The South Korean one would make life easier for dog and cat owners Petnow with their startup application, their goal is to replace invasive solutions (microchips, collars), instead they would identify the animals with a smartphone and the software running on it. In the case of dogs, the nose, and in the case of cats, the face, have unique features like human fingerprints, these are analyzed by the software, which according to the developers is capable of 98.97% accuracy. If anyone is interested in the details, click here to find the description of the method in English.
The more dogs added to the database, the more accurate Petnow works. (source: IEEE Xplore)
The first step is to manually enter your pet’s information into the program, as well as take a photo of your pet and scan its face. Among the entered data, only the name, age and gender of the animal can be seen by others, but in the case of a pet marked as missing, the program provides the opportunity for the finder to signal in the direction of the owner. In such cases, Petnow sends an anonymous notification to the owner, and does not show personal data to other users. Petnow’s partner in South Korea is SK Telecom, the largest local operator, and as part of their cooperation, the application includes a function that allows the finder of an animal marked as lost to send a notification and location to nearby residents.
When you open Petnow, the program automatically starts the search engine, which recognizes whether there is a cat or a dog in the field of view of the phone’s camera, and tries to automatically focus on unique identifiers without the user having to do any extra tasks, as shown in the video. This function also works with the front camera on iPhone XS or Galaxy S10 and newer mobile phones, but only with the rear camera on other mobile phones.
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Petnow provides the service to end users free of charge, the app is also free, and their business model is based on B2B relationships: they are looking for partnership opportunities with veterinary clinics, pet hotels, insurance companies, shelters (shelter networks) and government bodies. For now, they are only present in South Korea and the USA, they plan to arrive in Europe in the second half of this year, and the long-term goals include accepting the technology used by the application and the program itself as an official document.
