Washington:
Researchers have developed a specialised device that can allow visually impaired people to monitor the health and well-being of their guide dogs.
“Dogs primarily communicate through their movements and posture, which makes it difficult or impossible for people who are blind to fully understand their dogs’ needs on a moment-to-moment basis,” said David Roberts, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University in US, and co-author of a study describing the new technology.
“This challenge is particularly pronounced in guide dogs, who are bred and trained to be outwardly calm and avoid drawing attention to themselves in public,” said Roberts.
To address this need, the researchers have developed a suite of technologies that monitor a dog’s breathing and heart rate and share the information with the dog’s handler.
“Our goal is to let guide dog handlers know when their dogs are stressed or anxious,” said lead author Sean Mealin, a PhD student at NC State.
“This is important because it is widely believed that stress is a significant contributing factor to early retirement of guide dogs and other service animals,” said Mealin.
“The technology may also be able to help handlers detect other health problems, such as symptoms of heat exhaustion,” he said.
The research team had previously developed monitoring technologies that are incorporated into a lightweight harness that can be worn by rescue or service dogs.
The trick was to find a way to share that monitoring data with users who are blind - and to do so in a way that allows those users to act on the information.
“We didn’t want to give handlers an endless stream of information that would be difficult to interpret,” Mealin said.
The researchers developed a specialised handle that attaches to a guide dog’s harness. The handle is equipped with two vibrating motors.
One motor is embedded in the handle by the handler’s thumb, and vibrates or beats in time with the dog’s heart rate. When the dog’s heart rate increases, so does the rate at which the motor beats.
The second motor is embedded in the handle near the handler’s little finger, and vibrates in sync with the dog’s breathing.
The vibration increases and decreases in intensity, to simulate the dog breathing in and out.
“We wanted to use electronic signals that intuitively make sense for the dog handlers,” Roberts said.
The prototype handle has been tested using simulated heart rate and respiratory data, and was found to be effective at accurately conveying information to users.
