Pets vs. Technology
January 28th, 2009 by Chris |
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When I’m not home my dog loves to get up on the furniture and lounge around. The problem is that she knows that she can get away with it all day long with no immediate consequences. The solution is teaching her that she has to obey the rules, even when I’m not there to enforce them… or rather, to convince her that I am an omnipresent force, observing her every move and promptly dispensing disciplinary action. To achieve this goal, I setup a webcam that I can view from both my iPhone and any web browser. When I see (or hear) the dog getting up on the furniture, I load up a VNC application on my iPhone and remotely trigger mp3 files of me yelling “Bad dog! Get off the furniture!” Continue after the jump to learn more about how I set everything up. For the live streaming video, I use a free service provided by Ustream. You can see my video stream here when it is active. The Ustream service provides live streaming with relatively good video and audio quality. The only downside is that they have recently added annoying popup advertisements in the video player, but that is my only gripe with them. Each channel also has a live chat, so viewers can communicate while watching the stream. Another great feature is that you can record your own video stream, and then upload the clips to YouTube or download the video files. In order to remotely control my video stream, start and stop recordings, and play mp3 files, I installed a VNC application on my iPhone. After a great deal of research, I finally settled on the Jaadu VNC application. Though it is not free, it has an abundance of features, great UI, and their support team is extremely helpful.
From the VNC application, I can also trigger mp3 files and playlists in iTunes. If one mp3 is not enough to get the dog off the furniture, an entire playlist should do the trick!
Because my webcam is a Logitech Orbit I can also use the VNC application to move the camera and look around the room. So far, this setup has worked quite well for me. The downside is that as the dog learns that she cannot get away with getting up on the furniture, I lose a new form of entertainment. Some people have wondered why I have not tried a fully automated system using pressure pads or motion detectors. Those solutions would work great, however I do not want my cat inadvertently setting off the system, as the main goal is to torment train my dog. I hope you have enjoyed my little experiment. /Chris |
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January 28th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
So freaking brilliant. So much fun to watch too!
January 28th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
…wait so the cat can be on the couch but the dog can’t? Guess it would be a little more complicated trying to set up something to squirt the cat when it hops up there…
January 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Well the cat is fine on the furniture, she does not damage it, and she is easier to clean up after.
The dog (being a dalmatian) has barbed hairs that stick in the fabric, and are really hard to vacuum out. And dalmatians perpetually shed.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
very funny.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
We bought a “scatmat” to keep our cats off the furniture when we’re gone. It’s been very effective and my couch is now cat hair free. It gives off a little electrical charge when they step on it. However, it sounds like you only need to control the dog. What an ingenious solution! Very amusing!
January 28th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
this is kinda brilliant, and kinda weird. But brilliant all the same. It still amazes me that you can make things work like this…
January 29th, 2009 at 3:16 am
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January 29th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Next incarnation needs a hologram of your face telling her off. Maybe an aim-able USB dart gun is in order? Come on Chris, take this thing to the next level, see how far it goes
January 29th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Dottie was greet all day yesterday… she did not get up on the sofa once! It’s almost as if she knew about the blog post and all the new viewers of the live video stream.
Unfortunately, this morning at 10:46, she got back up on the sofa…
January 29th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I love that Dottie watches TV
January 29th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Haha, I just leave the audio on during the day for her. The bigscreen is off.
What I really love is the random channels my TiVo ends up on during the day. Dottie has been listening to the worst that daytime TV has to offer… She was enjoying Judge Judy earlier today, and various soap operas last week.
Thankfully, I can log into my SlingBox and remotely change the channel so I don’t have to suffer alongside her.
If she keeps getting up on the furniture, I might just have to set it to CSPAN or the Weather Channel… but I’m not sure PETA would approve.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:42 am
It occurs to me that there could be all kinds of useful applications for this. If you have someone in your house who drinks directly from the milk carton say, or leaves dishes in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher. You could have your voice on an mp3 file saying something like, “I have asked you a thousand times not to do that! Bad, bad, bad!!” hee, hee!
January 31st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
This Friday I knew my friends Sam and Terri would be coming over for TV night, so I setup a little prank…
Because they always get to my house while I’m still at work, I figured I could remotely trigger a Rickroll from my office.
Little did I know that Sam had a surprise planned for me…
For those of you who may be wondering… Sam is wearing his Unicow costume from Halloween 08. (Closest thing he had to a dalmatian costume)
February 17th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Brilliant! Very inventive way, that! Almost makes me think of that spray to stop dogs barking… now where did I put that link… Ah, here it is: http://www.petstuffgalore.co.uk/dog-products/dog-training/multivet-anti-bark-spray-collar.html
Well done & Keep it up!
LeoH