Challenge: Husky Startup Challenge 2012

Project Dates: 10/15/2012 - 11/15/2012

Summary:

The Remote Alert Device was a design proposal to create a device that translated barking commands taught to ‘Seeing Eye’ dogs trained for the blind to a visual input. The goal of this device was to enable the training of the ‘Seeing Eye’ dogs to also service deaf individuals who require assistive pets due to severe disability.

Additional Details:

Deaf individuals who require service dogs receive dogs who go through a completely different training program than 'Seeing Eye' dogs to visually alert their users of hazards in day to day life. This training is significantly costlier since there are fewer individuals who need assistive pets who are deaf than are blind and also results in limited availability of these pets for individuals in need. The goal of this device was to design a solution that would enable dogs trained in the ‘Seeing Eye’ program to adequately alert deaf individuals of hazards without any additional training.

Device Design:

The RAD consisted of two components, a specialized collar mounted on the dog and a smart watch that the user would wear. The collar was to house two 4.5V batteries (one to be used as an emergency backup) that powered an on board microprocessor, a 3.3V Bluetooth IC and an I2C enabled Piezoelectric sensor. The sensor would pick up vibrations caused by a barking dog and then transmit that data to a user. The microcontroller would implement a bandpass filter to ensure the vibrations picked up are of the dog barking. A 3.3V Bluetooth receiver located in the users watch would then pick up the barking and flash an LED on the watch at a rate and brightness intensity that corresponded to the dog barks. CAD models were created, a part list was drafted and initial code was written for the MSP430 microcontroller before work on the project ceased as it was not picked up by the Husky Startup Challenge for showing low profitability by appealing to a very small target market.