'Petificial Intelligence!' Babysitting device will have your dog taking selfies

Creators call it “the first smartphone for pets.” The intelligent robotic babysitter that’s now being funded on Indiegogo does a lot of things, from putting your worried mind at ease, to teaching your dog to take selfies!

The PetBot gadget even has facial recognition that instantly knows when your pet has approached.

The device, using “petificial intelligence”, allows you to record your voice to call your pets and have them run to the device, where an automated camera will take their selfie and the dispenser then release a treat. The gadget can be accessed from your Apple or Android phone, which is programmed to allow you to control the amount of snacks released and to stream live video or take selfies – even when you’re not expecting any.

There are also scheduled activities to help keep your pet on track and prevent them from wandering off doing something crazy to the house, or simply to give them a sense of regularity and certainty that a snack will jump out at this or that time; it can even play soothing music to calm them if need’s be.

And if the little ball of fur – be they a dog or a cat – has a preference, just record their favorite sounds.

The gadget promises also to notify the owner if the pet barks too much or is feeling otherwise agitated, thanks to the bark recognition feature.

The gizmo isn’t particularly expensive. A single unit with the iOS or Android app will set you back $149. The creators require some $80,000 to get production going. An early bird price will, however, cost you an extra $50. They want to ship it by next year. “Help us make pet care smarter!” goes the tag line.

The creators first tried to get things going in 2013, but didn’t manage. But they didn’t have “petificial intelligence” then – the selfie function and some other features were missing.