TOKYO, JAPAN: Ever wonder what your pet Fido or your feline friend Fifi is really thinking when you stroke or walk them?
Owners can tell if their pets are happy, relaxed, want to play or are annoyed by using a smartphone application which links directly to the device, according to maker Anicall.
“We have more pets than kids in Japan,” Takuya Fuma, a manager in the company’s development unit, stated Thursday at the Wearable Expo in Tokyo.
“We see a big market in the pet industry,” he added. “People spend money on pets.”
The number of pet cats and dogs in the country in 2014 totaled more than20 million, according to Japan Pet Food Association, higher than the nation’s 16.2 million children under 15.
Anicall’s gizmo is different from that of rivals as it can be used on cats as well as dogs, which Fuma said should allow the company to cash in on the soaring popularity of cats in Japan.
Currently, the device only works when owners are near their pets with their smartphones, but Fuma said the company hopes to make it possible to monitor their emotions from distances via remote in the future by using another device to send signals over long distances.
For now, he still thinks they offer a greater purr-spective into pet’s emotions than the naked eye.
“It’s possible you think pets are relaxed, but actually they aren’t,” Fuma said.
The device is scheduled to hit the market around April at fair price of 9,000 yen (or about $75).
More than 200 companies from Japan, South Korea, the United States and elsewhere are taking part in the three-day Wearable Expo, which kicked off on Wednesday, to showcase their latest technologies.