Not being able to find your pet is one of those gut-wrenching feelings only reunification can fix. Fortunately, Ford has filed a patent to use the technology in its cars to help owners and their pets find each other when the latter wanders off.
The patent, which was filed on April 18, 2024 but only recently published, describes a system that uses a car’s exterior cameras to capture images or videos of dogs that pass it. The car would then transmit those files to a server to be compared to a database of lost dogs, and if a match was determined, notify the lost dog’s owner of its last location. The patent says the system could also work for cats.
How Ford’s “Paw Patrol” Tech Would Work
There’s actually a lot more going on here than the above description suggests. For one, Ford’s system requires some significant computing power just to determine that there’s a dog or cat in the images and video it captures. That sort of facial recognition could be performed by the car itself using its own processors, or the files could be sent to a central server that performs that calculation.
Once Ford knows there’s a dog or cat in the files captured, it then has to compare them to a database of animals that can determine whether the animal in the files matches an animal that’s been reported lost. Ford says the system won’t ever be 100 percent sure of the match, but if their similarity exceeds a certain threshold, it will proceed to the next step.
The next step is contacting the missing animal’s owner and possibly an animal recovery service that can facilitate their reunion. Ford would also be able to share the location of where the images of a lost dog or cat were taken, and even the relative velocity and direction the animal was heading. What’s more, Ford’s system works whether the car is parked or moving.
Things can get even more crazy. Ford’s patent describes situations where an external speaker on the car could play a pre-recorded message in the owner’s own voice that encourages the dog to stay put or approach the car. Ford even imagines a scenario where the owner could speak to the animal in real-time through the car’s speakers while they watch live video of it on a device.
TopSpeed’s Take
It’s worth pointing out that there are privacy concerns with Ford’s idea. What can be used to find lost pets could also be used to identify people and report their whereabouts or spy on what they’re saying. We’re not saying Ford would ever do that, just that the technology is capable of it.
We’ve all had to accept some loss of privacy in our modern world. Cameras are everywhere, and somewhere down the line from them is facial recognition software that identifies who we are, where we are, and when we were there. We give Ford a lot of credit, though, for imagining the positive ways in which this sometimes-scary technology could be used.
Source: The Autopian
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