Soon it seems that dog training will be possible with the help of a smart harness, researchers from a university in North Carolina are creating a computerized system that can help train dogs autonomously. This means that the training is done using sensors that react to the animal's body language.
Intelligent technology can be used both for a much faster training of utility dogs and to perfect the training carried out by humans.
The harness system is composed of an intelligent harness based on a multitude of sensors that monitor the dog's position and body language. The information is collected and then analyzed by a computer the size of a pack of playing cards, hidden in a pocket. The computer uses an algorithm that automatically triggers a sound and then releases a reward for the puppy when a command is executed correctly.
"Because the technology integrates fundamental principles of animal learning into a computational system, we are confident it can be applied to a wide range of canine behaviors. For example, it could be used to more quickly train service dogs. Ultimately, we think the technology will be used in conjunction with human-directed training. "
~Alper Bozkurt
At the moment, the system is in the prototype stage and still needs to be perfected, but the results of some of them have been extremely good. In the long term, scientists want to develop this concept, so that the interaction between animal-computer-man can also provide a series of useful functions, i.e. the triggering of an emergency call by the simple position of the body of a dog that is around a sick people.
