Read About The Tail-Mounted Sensor That Can Tell You What Your Dog Is Feeling

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There’s a tale behind every wagging tail, or so believe the founders of New York tech company DogStar Life. They’ve created a wearable device called TailTalk that accurately translates dogs’ emotions by analyzing their ‘tail language’. The company is currently trying to raise $100,000 through Indiegogo, in order to develop the technology further and also prepare for mass production. “The tail is the dog’s social interface, like a smile for humans,” the campaign page reads. “Understanding the tail means understanding the dog.” Oddity Central has more:

The device is a lightweight sensor that is placed on a dog’s tail to capture movement patterns all day long. “It basically combines an accelerometer and a gyroscope much like the Fitbit, but it’s picking up on the way the tail is moving,” co-founder Mark Karp told Yahoo News. “The idea is to capitalize on all the research that’s been done in the last two to three years on what tail movement means, and translating that into emotion.”

The makers claim that TailTalk is most useful for owners to understand what happens to their pets when they’re not together; like when dogs are alone at home, with dog walkers, or at the dog daycare.  The device connects to a smartphone app that provides real time information on how the pet is doing.

“TailTalk has a 3-axis accelerometer and a gyroscope, capturing the tail movement as it happens,” the company claims. “Our proprietary algorithm translates tail wagging into emotions the dog is expressing, where pet parents can see their dog’s emotional diary throughout the day.” Pets are assigned a happiness score, and an emotional graph helps interpret their mood swings.