Melody Jackson, an associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, is working on technology that could help working dogs communicate with their handlers and other people. She has developed a dog vest equipped with sensors via which the dog can send text notifications or audio signals to a smartphone reports CNN’s Anne Woolsey.
The technology, called Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations (aka FIDO), could allow a bomb-sniffing dog to tell its handler what explosive it smelled or a search and rescue dog to tell a trapped victim that help is on the way.
Jackson says one of her dogs was able to understand the vest and its capabilities in just 27 seconds and that any trainable dog can learn to use it.
