Shazam Band is a new AI-powered collar that contains speakers and sensors that allow your pet to talk to you, just like the dogs in the Pixar movie UP. Once your pet wears the bracelet, you can chat with your pet and the bracelet will emit a human voice in response to your questions.
You can also use the Shazam Band to track your pet if it wanders away, and it will alert you via text message if it's in danger, such as from other animals or traffic, or if it's left behind somewhere. You can find them using the Shazam app and in-band GPS.
A real life UP
Since the Pixar movie UP was released in 2009, people have been trying to make a real-life version of a collar that allows your pet to talk to you. In 2021, TechRadar even interviewed the creators of Petpuls, one of the first AI-powered dog collars aimed at giving your pet a voice.
So far, no one has actually managed to break a talking pet collar, but Shazam aims to get humans and animals talking once and for all. To find out more we sat down with John McHale, CEO of Personifi AI, the company behind Shazam. John explained that he came up with the idea of using AI to help pets communicate after his dog, Roscoe, was bitten by a rattlesnake and almost died because he didn't know what had happened. “It made me think about AI and how the tragedy could have been prevented and it became clear that we could apply AI in such a way that if Roscoe was bitten by a rattlesnake, even if I wasn't there, he could have sent me a message of text. and notified me immediately that he had had an encounter with a rattlesnake. That was the genesis of Shazam.”
Increased sensitivity
Shazam works for any type of pet the collar fits, so think about a dog, cat, goat, or any four-legged friend you have running around your house. It works by using AI, trained on large data sets in a similar way to how ChatGPT is trained.
The band contains a number of sensors, in particular it appears to listen to the words you say to your pet and react to them, but it also interprets your pet's kinematic behaviors. The result is that Shazam Band provides what McHale calls “sensitivity boost.” What that means is that it articulates your pet's mood, experience, and responses, as they happen, with little sound bites like “I'm feeling sad right now” and “You know I feel like snuggling.” The idea is that you start having a conversation with your pet and over time it learns and becomes more natural.
Shazam Band Demo: Tug of War – YouTube
Look
But does it work?
The million dollar question, of course, is does it really work? The Personifi AI team in Texas did a live demo of Shazam and I still don't know what to make of it. John McHale demonstrated with his own dog, Roscoe, who was wearing the Shazam Band and I was able to hear the dog “talking”.
Without being able to test the device on my own pet, it's very difficult to say how well it works, but in the demo, we saw Roscoe's Shazam collar successfully interpret when its owner was happy or sad, and produce the appropriate responses. Additionally, when McHale wrestled a dog toy in Roscoe's mouth, much to his delight, Captain America's famous catchphrase came out of his collar: “I could do this all day!”
They say you should never work with children and animals, and during the live demonstration, Roscoe was clearly not in the mood for fun times. He preferred to lie on the couch, but it's impossible not to smile when hearing a dog “talk” for the first time, especially since all the voices have been performed by comedic actors. Many are voiced by Bobby Johnson, also known as RxCKStxR, a social media celebrity recognized for voicing pets online.
Choose a person
There are 25 different characters you can choose from for your pet, and each one is effectively a different voice. During the first 30 days as a Shazam Band owner, you will be able to try them all before deciding on the character that best suits your pet. We hear from a lovable fool, a witty Southern belle, and a fast-talking mob boss. Do any of those sound like your pet?
There were also a couple of options for the international market: there was a British voice (masculine and elegant, think Hugh Grant) and a female Spanish voice. The most striking thing was the Jamaican voice, which used a patois.
Considering how crazy people go about their pets, Shazam's potential is clearly huge, and once we get our hands on one in November, we'll give you a full review. The ethical considerations of anthropomorphizing your pet still need to be considered, but as a cat owner, I would love to be able to know what my cat really wants when he looks at me, purrs, and meows. Is it attention? Is it food? Is it time to play? It would be very useful to know.
In the end, I'm a little hesitant about the whole talking pet situation. It was certainly fun for the owner, but I wonder what Roscoe thought of all this. He seemed quite happy with the voices coming out of his neck, but it's not like he had a choice in the matter. What if it's a dog that doesn't want to be anthropomorphized? I guess despite the advances Shazam makes in human-animal interactions, we'll never be able to ask him.
Shazam Band is available for pre-order in two different versions. The full band with GPS costs $595 and a $495 less-featured version is available at shazampet.com.