By: Yuxi Chen
Origin
Before the week I came up with this project, I saw a poster showing that the area shelter has reached its capacity and many pets are going to be killed. It asked people to try to help the pets in shelter if they can. I found out that over 104,000 stray dogs and cats were killed in Atlanta area shelters. The main reasons for owners to give up their pets include: no time, no money, pregnant etc.
The reasons coincides with why I still do not have a pet. I am a real pet lover, especially for dogs, for over 19 years. However, I am so afraid that I will keep my pet waiting for me for its whole life. I am also not confident in knowing what my pet needs and provide them what they need. The fact that pets cannot speak and cannot communicate with me keeps me away from having my own pet.
This led me to the problem I want to solve with my attention project: How to help pets attract attention from their owner to make up for the lack of communication?
Design
The product design PET POCKET comes to my mind, which aims to connect to your pet at anytime, anywhere.
Part 1 For Pets
It is designed to be placed anywhere in the home.
The Main Body includes several buttons. The owner can initialize the buttons with the words their pet can understand.
The Speaker plays the word the user initialized. When the dog pressed the button, the matched words will be read out. (so they can understand what they pressed)
Part 2 For Owner
It is designed as the owner’s portable pocket pet
The Main Body includes a LCD, when your dog pressed the buttons, matched animation appear on the screen.
The Button For Extensions allows users to interact with home furniture.(e.g fans)
Prototype
The pocket pet is expected to interact with more home objects to improve the interaction between human and pets. So in the prototype, fan is included as an example for possible future interaction.
Outcome
Here is the video explaining how the prototype works:
Here is a closer look at the LCD:
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