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Service Dogs Learn How To Dial 911

Jun 21, 2017 | 8:42 AM

[van id=”health/2017/06/13/fido-tech-digital.cnn”]

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN

Melody Jackson’s beloved grandmother Eleanor was in the kitchen when she fell.

Her cries for help went unheard, and her feeble attempts to lift herself up were unsuccessful. At the time of the fall, Eleanor was in her 90s, and it was some 20 years ago, but the memory remains with Jackson to this day.
“She had to wait for her neighbor to get home from work to get up,” Jackson said. “The family obviously was terrified, so we bought her one of those necklaces, those alert necklaces. … Well, she didn’t like wearing it.”
 However, if Eleanor had a small lapdog at the time, the dog not only could have been a companion, it could have helped her when she fell, said Jackson, an associate professor and director of the animal-computer interaction lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
From high-tech wearable vests for dogs to a dog-friendly touchscreen that works like a telephone, Jackson and her colleagues at Georgia Tech are developing and testing new ways for canines to communicate with humans during a medical emergency.
Since last year, when CNN previously interviewed Jackson and her team, they have tested a touchscreen that dogs can use to call or text.
Dogs could be trained to activate a device if their owner falls or if they hear a verbal cue telling them to “get help,” said Jackson, who founded the FIDO project at Georgia Tech to research ways to improve communication between dogs and humans.
“The dog could go over to a touchscreen and touch a series of icons on the touchscreen and call 911 with your location,” she said. “We think that, literally, this could change lives, make lives so much better, and be a life-saver.”
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