July 04, 2006
RFID DIY Projects - Keep Fido Out Of Mischief
Anyone who has a pup knows the kind of mischief that they can get into, some breeds more than others. Some you can train with voice commands, others require a different solution. If you've got a dog that goes where it shouldn't, say into the basement, RFID might be a away to keep poochie out.
This is hypothetical solution inspired by my mother's dog, who is a black Labrador Retriever, barely year old, and extremely mischievous. Black Labs will chew on or eat pretty much anything that can get their teeth into. This one seems to like cat food and even cat litter, and sneaks into the basement when no one is looking. In fact, she's made it her daily mission.
So I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to keep her out of the basement. Finally, I came across an article on how parents can track their children using a GPS logger [via Engadget]. This device is available in kit form and stores geographic coordinate data to a memory card. The data can then be mapped using something like Google Maps.
Unfortunately, this won't work inside the house, simply because the coordinates are not going to change drastically enough to map out. And even if you could implement a micro-logger, that's still not keeping poochie out. However, another wireless technology, RFID, could work.
Let's ignore the fact that most household pets have an RFID tag inserted somewhere on them. My idea works like this. One part is an RFID-enabled dog or flea collar. The other part is an RFID reader mounted over the basement doorway.
The RFID reader would be attached to a small speaker system that would either play back a tone or a recorded voice. Alternately, LEDs could be used to display a pattern. (Dogs are color-blind, so color won't matter.) Since my mother's cats go back and forth through the basement door, there cannot be any sort of barrier for them.
Of course, this RFID and speaker/ light solution means the dog would have to be trained to obey tones, voice, or light patterns. The problem right now is that there is no one to stop her from going to the basement, so this might work.
If you want something more sophisticated, you could combine this RFID system with something like the Tanaka Auto Door. Of course, you'd want a sort of reverse set up, so that humans and kitties can go through the doorway, but poochie couldn't.
This is all hypothesis, and obviously wouldn't work if you don't like to collar your dogs when they're in the house. But the general RFID hardware principle is sound. The "soft solution" is to train the pooch to respond to the hardware.
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« Got Milk Crates? Tracking With RFID | Main | RFID Applications For Libraries »
