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Friday, 30th November 2012
In General Japan News,
Dog pedometer deters pet obesity
A new dog pedometer has been launched by Fujitsu Laboratories that tracks whether pets are getting enough exercise.
In a bid to reduce obesity in domesticated animals, the Wandant dog pedometer is based on motion-tracking technology and includes a linked cloud service that supports health management for dogs.
The first of its kind in the pet industry, the new product and service will only be made available from November 28th in Japan.
As there are fewer children in Japan, more single-member households and people generally living longer, pets have been significantly more important in the family dynamic, taking the place of family members and companions.
Due to these demographic changes, the percentage of households with dogs has increased to 17.7 per cent.
The average lifespan of a dag has risen to 13.3 years, which is equivalent to 72-years-old in human years.
The ageing of pets and new problems such as obesity, have been detected and are growing concerns. This is why the firm has developed the Wandant based cloud service to support health supervision in dogs.
The technology in the dog pedometer uses the same sensing technologies that have been produced for use in mobile phones, which is placed in a tag worn on the dog's collar.
The Wandant automatically records and calculates the number of steps taken by the dog, its temperature changes and shivering motions.
This information is collected by the cloud service and presented as a graphic on a dedicated website. The dog's activities are easy to understand at a glance and help the owner to manage the dog's health and prevent obesity.
Allowing pet owner's to feel confident and easily understand how to better look matter their pet's health, the firm aims to support the quality of animal's lives by utilising information communication technologies to simplify and visualise the data.
"This helps owners get a stronger sense of their dog's health, while enabling communication with the dog," stated the company.
Written by Susan Ballion
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Japanese scientists find answer to dog paw mystery (12th January 2012)
Earthquake rescue dogs to be fitted with high-tech equipment (7th March 2016)
Dog gets free trip to Japan (6th January 2016)
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