[nagdu] New technology for guy dog users.

Cindy Ray cindyray at gmail.com
Wed Dec 2 03:07:26 UTC 2015


I don't honestly see the need for this either. Besides all that Raven has said, I would add that it implies that we are blithely insensitive to the dogs. Pretty soon we would need to add stuff like that to babies. And besides, my dog's heart rate and breathing would increase if he saw crumbs under the table.
Cindy Lou Ray
cindyray at gmail.com


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Raven Tolliver via nagdu
Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 9:02 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Raven Tolliver <ravend729 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nagdu] New technology for guy dog users.

Unless you have negative probability of being able to read your dog's body language, I don't think this is necessary. I have an extremely calm dog, and he is still expressive. Yes, guide dogs are trained to keep it together in harness, but if you have a relationship with your dog, you learn that they still assert their emotions, and you learn their individual signals for stress, excitement, fear, etc.
What are people supposed to do with this information if they find out their dog heart rate increases at the grocery store? I mean, come on, this is not even information that means anything specific. My heart rate increases after I eat a meal that raises my blood sugar, when I see my best friend, when I'm furious at my mother, and when I here the voice of that creepy guy who lives across the street. The same goes for any animal. It's all about context. So regardless of an increase or decline in heart and breathing rates, what matters most is the situation and stimuli at play.
This is a waste of time and money. People should pay attention to their dogs rather than relying on tech to do it for them, or to remind them to do so. This is the world we live in now, where we need technology to think for us.
--
Raven
Founder of 1AM Editing & Research
www.1am-editing.com

You are valuable because of your potential, not because of what you have or what you do.

Naturally-reared guide dogs
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/nrguidedogs

>> On Dec 1, 2015, at 8:15 PM, Tara Briggs via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all! I am very curious to hear what all you think about this new 
>> technology. Looking forward to the discussion!
>> Tara
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: Everette Bacon <ebacon at utah.gov>
>>> Date: December 1, 2015 at 1:25:14 PM MST
>>> To: marniewest at utah.gov, Tara Briggs <thflute at gmail.com>, Scott 
>>> Wilcock <stitchbert at gmail.com>, tinabell92 at gmail.com
>>> Subject: Pretty Cool!
>>>
>>> New Tech Helps Handlers Monitor Health, Well-Being of Guide Dogs
>>>
>>> Sean Mealin and Simba, using a traditional guide dog harness and handle.
>>> Photo credit: NC State University.
>>>
>>> For Immediate Release
>>>
>>> November 16, 2015
>>>
>>> Sean Mealin
>>> |
>>> 336.365.8301
>>>
>>> David Roberts
>>>
>>> Matt Shipman
>>> |
>>> 919.515.6386
>>>
>>> Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a 
>>> device that allows people who are blind to monitor their guide dogs, 
>>> in order to keep tabs on the health and well-being of their canine 
>>> companions.
>>>
>>> “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,” 
>>> says David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC 
>>> State and co-author of a paper 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.”
>>>
>>> This guide-dog harness handle contains electronics that allow users 
>>> to monitor the breathing and heart rate of their dogs. Photo credit: 
>>> David Roberts.
>>> Click to enlarge.
>>>
>>> This guide-dog harness handle contains electronics that allow users 
>>> to monitor the breathing and heart rate of their dogs. Photo credit: 
>>> David Roberts.
>>> Click to enlarge.
>>>
>>> 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,” says Sean Mealin, a Ph.D. student at NC State 
>>> and lead author of the paper. “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. The 
>>> technology may also be able to help handlers detect other health 
>>> problems, such as symptoms of heat exhaustion.”
>>>
>>> The issue is particularly important to Mealin, who is blind and 
>>> works with his own guide dog, Simba.
>>>
>>> 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 says.
>>>
>>> So, the researchers developed a specialized 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 pinky 
>>> finger, and vibrates in synch 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 says.
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> “We’re refreshing the design and plan to do additional testing with 
>>> guide-dog handlers,” Roberts says. “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.”
>>>
>>> The paper, “
>>> Towards the Non-Visual Monitoring of Canine Physiology in Real-Time 
>>> by Blind Handlers ,” is being presented Nov. 16 at the Second 
>>> International Congress on Animal Computer Interaction, in Johor, 
>>> Malaysia. The paper was co-authored by Mike Winters, Ignacio 
>>> Domínguez, Alper Bozkurt and Barbara Sherman of NC State; and by 
>>> Michelle Marrero-García, a high school student who worked on the 
>>> project as part of a summer program at NC State. The work was done 
>>> with support from the National Science Foundation under grants 
>>> DGE-1252376 and 1329738.
>>>
>>> -shipman-
>>>
>>> Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.
>>>
>>> “Towards the Non-Visual Monitoring of Canine Physiology in Real-Time 
>>> by Blind Handlers”
>>>
>>> Authors: Sean Mealin, Mike Winters, Ignacio X. Domínguez, Alper 
>>> Bozkurt, Barbara L. Sherman, and David L. Roberts, North Carolina 
>>> State University; Michelle Marrero-García, CROEM Specialized 
>>> Residential School
>>>
>>> Presented: Nov. 16, Second International Congress on Animal Computer 
>>> Interaction, Iskandar, Johor, Malaysia
>>>
>>> Abstract: One of the challenges to working with canines is that 
>>> whereas humans are primarily vocal communicators, canines are 
>>> primarily postural and behavioral communicators. It can take years 
>>> to gain some level of proficiency at reading canine body language, 
>>> even under the best of circumstances. In the case of guide dogs and 
>>> visually-impaired handlers, this task is even more difficult. 
>>> Luckily, new technology designed to help monitor canines may prove 
>>> useful in helping handlers, especially those with visual 
>>> impairments, to better understand and interpret what their working 
>>> partners are feeling or saying. In prior work a light-weight, 
>>> wearable, wireless physiological monitoring system was shown to be 
>>> accurate for measuring canines’ heart and respiratory rates.
>>> In this paper, we consider the complementary problem of 
>>> communicating physiological information to handlers. We introduce 
>>> two nonvisual interfaces for monitoring a canine’s heart and 
>>> respiratory rates, an audio interface and a vibrotactile interface. 
>>> We also present the results of two initial studies to evaluate the 
>>> efficacy of the interfaces. In the first study we found that many 
>>> participants were more confident in detecting changes in heart and 
>>> respiratory rate using the audio interface, however most of the time 
>>> they were just as accurate with the vibrotactile interface with only 
>>> a slight increase in detection latency.
>>>
>>> SHARE
>>>
>>> Everette Bacon M.A. CVRT
>>> DSBVI Utah
>>> 250 N. 1950 W.
>>> SLC, UT. 84116
>>> 801-323-4372
>>> ebacon at utah.gov
>>> Twitter @baconev
>>> “I know I was born and I know that I’ll die, the in between is mine” E.
>>> Vedder

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