Innovation of the week

In the old days, searching for a lost pet meant taping up posters or calling nearby shelters. But now a Canadian designer wants to make identifying your lost dog or cat as simple as booting up an app. PiP is a facial recognition system for pets that “minutely records, classifies, and categorizes every feature of a dog’s or cat’s appearance,” said Ben Schiller in FastCompany.com. Simply download the app, snap a photo of your pet, and punch in some basic information. Then, if Mr. Mittens ever goes missing, you can send an alert to local vet clinics and animal shelters, which can take a picture to match your wayward fur ball to PiP’s database. The app is free, but in order to register an animal, pet owners will have to pay a monthly fee of $1.59—a small price for peace of mind.

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