Researchers Develop Health Tracker For Guide Dogs

Guide dogs have an important job, one that involves keeping calm even if they're distressed. For that reason, as well as obvious ones, it can be difficult for the blind to monitor their dog's state of health. Researchers have tackled this problem by developing a new tracking technology that monitors a guide dog's heart rate and breathing and presents the information to its handler.

The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University; the device, which is part of a guide dog harness, allows the dog's handler to determine whether the dog is anxious, under stress, or something similar. As one example, the harness can be used to detect whether a dog out in the sun is experiencing heat exhaustion.

A big part of the work was coming up with a suitable way to relay the device's information to the blind, something ultimately done via a pair of vibrating motors. A handle attaches to the dog's harness and relays the data; heart rate data is presented as vibrating beats, which speed up and down to match the dog's heart rate. The other motor vibrates in sync with the dog's respiration rate.

Said the study's co-author David Roberts, "We're refreshing the design and plan to do additional testing with guide-dog handlers. Our ultimate goal is to provide technology that can help both guide dogs and their people. That won't be in the immediate future, but we're optimistic that we'll get there."

SOURCE: NC State University