Smart dog collar utilizing wifi, cellular, bluetooth and GPS technologies
Project
An IoT "smart" dog collar that connects to a native iOS/Android application. The smart dog collar app tracks location, temperature, activity of your dog in a beautifully designed interface.
Expertise
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- iOS (Swift)
- Android (Java)
- Google Maps API
Connecting people with their pets in new and exciting ways.
"With advanced GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Cellular technology, Link monitors your dog’s location in real time and alerts you when your pup leaves the designated Safe Zone"
Project Manager, Link AKC
The Product Vision
The American Kennel Club has been connecting pets and owners for over a hundred years. Smart Pet Technologies was created to take this connection to the next level. Link AKC was developed to bring the future of connecting dogs with owners today.
The Approach
The team at AndPlus architected and engineered the various states the collar can activate. When the dog is at home it automatically connects to the local WiFi to save power and data consumption, when it's near the owner and their phone it reverts to Bluetooth Low-Energy and when you're out and about at the park or on a hike, it automatically switches to cellular data over 3G.
The team implemented a "Lost Dog" mode for when the dog is away from the base station and given area unexpectedly. When Lost Dog mode is triggered, a push notification is sent to the owner's app. When the user clicks on it, they can see the exact location of the dog on a map and begin tracking where their dog is via GPS tracking. The Link AKC collar is the perfect marriage of various wireless protocols.
The Solution
The result of our engagement was an award-winning solution that connects people with their pets in new and exciting ways. We delivered native Android and iOS apps that communicate via bluetooth, wifi and cellular to the Link AKC collar and base station.
The application also allows users to log different activities the their pet completes. Walks, feeding, and vet visits are all logged by the application as well. When your dog has a memorable walk or trip, the application allows a user to capture it as an "Adventure", where they can add multiple images, track where they were on the map, log their mileage, and more. These activities and adventures all show up on an interactive timeline where users can get an overall view of all of the things they have done with their best friend.
Link AKC was awarded "Best of Innovation" at CES 2017. This isn't the first award-winning project AndPlus has created, and we're excited to continue making world-class applications.
