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Swiss sheep to warn shepherds of wolf attacks by SMS
- billpg 14y agoI wonder how they tested it without causing a false alarm. Too many false alarms and people won't trust those alerts.
- omarchowdhury 14y agoThe fear might be shared when there are wolves around, so they might be analyzing more than 1 animal.
- christiangenco 14y agoOh man. Hook up a GPS unit and heart rate monitor to each sheep and you have a population model for how the knowledge of danger is spread within a group. I'm literally salivating.
- marquis 14y agoI also imagine you could run some kind of flocking algorithm on the GPS units (pun not intended), where if the sheep herd suddenly scattered you'd know something was up and how herd scattering occurs. Modern herd sheep are pretty stupid animals and scare easily, but with a big enough herd it takes quite a while to get them moving.
- theorique 14y agoThe sheep who cried wolf?
- ChuckMcM 14y agoGet it right, the sheep who texted wolf. :-)
- drblast 14y agoWhat an incredible world we live in if this system is cheaper to operate than owning a guard dog.
- ihsw 14y agoIt's not difficult to argue that electronic systems are more efficient and less error-prone than any organic system, be it guard dog or human. In the future milk production may be replaced by machines by artificial synthetic production.
- sliverstorm 14y agoElectronic systems can be more efficient and less error-prone. But they can also be a lot worse, too. Organic systems are adaptive both through learning and selection, so at least in their areas of expertise they are usually still superior to all but the best electronic systems.
- _delirium 14y agoWhat I found more interesting than the SMS is the auto-release of a wolf-repelling chemical. The sheep gain a weapon of sorts, though not fired under conscious control. Sort of a cyborg-ish extension to the sheep's natural ability.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoSheep are a tremendous source of methane [1], I think we should patent a device which collects the methane and includes an ignition system that is triggered by metabolic symptoms of fear or distress. Combined with head tracking, the preferred embodiment would collect methane into a holding tank on the sheep's back. When the device detects sheep panic, it turns an exit nozzle for the tank toward the direction the sheep is looking, releases the stored methane while simultaneously applying an ignition source. This ignites the methane which converts it into heat, water, and CO2 which has a much lower impact on global warming. The resulting jet of fire not only discourages the wolf but through the effects of Newton's third law of motion causes the sheep to be rocketed away from the source of danger thus saving it from harm. We will of course require new signage in the grazing area suggesting that people really really should not startle the sheep. [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561039911777481.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561039911777481.html
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- indiecore 14y agoQuick, call the patent office!
- NewHighScore 14y agoThis is great! How long before shepherds start setting up twitter accounts for them?
- christiangenco 14y agohttp://i.imgur.com/4tXan.png http://i.imgur.com/4tXan.png
- Zenst 14y agoInteresting and in some area's will add to the past-time of cow-tipping i suspect in the youth market, oh to be young. Still, once we get scarecrows with lasers is when I know things are going too far.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- gdsafsadfsaasdf 14y agoPhys.org? Really? There's not even a citation.
- _delirium 14y agoI would be curious to know where they got it from as well. Some preliminary searching doesn't turn up any solid info, but does turn up that the one person they quote by name, Jean-Marc Landry, previously worked on a project to reduce conflicts between shepherds and the reintroduction of wolves (http://www.kora.ch/en/proj/cdpnews/cdpnews001.htm#Landry http://www.kora.ch/en/proj/cdpnews/cdpnews001.htm#Landry), so it's plausible he'd be working on something like this.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- greenyoda 14y agoOne problem with this scheme is that areas where sheep are raised would probably have pretty sparse cellular coverage.
- tathagatadg 14y agoHey can some one give some pointers where I can find such modules which would send the text message and can be interfaced with an arduino board to build a generic alarm system. I dont have any background in hacking arduino, but it seems for web enabling cool systems( fetch data and send control commands) the following is the easiest route: sensor + actuator assembly__on__arduino<->sms_module<->AT&T_Jasper like_gateways<->my server Probably my terminologies are wrong but hope you get the point.
- malkia 14y agoTIL SMS stands for Sheep Monitoring System.
- GiraffeNecktie 14y agoI wonder if it would also warn of attacks by lonely shepherds.