Israeli tech helps select pick of the litter

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology developed in Israel will help to produce the best guide and service dogs of the future, according to Professor Anna Zamansky, Head of Tech4Animals Lab at Haifa University.

On a platform hosted by the Israel Guide Dog Centre UK, Professor Zamansky showed the technologies being created to help in the selection process of guide dogs and to help promote interaction between children and therapy dogs.

The projects which include the digital analysis of animal behaviour through sensors, video and audio have been created by a multi-disciplinary research team set to revolutionise the training department at the Israel Guide Dog Centre.

“One of the most complex problems is assessing the suitability of the working dog for his job,”explained Professor Zamansky “We as AI people want to help this process and have done some state of the art studies, one of which includes the creation of a smart toy which has a bite sensor that shows the dog’s biting patterns which predicts suitability.”

Joining the platform, the charity’s founder and CEO Noach Braun described Professor Zamansky’s work as “ground-breaking.”

“The team’s research is part of our long-term commitment to employing tech and other new sources of information and data to improve the quality of our trained guide and service dogs and in doing so, improve the quality of life of our blind and disabled clients who rely so heavily on these incredible animals to improve their quality of life and independence”.

Though costly to introduce Martin Segal, Executive Director of Israel Guide Dog Centre-UK said the AI-based technology will be essential to our Training department’s understanding of what physical and environmental factors influence how well a dog will succeed. “

The Centre is currently working on integrating Professor Zamansky’s ongoing research into their training and assessment programmes and it will eventually benefit guide dog centres around the world.”

On the call with us were:

CEO and founder of the Israel Guide Dog Centre

Tim Stafford, Director of Canine Services, UK Guide Dogs

Noach Braun, CEO and Founder of the Israel Guide Dog Centre says,