Niche Biz: GPS-Enhanced Cows
Building and maintaining fences for cattle is a time-consuming and costly endeavor. That’s why a GPS bovine headset may come in handy.
This past year, Dean Anderson and Daniela Rus have designed and tested Ear-a-Round headsets on the USDA’s 193,000-acre ranch near Las Cruces, N.M. Each Ear-a-Round is equipped with a GPS receiver, an accelerometer and a magnetometer that respectively track the cow’s location, speed and direction.
Before an animal roams beyond its pre-programed virtual boundaries, defined by GPS coordinates, the computer sends an auditory cue intended to keep the cow in its paddock. (Anderson’s experiments show his cattle respond to his voice.)
Next on Anderson and Rus’s agenda: commercializing Ear-a-Round. Each device costs a stiff $600 to produce, but they need to retail it for about $100 to reach a wider audience.
Photo by straymuse.
cassy on January 10th, 2009 5:59 pm
wow! amazing this is the first time i heard this kind of device wich cam track the location and speed of the cow, that invention of Anderson and Rus was really great! keep up coming with new invention guys and congrats!
Jaclyn on January 18th, 2009 11:36 am
while that does sound like a great and amazing idea, my thinking is what’s to really stop the cow from ignoring the voice and just keep on going? I’ve seen some dogs who will take a running head start and jump past the invisible fence and put up with that one shock that they get just to get out of the yard. well…a cow is much bigger and it’s only a voice telling them to go back basically…so really what is there other then the voice to stop them from going past where you want them to stay?
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