Marissa and I came across a what seemed to be a really nifty product on the web yesterday: SNIF tags. These tags, developed by a startup founded by a number of MIT Media Lab grads, both monitor your dog's activity level and upload the data to the web (acting essentially like a networked canine pedometer) and, more interestingly, will detect when your dog has met another dog wearing a SNIF tag and connect them as "friends" on the company's web site, in theory allowing your dog to have is own social network - a doggie Facebook, if you will.
It seems great (Marissa did point out that in our dog Mochi's case, it might be embarassing to have an online record of the fact he probably spends 20 hrs a day immobile and asleep.) But there are some pretty major issues, and while I don't think they're the fault of the designers, I do think they're endemic to this kind of product and need a better solution.
It seems great (Marissa did point out that in our dog Mochi's case, it might be embarassing to have an online record of the fact he probably spends 20 hrs a day immobile and asleep.) But there are some pretty major issues, and while I don't think they're the fault of the designers, I do think they're endemic to this kind of product and need a better solution.
Continue reading SNIFtags: Social Networking and Exercise Logging for Your Dog.
