[gps-talkusers] Well this takes the cake cows wearing GPS
- From: Charles LaPierre <charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:41:16 -0700
Check out this article from CNET.
Talk about a new kind of live reality video game.
August 6, 2008 3:18 PM PDT
GPS headsets make sure the cows come home
Posted by <http://news.cnet.com//8300-17938_105-1.html?authorId=125>Leslie Katz
(Credit: MIT)
From the plains of southern New Mexico, we bring you a story of
headset-wearing cows. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology are teaming up to remotely
corral cattle using a wireless device that sends sound straight into
the bovines' ears. HDTV-watching pigs can't be far behind.
The solar-powered "Ear-A-Round" is a naugahyde "helmet" held in place
by the cow's ears. Atop the holster sits an electronics device hooked
to sound-transmitting stereo earphones and containing a GPS device
that could let farmers monitor the animals' whereabouts from afar.
"It's a marriage between biology and electronics," said USDA research
animal scientist Dean M. Anderson, who has been collaborating with
MIT on the project for the last several years, but has focused on the
concept of
"<http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/presentations/anderson_dvf.pdf>directional
virtual fencing (PDF)" for more than three decades.
"When I started, the letters 'GPS' meant nothing to me," Anderson
said. "But...animal distribution on the landscape has been an age-old
challenge. With free-ranging animals, you get areas on the landscape
that are overused and other areas that are underused."
The patent-pending device is scheduled to be tested on about nine
cows later this month at the USDA's
<http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/>Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces,
N.M. Anderson noted that not all cattle in a given location will need
to be fitted with the instrument--only herd leaders. The animals that
will participate in the early testing are currently undergoing a sort
of "IQ test for cows" that will identify herd leaders in that group,
the researcher said.
The animals will be hearing a range of noises in their ears as they
graze--from recordings of Anderson's voice offering such
encouragement as, "C'mon girls, let's go," to the sounds of
all-terrain vehicles sometimes used in lieu of horses to gather animals.
"Using familiar sounds...this is the key," Anderson told CNET News.
"Animals can be trained. It doesn't have to be the voice of an
individual. It could be things as strange as train whistles or other
types of audio cues."
If the sound cues don't work, the device can emit a small electrical
shock to move cows in the desired direction.
Original URL
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10009156-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Charles M. La Pierre
CTO Sendero Group
"The GPS company." Distributors of the mPower, PK, Victor Stream,
Voice Sense, KNFB Mobile Reader, Talks, Miniguide and ID Mate
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