There’s apps that will help you waste time on your coffee break, and then there are apps that might give you a greater sense of purpose in life.
The loss of a dog fleeing from a neighborhood backyard is not only terrifying, but it’s traumatizing for all parties involved. Now with a new app, that may be a thing of the past.
Finding Rover is an app that has built-in facial recognition for dogs, in hopes that someone’s lost pooch will be found and saved. In order to help a dog find his or her way home, Rover has a built-in algorithm called Pet Match that uses your phone’s vision to pick up on key characteristics the lost dog has.
The creator is John Polimeno, a man who once spotted a lost dog poster, and was immediately brought back to a time where his family lost their dog. For his invention, Polimeno called out to Software Development Center at the University of Utah for the facial recognition software.
Using Finding Rover helps those who have lost pets or people who have stumbled across a lost pup. To use it, you need a well-lit picture of the dog. The app has a camera option that allows you to take a photo of the dog.
Of course it isn’t so easy to get a dog’s attention, or for it to look at a stranger, so this app has a handy dog bark button that is sure to get his or her attention. After that, simply adjust the facial recognition circles over the pup’s eyes, nose, and mouth, and press send. If the dog is leery about your presence, pictures from afar work on the dog as well.
From there Finding Rover will register the dog and match it up with information already submitted. The best feature about this app is it gives a map of locations where other breeds and dogs have gone missing. This is important because it gives the dog’s new friend a chance to look up information on where the dog might live if it’s not apparently on “Rover’s” tag.
Finding Rover is currently available in the Apple store, and will work with Android in a few months.
[Image credit: Fer Gregory / ShutterStock]
