DogHouse
Canines. Connected.
Don’t you wish you could know all of your pets wants and needs? Dog House uses a home hub to gather data that gives you insight to better understand your canine pal. It’s like Home Kit for your pet. Convenient to use through your Apple Watch and iPhone and a great way to communicate with your pup.
You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tech
Calendar
An event manager at your fingertips, for every day, such as walks around the neighborhood, daily medications, and play dates with Spot. As well as your not so every day, such as trips to the vet and appointments with your groomer to keep Rocky looking sharp.
Create new appointments and push notifications that come right to your Apple Watch. Sync your dog’s calendar to your personal calendar. Organize your dog’s medical appointments, play dates and more in one location. DogHouse sends notifications to your Apple Watch and iPhone to remind you of important upcoming tasks to get done.
Medical History
Organizes and stores all of your crucial veterinarian information such as your vet’s address, contact information, and hours of operation, in one convenient place. Provides fast access in the event of a canine emergency or simplicity and ease when scheduling vet appointments.
A subsection under Medical History offers owners a list of vaccinations and appointment dates in chronological order to make sure you never miss an appointment and that Rocky stays healthy.
Dates and descriptions of surgeries can be easily found as part of the Medical History feature as well, to give you a precise timeframe so you can prepare your pup for his upcoming treatment.
Nutrition
Monitor your dog’s food and water intake wherever and whenever you want. Stay up to date on the status of your pet’s food bowls by visual trackers sent to your iPhone or Apple Watch. Getting low? Simply press a button to refill the bowls with simplicity and ease. DogHouse also provides insight into the health of your animals by storing when and how much your dog eats. Easily forward this info to your veterinarian through the app to provide them with a more complex dietary history. Set up alerts to remind you to buy more of your dog’s favorite food or treats when they get low.
Activity
Track your dog’s fitness over time, set goals, and send reminders to motivate you and your pet to stay active. Find trails, dog parks, and other pet-friendly environments using location services. This feature consolidates your activity data and encourages you to keep up the progress!
Share your pet’s photos and daily activity with your circle on social media. Available to upload via twitter, facebook, and instagram through the app. Feel free to post a snap of your trail route to showcase your triumphs from the day or a collage of pictures from your day’s hike.
All posts incorporate the hashtag #DogHouse so you can find fellow owners and their hairy companions when you search the hashtag. A community of tech-savvy dog lovers right in the palm of your hand (or on your wrist).
In addition, this feature monitors the use of interactive pet toys that keep track of how much your pet is playing with you or solo while you are away.
Why Dog House?
Our innovation stems from our realization that technology is constantly working to improve and better our lives in every way. So why wouldn’t that extend to our pets? A prime dilemma in our relationship with pets is the lack of verbal communication. Our goal is to enable our pets to communicate their needs and wants with us through smart devices. By monitoring data on our pets collected by HomeKit, iPhone and Apple Watch we get a better idea of their well being and come one step closer to bridging the communication gap. Some of the features included in Dog House are a calendar, medical id, nutrition monitor and social sharing page that stimulate the everyday dog owner to become even more engaged. Our vision is to make the life of both pup and owner more enjoyable by increasing ease, convenience and connectivity. Our system facilitates owners to keep up with their pet’s health and wellness through a concise and convenient platform under the familiarity of the apple umbrella.
Smart Devices Made Smarter
Dog House integrates the technologies of HomeKit, Apple Watch, and iPhone to create a seamless flow of communication and data. As part of our HomeKit ecosystem for Dog House, we utilize smart devices for a more comprehensive glance into the lives of our pets. Our smart toys record the duration and frequency your pup engages with them for a more detailed study of activity. Further, our responsive food and water bowls provide an analysis of eating habits. Both of which sync to your Apple Watch and iPhone to keep you in sync with your pet. The app is designed to work through your iPhone in a function similar to Apple Health. We created graphics for our app using PhotoShop and InDesign with the goal of being consistent with Apple’s aesthetic. Next, we uploaded them to Marvel and Indigo to create an interface that resembled a functioning app. Our team is currently working with Xcode to develop a real app that we will present at Slam.
A Little Bit About the Team
We were inspired for the vision of Dog House by all of our loving dogs at home. As long-time members of the NMIX community we have realized that all of the most dynamic technology comes from having insight to a common need and utilizing technology to make lives more cohesive and easy. With Dog House we saw a prime example of an integral aspect in our lives, our dogs, that hadn’t yet been incorporated into a conclusive technological ecosystem. Our goal in creating Dog House is to not only improve the life of you, the owner, but also the health and well being of your dog.
Jordan O’Connell
Copy Editor
Jordan is a fourth year student at UGA from Annapolis, MD. She will be graduating in May 2016 with a major in Public Relations, and a certificate in New Media. She has loved being part of the New Media Institute and her fondest memory of the NMI was in her 2020 Intro class when she and her group received bonus points on their exams for dressing up as Steve Jobs the week before Halloween. It represents the innovative spirit and excitement that has been incorporated in each NMI class she has taken.
Kirby Massengale
Technical Designer
Kirby is a fourth year student from Nashville, TN. She graduates from UGA in May with a Management Information Systems major and New Media Certificate. Her favorite aspect of the NMI has been her involvement in TEDxUGA.
Alaina Plummer
Illustrator + Branding
Alaina is a fourth year advertising major with a certificate in the New Media Institute. Her favorite class in the NMI was Shamp’s 2020 Intro class when her team “Safe Soles” won the New Media Elder Ventures Competition.
Taylor Hensley
Visual Designer
Taylor is a fourth year student at UGA majoring in Public Relations with a certification in New Media. Her favorite aspect of New Media was learning to build and code websites and apps.
