Introducing Buddy – the LED smart dog collar with GPS and Bluetooth

Australians love their pets and love spending money on them – a fact that made a couple of entrepreneurs create Buddy – a smart dog collar that incudes LED, GPS and even Bluetooth technology.

There are three Buddy collars – Buddy Lite, Buddy Fit and Buddy GPS – and they are all tough and durable, water resistant and have a 14-day battery life.

And it’s fitted with a D-ring so you can still attach a lead.

Buddy also works with a companion app to make it easy to change the LED light colours and patterns, find the GPS location and even track the activities and health of your dog.

The LEDs built into Buddy is like a bike light for dogs – they are always visible especially at night and also immediately recognisable by the owners.

It will make the dog easier to see by drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to avoid potential collisions.

The GPS feature means the location of the dog can always be seen.

This offers peace of mind for dog owners. The worst scenario for any owner is not knowing where their dog is.

Buddy not only solves that problem but also extends the GPS feature to allow owners to set a geo-fence.

If the dog goes outside that boundary, an alert is sent to the app or via text message.

On the health side, Buddy is an activity tracker for your dogs as well thanks to the built-in sensors and accelerometer.

The data gathered by the device includes steps, sleep and calories burned and provides a really clear picture of your pet’s health.

There’s also a temperature sensor on board so you can know if your dog it too hot or too cold.

Buddy’s connectivity can also be utilised in home automation.

The collar can interact with other sensors, lights and even the thermostat to offer various controls depending on the information shared by the collar or its proximity to these other smart home products.

For example, a small dog door in your home can be activated to open when the Buddy collar is nearby.

There is even a social aspect to the Buddy app where you can share pictures and information as well as discovering other dog owners on your area.

Christopher Forcucci and Fulvio Cusumano are the people behind the device which has been launched through Kickstarter campaign with a goal to raise $US385,000 by the end of August.

Buddy is expected to be released in October and will be priced at $US180 for the Buddy Lite, $US240 for the Buddy Fit and $US300 for the Buddy GPS which has all of the features.

You can check out the Buddy Kickstarter campaign here.