When you go to conferences and listen to the lists of applications into which ICs are going, and will be going into in the future, no one ever mentions the pet market. But, according to the New York Times, Americans spend $43 billion on their pets every year and a fair whack of that goes into electronic gadgets for pets.
For the past seven years the Japanese firm Takara has been selling a dog bark translator. The translator's microphone attaches to the dog collar. It sends barks to a processor which analyses the sounds, determines which of six emotional states the dog is in, comes up with the best match from around 200 translation possibilities in its database, and displays them on the device's screen.
Then there's the $329 Litter-Robot which is a cat litter which senses when your cat has done its stuff and cleans out the soiled portion of the litter tray dumping it in a plastic bag on the bottom of the machine.
And there's the $99 Zoombak, a GPS device for dogs which tracks where they are and can send you emails if they stray outside defined parameters.
And take the air-conditioned Komfort Pets Carrier which allows you to transport your pet at his or her preferred temperature for $149.
If you're worried that your dog is lazy, then the $299 Snif Tag, which incorporates a three-axis accelerometer and motion sensor software, and records the time your dog spends walking, running and sleeping with an Ethernet connection to upload the data to your PC so you can see if the little so-and-so is getting enough exercise or is just lying around kipping.
If you come to the conclusion your dog's a lazy little basket, then you can buy the $1,195 Jog A Dog - a treadmill which forces it to work out on an 11-degree incline.
For grooming, the $24 QuickFinder Deluxe uses a sensor detecting heat from blood vessels telling you when it's safe to clip a pet's nails.
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For the revolting effects of cat pee, there's the $109 Portable Extractor which uses backlight LEDs to find urine stains which you can then have the pleasure of removing.
Finally there's The Petporte which uses an RF IC embedded in your pet to open the catflap so restricting access solely to your own pet.
I hope industry analysts will start investigating this important, and clearly fast-developing, application area.
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