1. Principles and practices¶
This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process, discover how works Git and all the Fabacademy sites.
Research¶
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My project is about an educational connected object for animals working according to the principles of positive education. It means encouraging the good behaviours instead of punishing the wrong ones.
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It’s a rupture regarding the currently electronic educational products proposed for pets. Indeed, they are based on punishing the animal when he behaves “wrong” according to Human.
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For example, the anti bark collar makes a sound, a vibration and then electocutes the animal when a bark is detected. In some European countries, this method has been forbidden because of the discomfort it causes to the pet. As no animal welfare friendly electronical alternativ exists yet, we have to make it.
My first product would be for dogs pulling on leash.
That’s the object :
- The principle is based on the Pavlovian conditioning which consists of associating a stimulus with another. The dog will learn that when he pulls less on the leash a friendly sound associated as a reward is emitted. I think the sound of the clicker will be perfect for this task.
Finally, the dog should eventually understand that not pulling is good. The product will be attached to the leash, small, light and with a nice design. It will responds when a significant force variation is felt on the leash.
Useful links about animal clicker training¶
Thus, the product should have some caracteristics described below :
Caracteristics¶
Connected object
| Fonctions | Components |
|---|---|
| Mesure strength | Force sensor |
| Make a sound | Sound transmitter |
| Data storage | Electronic card |
| Data analysis | Software |
| Transmit the data | Bluetooth + USB |
A mobile application would go with the product to show the force variations walk by walk and by periods (days, weeks, months…). These variations would be represented with curves.
The main fonctions of this application would be :
- Quick user tutorial to create the associative learning between the sound and its positive value
- Strength variation by walk
- Positive educational advices provided with dogs behaviour professionals and based on scientific litterature
- GPS using the phone fonction to see where the dog is pulling the most and try to figure why
- Step counter associated with a calorie counter to make some daily goals using the phone fonctions
Mistakes¶
When I tried to make bullet points at first I failed because there was no space between my first line and the first bullet point line :
After checking the student agreement script where there are bullet points, I modified my script and then it worked :
