Comments on: Laser pup

By: duck

duck — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:38:50 +0000

Please don’t use this with your dog. I used to play with laser pointers and my old dog and it went fucking crazy and for the rest of its life was obsessed with chasing shadows. Its a really common problem and vets are adamant that you should NEVER allow dogs to chase laser pointers cos it seems to fuck with their mind.

By: c

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:46:13 +0000

This is patented :-)

United States Patent – 5443036

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=5,443,036.PN.&OS=PN/5,443,036&RS=PN/5,443,036

Method of exercising a cat

Abstract

A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.

By: unklegwar

unklegwar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:46:29 +0000

Dogs and laser pointers do not mix. It looks fun but can lead to severe Obsessive Compulsive behaviors. A behaviorist at my GF’s (she’s a vet) hospital warned us to stop playing the game.

By: laszlo

laszlo — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:48:35 +0000

Definitely a BIG risk of developing CCD, it happened to my old dog, wouldn’t stop chasing lights and shadows.

By: Thor

Thor — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:55:56 +0000

It would be dope if you could set a predefined area for the laser and let it go on random patterns. ie, swirls or quick zigzags.

I surprised nobody even mentioned the possibility of the poor dog going blind when he learns to look up.

By: smilr

smilr — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:49:32 +0000

Does it bother anyone else that the X axis on the controller and the apparent image through the camera are opposite? I mean, it may make sense for how the servo is wired up, but I’d personally flip it so that the laser dot moves to the right in the camera’s view when I, y’know, move the control to the right?

Aside from that little quibble this looks awesome! Seeing it mounted where a ceiling light had been makes me think of an adaptation for a home alarm – imagine a burglar entering a home – only to have laser-pods shining dots on them in response to the alarm activating ^-^

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:05:50 +0000

Cool guy!

By: BTop

BTop — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:20:04 +0000

Damn, now skynet have our dogs!

By: Wwhat

Wwhat — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:55:11 +0000

Just as a general note, in firefox you can select the menu view->page style->no style to remove the page’s CSS temporarily, that causes the ‘make-everything-lowercase’ to no longer work and you can see the comments in their original form, in case you need to, for some case-sensitive links for instance.
And as a note to the web-admin: you can supply alternative CSS’s that then become selectable so people can choose a page layout, although very very few sites offer that choice, it’s a pity really.
Here’s an example: http://www.w3.org/Style/

By: EMC^2

EMC^2 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:09:09 +0000

because i was playing with lasers & dogs, he looks everywhere for that damn red dot with the techno background, even in my fridge!

By: luke

luke — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:53:17 +0000

what we do is hang CD’s in the trees in my back yard, and my poodle chases after the glints of sun refelcted by the cds.

she is not nurotic and we have been doing this for years. she is allways waging her tail when she is chaseing the sunlight.

but very nice hack !
your dog is cool

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:45:55 +0000

Yeah my dog os obsessed with shimmering lights now. Fuck. OCD confirmed, Noises too.

By: joe

joe — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:22:24 +0000

i’m aware of the potential problems associated with laser pointers and dogs, and have always paid close attention to how he behaves. for my dog this has never been an issue, and thus the reason i built it. but every animal is different.

By: tinsolder

tinsolder — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:01:20 +0000

Doggy OCD is a serious problem. I played the ‘laser pointer game’ with my dog a few times and now he won’t stop washing his hands.

By: vic

vic — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:19:11 +0000

Some people say that because the dogs can never catch the dot, they become neurotic and obsessed about it. The dog would continue searching after the dot even when the laser has been turned off, freaking out at shimmering lights, sudden sounds, etc. Possibly for extended periods of time after the stimulation has stopped. Might be true in some cases. I wouldn’t play with it for too long, as it seems fun for the human but I’m not sure the animal actually enjoys it, it’s more like a frustration which can never be released.