Imagine a dog in a special jacket that carries a video camera and tiny screen, and a basic keyboard built into the fabric. After a disaster that dog could allow people to record short messages for friends and family members currently separated from their loved ones.
Disaster dog in special jacket.
That what’s a couple of students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) are working on with their Messenger Dog project:
In those very first hours of fear and displacement, people may just want to send a message to their beloved ones only saying that they are alive and safe, hoping the same for them as well.
Messanger Dogs can help in recording those messages as video message and delivering them to the refugee camp they are assigned to.
Messanger Dogs wear a particular uniform to identify them, equipped with a device that can record messages, store geolocation of where each message was taken and the time as well. Messanger dogs are trained to sit when in front of a person, so as soon as one of them meets a person, it sits, allowing the accelerometer inside the recording device to trigger the interface software to start.
… At the end of their work, they can come back to the camp, where volunteers will download the video and make them available to the people to browse among and watch.
The video explains more.
Messenger Dog from laura boffi on Vimeo.
I would think this could be easily modified so the dog could also carry a standard recorded message informing people about where to turn for help or of survival measures they should take.
This is an interesting idea. I hope the students explore it further.
