Brooke Martin's golden retriever(金毛猎犬) Kayla hated being left alone or separated. She would howl, pace, and chew on things. Brooke learned that other people had the same problem with their pets. She wondered: "What if you could talk to your dog if you were gone?"
Working with her father in their garage, the 16-year-old came up with several ideas. Finally, she invented a device that allowed pet owners to video chat with their pets! She calls the device iCPooch. "The dog doesn't have to answer the call," explains Brooke. "It comes up immediately on the screen on their end. It's a two-way audio and video—you can see and hear each other." With a click of a button you can even send the dog a treat!
Her invention has earned her a spot competing against nine other finalists in a young scientist competition for middle-school students. These finalists, selected based on their short video presentations, are working with mentors over the summer before heading to the final competition in St. Paul, Minn.
After Martin's video put her among the 10 finalists in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, she was paired with Delony Langer-Anderson, a product development scientist in 3M's consumer health care division. ―I just lead her down the product development path, Langer-Anderson told Live Science. This path includes guidance on how to test the potential product, which combines a video chat device that answers immediately on the dog's end with a dog treat device the owner can remotely activate.
‘One thing I have thought about a lot is, what happens if while the device is on the floor, what if your dog knocks it over, or scratches the screen? 'Martin said. She and Langer-Anderson discussed this, and Martin is now testing materials at a local dog shelter by taping them to the dog house floors to see how well they withstand sharp teeth and claws.
The finalists create models they can test, with the guidance from a mentor. Their projects include a fuel cell that transforms cut grass into electricity and an app that rewards drivers for not texting or calling. Langer-Anderson tries to help the students work through the scientific method, testing their hypothesis, in a determined way, ―so the kids don't get buried in data. she said.
