Mattel is one of the newest companies joining the Twitter bandwagon by creating Puppy Tweets. This gadget is made so you can find out what your dog is doing on Twitter. The person opens a Twitter account for the name of their dog.
How Does It Work?
The Puppy Tweets toy comes with a plastic tag and a flash drive to be hooked up to your computer or smart phone. On this plastic tag, there is a microchip that contains pre-recorded tweets. The plastic tag measures the dogs movements and sounds. If your dog is taking a nap, the tweet will post this: "Somedays it feels like my paw is permanently on the snooze button!"
This product expects to launch in the fall. Although Mattel makes its products for kids, I think the sophistication is intended for adults. The toy will retail at $29.99 USD. It appeals to all the Twitter savvy dog owners out there.
This sounds to me like something that could evolve into a very good idea: Pet monitoring. A smart user of this could probably adapt it that way; EG, if it tweets that your pet is sleeping at a time he/she is known to be active, then you know something's wrong. But if developed further it could have a pedometer, temperature/humidity sensors, and other things that could make it a truly useful pet monitor.
ReplyDeleteBut in a broader sense, I find the idea of using Twitter for telemetry applications very interesting. I think Mattel's on to something...maybe I should buy their stock!
I never thought of it that way. However, it would require you to be on Twitter all the time either following your pet or monitoring your account. I think it might be smart if you're away from home, but I think most owners know firsthand what's going on when they are home. I can say that it's something that no one else has thought of and for creativity it rocks.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty neat! Might just have to try one of those out :D
ReplyDeleteI will say I never saw anything like this before. It'll be interesting to see how they sell next fall.
ReplyDeleteHi, I work for a company (GotoCamera) that offers a free service which helps you use your webcam to monitor your home, business, family, etc. Turns out, a very significant number of our subscribers actually use the service to watch over their pets while they're at work (not very surprising... after all, our pets are our children too). Considering the fact that we have users in over 180 countries, it seems like we're doing a good job at providing a service that our customers love. With GoToCamera, you can check on your pets anytime you wish. This especially makes sense when you have an exotic pet back home and your heart bleeds when you have to leave your pet alone at home. All you need to set up this free service, is a webcam that comes along with your PC and you're good to go.
ReplyDelete