thing?

Jack Rome Leave a comment

Your next Fido just might be a robot.

The toy company Hasbro’s Joy for All brand launched a new life-like robotic dog on Monday, a companion pet pup to accompany the brand’s companion pet cat already on the market. Both products are designed to bring companionship and comfort to aging adults.
The robotic cat is equipped with a soft fur that gently vibrates when it purrs, while the pup barks and cocks its head in your direction when you speak.
But Hasbro’s adorable animatronics aren’t the only pet robots on the market.

Toy company Hasbro expanded its Joy for All brand with a new robotic pet called a companion pup.

Toy company Hasbro expanded its Joy for All brand with a new robotic pet called a companion pup. The company Hansa Creations has created a collection of interactive cats and dogs of various breeds, for instance.
And Paro, the cuddly seal robot developed by Japan’s National institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, is used as an interactive therapeutic tool in hospitals and senior living facilities across the United States. Paro soared to fame after being featured in Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series “Master of None.”
Scientists have long known that owning a pet can offer a variety of health benefits, from lowering blood pressure, cholesterol levels and feelings of loneliness, to boosting opportunities to exercise and socialize.
Yet, as robot companions aim to be man’s next best friend — which seems to be somewhat already happening in Japan — could they offer some of the same health benefits as our real animal best friends? For seniors and children, they just might, according to a few small studies, but more research is needed.

The benefits for grandma

A series of small studies have explored how bots might benefit seniors.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand discovered that a robot companion — such as the seal Paro — can offer benefits to senior adults similar to that of a living animal, according to a small study published in the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicinein 2013.

Robots: The future of elder care?

Robots: The future of elder care?
For the study, 40 residents at a retirement home in Auckland, New Zealand, were separated into two groups of 20.
One group was assigned to interact with the seal robot Paro for two weekday afternoons for 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the other group was assigned to go on trips around the city and participate in activities, such as arts and crafts or bingo.
Before and after the 12-week period, participants in both groups completed tests intended to measure their loneliness, depression and quality of life.

Study: Loneliness increases your risk of death

Study: Loneliness increases your risk of death 01:39
After comparing how each group scored on the tests before and after the 12-week period, the researchers found that loneliness scores decreased in the Paro group, but increased in the control group. The residents also talked to each other more during the Paro sessions than the activity sessions.
Additionally, at the retirement home, an activities coordinator frequently brought her Jack Russell terrier to the facilities to interact with the residents. The researchers noticed that the residents touched and interacted with Paro more than they touched the Jack Russell terrier.
“Often residents were unable to talk to or touch the dog because the dog could choose who it interacted with, whereas the robot could be put on the lap of all residents and would respond to them. This research also found that Paro was able to impact the social environment,” the researchers wrote in the study. They also noted that they have no conflicts of interest related to the research.

Singapore turns to robots to get seniors moving

Robots get Singapore seniors moving
Similarly, a 2008 study published in the same journal found that interactive robotic dogs were effective in reducing feelings of loneliness among the senior residents of a long-term care facility.
Residents who participated in the research showed high levels of attachment to both a living and robotic canine, according to the study.
“We were told by some of the people in nursing homes that they preferred robotic pets because they would not have to worry about them if they had to be admitted to the hospital or that they couldn’t take care of a living pet,” said Dr. William Banks, professor in the division of gerontology and geriatric medicine at the University of Washington and a co-author of the 2008 study.
“It showed the extent to which loneliness occurs in nursing homes [and] how many people there want and enjoy pets,” he said. “I was surprised to the extent that it improved loneliness and to the extent that attachment occurred.”

An aging population

Ted Fischer, vice president of business development at Hasbro, is convinced that high-tech pooches and cats can help battle the feelings of loneliness and isolation that some older adults face, which may become more prevalent as the world’s senior population grows, he said.
Adults 65 and older currently represent 8.5% of the global population, but that percentage is projected to jump to nearly 17% by 2050, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Loneliness: 5 things you may not know

Loneliness: 5 things you may not know
“We really did our research and focused on that demographic when a number of years ago we had a few products — a line called FurReal Friends — that were intended for 4- to 8-year-old girls. The reviews we were getting were from moms, but they were buying them for an aging loved one and writing about the impact and joy it was bringing to these folks,” Fischer said.
“We leaned into that and went out into the senior community to understand what is it about this that might be meaningful,” he said about the robotic pets. “What I can see from some of the experiences from folks who’ve had companion pets is there’s this sort of trust and emotional connection and engagement.”
Some experts have explored whether similar results could be found in children.

How kids respond to robotic Rover

It turns out that robot pets show both limitations and some promise when it comes to being a beneficial companion for children, according to a 2009 study published in the Journal of Social Issues (PDF).
For the small study, researchers from Purdue University and the University of Washington observed and interviewed 72 children as they played with a Sony robotic dog toy, called Aibo, and two friendly Australian shepherds. The children were ages 7 to 15.

Watch this robotic dog do the dishes

Watch this robotic dog do the dishes 00:55
When asked the same questions about the living dog and the robotic dog, the researchers discovered that the children in the study viewed the robot as a social companion in a similar way to which they viewed the living dogs.
During a focus group interview, one fourth-grader told the researchers, “I could take Aibo to school and with me everywhere.”
However, the robot still seemed to have more “limited” interactive capabilities than a real four-legged friend, according to the children’s responses.
“The findings suggest caution in assuming that a robot pet or robot-assisted therapy can be an effective substitute for a living companion animal or animal assisted therapy. Social policies that might make robot pets more accessible and affordable — such as, to socially isolated seniors living in institutional settings — should be weighed against policies making living animals more accessible and affordable,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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Indeed, humans should consider how robot companions might impact our relationships with animals, said Jean-Loup Rault, senior research fellow and animal welfare expert at the University of Melbourne in Australia. There are about 218 million pets living in the United States, not counting pet fish.
“Pets are good for us, but are we good for pets? Would robotic pets actually be a more ethical choice, respectful of the sentience of other living beings, in situations when the social and physical needs of the pet are not going to be fully met?” Rault said. “More science is needed to understand how much robotic pets simulate the effects we derived from relationship with live pets.”
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This dog collar can track your dog’s location, activity, and comfort

Jack Rome Leave a comment

We suppose it makes sense that, after humans, connected dogs are the next big thing. Link AKC, backed by the American Kennel Club (hence the AKC), has just announced a smart collar designed to give dog owners more information about their pooch’s well being.

The collar does a few different things, from tracking your dogs’s location to monitoring its comfort. The collar’s built-in GPS means you’ll be able to keep an eye on your pup’s location at all time, and, when paired with the base station, even set up a “virtual fence” that will alert you if the dog starts wandering astray. There’s also a handy remote-controlled light in case you need to go out at some ungodly hour in search of your canine companion.

Like any wearable worth its salt, the collar also functions as an activity tracker- Fitbit et al, if you’re reading this, there’s a market you’re overlooking here. The Link AKC collar will let owners track their dogs’ activity levels and see whether it’s getting the right amount of exercise each day, taking into account its breed, age and size.

One of the best features, we think, is the temperature sensor that will alert you if your dog is in an environment that’s too hot or cold. Considering the number of foolish people who still leave dogs in hot cars despite all common sense and endless public service announcements (seriously, just don’t do it, yeah?), this could potentially save some lives.

Finally, the collar has a feature called ‘Adventures’ that will let you create a “scrapbook” of memories with your dog by pushing a button, which you can then share on social media. We assume this will be more like a Facebook check-in with a photo, and that it won’t be uploading a montage of you and your dog frolicking in the forest to Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ – but we secretly hope for the latter.

A lot of emphasis is being put on how the collar looks too, and we can see why; somehow the market for wearable dog tech has already nailed fashion better than the human one.

The collar will cost $199, however you’ll also need to sign up for a monthly membership in order to use the device, and plans start at $6.95 with a two-year commitment. We reckon that might put some people off.

The collar will be shipping by December 28, the company says, however right now it can only be ordered to the US. You can reserve one today from the website, and we’ll let you know if we get word on UK pricing and availability.

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Need a dog walker? There’s an app for that. And plenty more for your pooch

Jack Rome Leave a comment

It’s been said there’s an app for anything we humans want.

Now there’s an app for man’s best friend. More than a few of them, actually.

Dog owners today can book their pups a sitter, find personal walkers, and set up doggie play dates, all with a few taps on their phones.

As the number of pets in this country has increased, so too has the demand for related services.

“In the last couple of years, the [pet] app world has exploded,” said Leslie May, founder of Pawsible Marketing, a marketing firm that specializes in pet businesses.

The American Pet Products Association reported that 65 percent of US households owned a pet between 2015 and 2016, up from 56 percent in 1988. And Americans are spending more on their pets. The association estimates that owners will spend $2.47 billion more on their pets this year than in 2015.

Those numbers have made the pet industry an appealing one for the startup world.

“It was a natural move for technology companies to look at the pet market as an opportunity,” May said. “It’s a growing industry; it’s been growing steadily for years.”

Aaron Easterly started his Seattle-based dog services company, Rover, in 2011 as an overnight pet-sitting business that was marketed as a better option than the kennel. It later added doggy day care, drop-in visits, and daily dog-walking services for busy dog “parents.’’ The company now boasts a network of 40,000 dog owners and sitters in Boston alone, with owners able to access the service through its website and mobile app.

“There’s this desire to be as good of a parent as possible to your pet or your dog,” Easterly said. “And that increases the demand for products that can help you be a better pet parent.”

But to best serve pet parents, you don’t just need to know technology, you need to know what they want, said Michelle Fournier, the founder of Durty Harry’s, a popular boutique and dog wash business in Charlestown and Brookline.

Fournier never imagined leaving the company that she had built. But when her customers would not stop asking if she knew of dog-friendly hotels, restaurants, and parks where they could bring their pups, she saw the need for a service in 2013 that did not yet exist. So she closed her boutiques in 2015 and went into the pet tech industry.

Last month, she launched an app called Slobbr that gives users the same advice she used to dole out for free in her shops: where to find pet-friendly establishments. Slobbr raised $65,000 on Kickstarter. As she continues to build the business, Fournier saids she believes what will set some pet companies apart is a keen understanding of the client — in her case, dogs.

“I look at the folks who put out pet apps. They have great tech experience, but they don’t have dog knowledge. You have to be able to understand what pet owners are looking for,” she said. “And when you’re not in that space, you can be the smartest business person in the world, but you’ll miss your mark.”

The American Pet Products Association estimates that the pet industry now tops $63 billion and there are no signs of slowing. The more people continue to cater to their dogs and cats, the more they are demanding streamlined technology that puts more services in one place. And the pet tech world is responding.

“Apps are [now] more sophisticated, making things easier for the pet parent,” said May.

The key, of course, is predicting what pet owners will want next from technology.

“It’s critical to latch on now for the next big wave,” she said.

Poncho the Chihuahua or Harry Paw-tter?

Jack Rome Leave a comment

The moment Poncho the chihuahua saw the apartment under the stairs, he knew this would be his bachelor pad. “You gotta see this place,” he bragged to his friends. “It’s prime real estate. Sure, it’s a studio, but you know what they say when it comes to house hunting: location, location, location!” The housing market had been totally insane these past few years, so he knew he lucked out when he finally found a place he could afford on his modest dog salary of $0.

He became fast friends with his roommate and landlord, Betty McCall of Pitts, Georgia. The sweet lady even went so far as to decorate his digs for him, with little touches like a sombrero hanging from decorative antlers on the wall, and an oil painting that reminded him of his brothers back home.

chihuahuaWill Rigdon

She was respectful of his space, too. Poncho had a strong, tall door, so he could enjoy his privacy when felt the urge to noodle on the piano or think about the heavier stuff. McCall told him not to croon after midnight, but whatever. His room, his rules.

chihuahuaWill Rigdon

Still, he didn’t want to be too disrespectful. After all, she did get a carpenter to install an outlet in his room so he could have an electric blanket in there for the lonely winters. She was good to him. And the place — well, even he could admit, when his friends weren’t in earshot, that it wasn’t much. But at least it was his.

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