User Test – First conversations, Yukiko

Dog acceptation of the collar can take some time and training.

First phone call with Yukiko: EPIC FAIL :) 
The sound was really to loud and Daniel felt onto his son’s answering-machine.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QazxRV-S9m4]

2nd phone call to Daniel’s wife. Talking about meeting each other later and traying to talk to the dog.
Daniel’s wife: “Yukiko doesn’t reply to me!”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F5B5dOjK7U]

3rd phone call with Yukiko, watch it until the end!
The starting of the conversation is a bit tensed, they talk about the device and the experiment, after having given a biscuit to Yukiko the conversation really starts (about work), as the dog move the owner follows her, down on his knees on the carpet.
Daniel: “It’s the first time I use a hairy phone!”
Daniel: “That is a really ‘mobile’ phone…”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB3Hq40aYro]

User test – Fitting, collars tests

I didn’t have the opportunity yo touch Yukiko, Daniel decided to meet first in the park—even if it is not the best situation for using the collar—to relax Yukiko. I had to not pay attention to her and let her come to me with her tennis ball (to throw it) as a way to say hello… Quite a wild dog, indeed.

I didn’t have the opportunity to directly interact with her (except by throwing the ball) but, she is quite a nice dog in the end.

The first collar was OK for communication but really too big for the dog.


It’s interesting how dog owners easily talk to each others thanks to their dogs, dogs sociabilisation forces owners interactions.

Design – study

A selection of the state of art (the barking translation collar and the 1st person view dog camera),
Dog morphology study
Collar study
Sound speaker study (interesting fabric speaker technology)
Dog position study (where does end the collar)
Fashion design study (so many possible clothes that I just classified them and drew a summin-up diagram)
Choice to only work on the collar (It enhance the concept at it keeps the aesthetic part simple)
Now I have to study electronic size problems…
[slideshow]