.jpg)
Some pets love the camera
My engineering husband is a bit of a techie. He’s an odd sort, however, who never asks for any presents. Most gadgets he wants are expensive, so he feels bad putting them on any gift wish lists.
Ever since we started dating, I would spend the months before his birthday and Christmas browsing the internet looking for suitable contraptions or other toys he might like. That’s how I discovered website thinkgeek.com, a site devoted to cool geeky toys, technology, t-shirts, books, and more.
Given the breadth of Think Geek’s offerings, it was only a matter of time until they got around to producing something appealing to techie pet lovers. Have you ever wondered how your pet views the world? Now you can get a glimpse thanks to the Pet’s Eye View Digital Camera.
The wee camera attaches to collars and can be set to snap a picture every 1, 5, or 15 minutes. The camera might be a bit bulky on the collars of small cats, but the web page for the device boasts enough customer action shots from cats that I’m guessing it doesn’t pose any major mobility problems.
While we might never be able to see how our pets view the world from a philosophical standpoint, this camera might help answer some much more practical questions. To where do all of the pens on your desk keep disappearing? How does the dog manage to get into a child-locked cabinet? Where, exactly, does your outdoor cat go all day? Does it have another family feeding it; is that how it’s gaining so much weight?
The camera is easy to use: it clips on to your pet’s collar, and it’s a breeze to get the pictures off of the camera. No multi-step process involving a bunch of software; the camera works like a thumb drive. Just plug it into your computer with the accompanying USB cord and retrieve the photos from the removable drive that will appear.
Unfortunately, the Pet’s Eye View Digital Camera is currently out of stock on thinkgeek.com. Not only does this mean it’s not currently available for purchase, due to a flaw in the Think Geek page design that also means the camera price isn’t listed. At least on other sites like amazon.com, the price is viewable even for products that are out of stock.
Speaking of Amazon, a similar product is on sale there. This one, in fact, records video. However, it’s going for $100. That seems a bit pricey to me just to collect hours of footage of a pet sleeping and wandering around the house.
While even the Pet’s Eye View is a fun little gadget, depending on the cost I’m not really sure that it would be worth it. It’s likely not as much as the pet video camera because it only takes photographs, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bit expensive.
Here’s the thing: you know the engineering husband whom inspired me to first start looking at Think Geek? He could likely find a way to rig his own cheaper small camera to do the same thing. If you either buy a camera marketed for the purpose or find a way to design your own, catching glimpses of what your pet gets up to all day sounds like a fun idea.
Related Articles:
Support Your Pets and The Earth with Planet Petco
*(This image by David Masters is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
