A ROBOT dog that monitors your daily food intake and exercise levels and warns you not to eat that cheesecake could encourage people to stick to their diets.
The health-conscious dog connects wirelessly to the dieter's pedometer and an electronic diary of their eating habits, to calculate their daily calorie intake and expenditure.
Its US developers from MIT Media Lab hope the robot, a souped-up version of Sony's dog Aibo, could ultimately help in the fight against the western world's obesity epidemic.
The system is being designed by Cynthia Breazeal at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who is famed for creating the emotional robot Kismet. It would use a pedometer, bathroom scales and a PDA connected by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to gather information about weight, activity and eating habits that people generally have trouble calculating, remembering and reporting.
A computer will then accurately analyse the data and present the results to the person through the friendly face of a robot, says Breazeal's student Cory Kidd, who is working with her to develop the system, which is still at an early stage.
Past studies have shown that people who accurately record what they eat and how much they exercise are more likely to keep their weight down, and that a real 3D robot is more convincing than an on-screen character. A robot could also offer support that humans don't have the time, patience or desire to provide.
Aibo does not talk. Instead he has been programmed to exhibit four different behaviours, representing lethargy, energy and two stages in between, in response to a verbal cue such as "How am I?"
"A robot could offer support that humans don't have the time to provide"
The robot pet will choose his response to mirror how the person should be feeling. If you have stuck to your daily calories, he will jump up and down, wag his tail, play vibrant music and flash the brightly coloured LEDs that pepper his 50 centimetre-tall plastic body. But if you have already had too many, he will move slowly and lethargically and play low-energy music.
"It's promising to look at mobile robots for defining behavioural change," says Tim Bickmore, a computer scientist at the Boston University School of Medicine, who showed recently that an animated computer companion could encourage people to exercise more.
Kidd will present the idea at the UbiComp conference on 11 September in Tokyo, Japan, and will begin a study on 30 overweight Bostonians next spring.
Source:
New Scientist
"New Brunswick is about to become the first province in Atlantic Canada to use a PET CT scanner for detecting different forms of cancer.
PET, which stands for Positron Emission Tomography, is considered one of the best technologies for finding small tumours.
It allows a physician to examine cells in the entire body, making it easier to pinpoint the source of the cancer and to track treatment.
There are only 13 PET CT scanners currently in use across the country."
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"A Brooke County woman aruged that she should get more than the appraised value of her late dog, which died after a 2001 hit-and-run accident.
Story by The Associated Press
Since Groucho wasn't a working farm animal, the owner of the dog killed in a hit-and-run accident should be eligible to recover damages."
What next?
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"Monkeys don't make good pets forever, April Truitt told a state legislative committee yesterday.
'From birth to about age 5, they are cute, cuddly little animals,' said Truitt, founder of the Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville.
'But I have dealt with capuchin monkeys that get to be 30 years old, and these owners who paid $5,000 for them don't want them anymore. They're worthless.'"
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"Roland Mumford sponsored the resolution to create the vicious dog committee, on the heels of a dog attack incident in Portland involving two girls. District 8 Commissioner Roland Mumford is the chairman of the vicious dog committee. Mumford will meet with Wike and others at 3 p.m. Friday at the county administration building to discuss these ideas.
Summer Hunt, 7, was seriously injured when she was attacked by her grandmother’s pit bull in Portland on May 8.
Summer’s 15-year-old sister, Angelia, was also injured while trying to get the dog away from her sister.
Toni Hunt, the girls’ mother, said she would support any law designed to prevent others from experiencing the trauma her family has endured since her two daughters were attacked.
“There needs to be strict rules on any dog that can hurt a human or (another dog), pit bulls, rotweillers, chows, even small dogs, but especially with larger dogs because of the damage they can do,” Hunt said.
Mumford said owner responsibility would be a big focus of the committee."
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DART(Duplin Animal Shelter) says people who adopt have to sign a contract stating the person adopting the animal must take it to the vet within 48 hours and Candace acknowledges she didn't do that. "It needs it shots. It needs a puppy physical. It needs to be checked for worms. I mean it needs medical attention. They are told how important it is to get the dogs to the vets," says Kim Loyd.
Both Brinson and DART agree that before you give your heart to a pet, get that animal a thorough exam.
The summer months can be a great time to let your dog run free in the great outdoors, yet that situation can be hazardous to you and your pet's health if he picks up a tick carrying lyme disease.
"We have seen a significant increase in the lyme disease diagnoses," said Dr. Robert Pratt, of Brookside Veterinary in Auburn. "Since January of this year, the numbers have almost doubled. We recently had a client who lost her dog to the disease."
Humans can contract lyme disease as well, but an infected dog will not transmit the disease to humans.
Paints, solvents are dangerous
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The Iowa Veterinary Medicine Association and the Animal Poison Control (ASPCA) Center have some warnings for homeowners tackling spring and summer projects that might put their pets in harm way.
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Painting, construction projects and other touch-up jobs around the house are often on the “must do” list when warm weather returns. Here are some hazards for your pet to avoid when working around your home
In response to "Adopting a dog is expensive" (Letters, April 28.) If a person can't afford to adopt a dog from the shelter, how are they going to pay for annual vet exams and vaccinations? To spay or neuter their dog? For emergency treatments? Obedience classes, while extremely affordable, do cost. How about heartworm medicine and quality food? Oh, wait. I know. They won't take them for their yearly shots. They won't have them spayed or neutered. They won't bother with heartworm medicine or quality dog food.
The devastating and shadowy malady that is claiming the lives of greyhounds at Revere's Wonderland racetrack may have even deadlier.
The federal government's top scientists are exploring whether a deadly dog flu that has ripped through greyhound tracks across the country - and is suspected in Massachusetts - could leap to humans. The strain of canine influenza has already popped up in other dogs in animal shelters aroundthe country.
Starting in July, consumers will have access to information on how many pets traveling in the baggage holds of U.S. commercial aircraft are killed, lost or injured while in each airline's care. The new Department of Transportation policy requires U.S. carriers to start reporting such incidents by May 15, and reports will begin appearing in DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report (http://air consumer.ost.dot.gov /reports/atcr05.htm)
The government will check the airlines' self- reported data against consumer complaints to verify accuracy, DOT spokesman Bill Mosely said.
Animal rights groups have been lobbying for better treatment of airborne pets for years. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) applauded the new rule but said more measures are needed to ensure safe air travel for pets. "The transparency will continue to nudge the system forward
Furry "pocket pets" like hamsters, mice and rats have sickened up to 30 people in at least 10 states, including Illinois, with dangerous multidrug-resistant bacteria, health officials warn.
The multistate salmonella outbreak during 2004 was linked with exposure to rodents (e.g., hamsters, mice, and rats) purchased at pet stores, accoding to CDC report released on May 6. The report highlights methods for reducing Salmonella transmission from pet rodents to their owners.
Outbreak of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Typhimurium Associated with Rodents Purchased at Retail Pet Stores --- United States, December 2003--October 2004
State lawmakers Tuesday turned away a bill that could have brought a first-in-the-nation ban on pet cloning.
The 4-2 vote against the bill with four abstentions by members of Assembly Business and Professions Committee on AB1428 by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, came after a brief discussion that touched on everything from free enterprise to mad science -- all triggered largely by a pioneering Bay Area firm's willingness to replicate pet owners' favorite cat or dog.
Press told the committee, adding that neutering the pet proved a mistake. "Sometimes you make a decision and later regret it."
It appears to me that there are lots of plus and minus points regarding pet cloning; in this respect your valuable comments shall be highly appreciated.
By gosh, it does look like a cat, or some come-alive stuffed animal from a high-end horror movie. It is much more lifelike than Sony's Erector-Set-like robo-dog, AIBO.
Cleo the robo cat lounges on the dining table, stretches its paws, arches its back, twitches its tail, opens and shuts its eyes. When it turns its neck you can hear a creepy mechanical whirring sound.
The whole scene makes you a little nervous. As you delve into the future of pets on this planet, you discover at least three possibilities: robotic, cloned and biologically reprogrammed. It's a foggy, uncharted world of cuddly robots, copycat puppies, nonallergenic cats, glowing fish, gargantuan guinea pigs, miniature hippos and the re-establishment of endangered or extinct species that could put us all in danger.
Firefighters have 15 new oxygen masks for dogs and cats that can be used to treat animals overcome by smoke inhalation during a fire.
The masks come in three sizes, one for cats, one for small dogs and one for big dogs.
They're here to take care of families and their pets.
Dog lovers in Britain have taken 2.7 million working days off to care for their sick pets over the last two years, according to a survey released Thursday.
Ten percent of owners missed five days of work, with half of these taking up to two weeks off to look after their pets.
But the best part of the news is:
People in Britain are so concerned about their dogs’ well-being that 55 percent admitted they paid more attention to sick pets than an ill partner.
I wonder if in future they will consider...
