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• The South Korean startup Petpuls Lab has announced it developed an AI dog collar that can help owners discern what emotions their pets are feeling based on how they bark.
"This device gives a dog a voice so that humans can understand," the company's director of global marketing, Andrew Gil, told Reuters.
The collar detects five emotions, and owners can find out through a smartphone app if their pets are happy, relaxed, anxious, angry or sad. Seoul National University tested the device and declared it has a 90% average accuracy rate.
The collar sells for $99. [Reuters, 1/12/2021]
• A couple in Sherbrooke, Quebec, were each fined $1,500 on Jan. 9, when police spotted the pair walking outside about an hour after the city's 8 p.m. curfew, with the husband wearing a leash, CTV News reported.
The city's curfew allows for dog-walking after 8 p.m., but police rejected the couple's claim they were following the rules.
It was the first weekend under new province-wide restrictions imposed by Premier Francois Legault, and officers throughout Quebec handed out more than 750 tickets. [CTV News, 1/12/2021]