Our Aim

Navigation is something which is essential to our daily lives. Everyone travels and everyone has places to be, but what happens when you don’t have a set destination and are just going on a walk. The majority of people with dogs will take them on the same walk every day, we wanted to change this.

Initial Ideas

We started off by looking at older methods of navigation such as a sextant. We were initially going to create a simple hand held device based on a sextant which would point the user in the correct direction, but then decided to make it a dog accessory instead. We started looking at a harness which the dog could wear which would have an arrow on it to show the direction the user should go, but after consideration we decided to explore the possibility of a collar instead as some dogs don’t like harnesses so the collar would make it accessible to a wider audience.

Development

The first idea was to have a collar which had arrows on it that would light up to show the direction in which the user should go. We thought this would be a good way of navigating, but wanted to make the design sleeker. We simplified the arrows to a light bar. We believed this was a better looking design.

Final Model

I created a CAD model on rhino. this shows what  the final product would look like. The four light bars would light up to show which way you would go, far left would be go left, middle left would be stay left, and so on. The colour of the lights is customisable and the collar itself also comes in a range of colours in order to make it desirable to the most potential users. It fastens at the back with a simple clip and is suitable to wear no matter which activity the dog is performing.

The App

We decided to create an app which went along with the product to make it easier to use. The app would be relatively simple and easy to use so that its accessible to everyone.

The app would have multiple features to ensure the best experience for the user. There is the main feature which is the route calculator. For this you put in the distance you want to travel, things you may want to pass or avoid and then the app will calculate a route for you which you haven’t previously walked. It does also allow for the user to choose the location.

You are able to go back on and look over the journeys you’ve been on. While you’re out on the walk you are also able to go on and see where you are, while you’re on this feature it’ll pop up with other users round about you and dog friendly establishments near you.