Wonderful Engineering

This App Will Let You Find Your Lost Dog Using Its Nose Pattern

Megvii is a Chinese facial-recognition startup that has been featured in the news headlines because of its app that enables people to track down dogs that have been lost using pictures of their noses. We’ll be honest; the idea of relying on facial recognition for identifying pets is not new. However, Megvii’s solution is unique.

Megvii doesn’t rely on different facial features such as the eyes or the snout. Instead, it is focused only on the noses of the dogs. As it happens, the patterns that are found on the dog’s nose are just as unique as the patterns on our fingertips. This allows Megvii’s app to carry out the tracking of dogs by matching their noses against a database with an accuracy of 95%. According to claims made by Megvii, this method is not only cheaper but also less invasive as opposed to inserting identification chips under the skin of dogs.

The uniqueness of dogs’ noses was not a secret. In fact, for about a century kennel clubs have been using them in order to help locate them if they go missing. However, Megvii does make the process more seamless with its app; simply take a picture or video of your dog, and that’s it. The app will detect the key points of your dog’s nose pattern and will then send a nose pattern map to its online database while creating a unique ID for the dog. 

The creators of the app have said that the nose of a dog is actually the most reliable identification trait for dogs. In fact, it is similar to human fingerprints because these patterns are unique and stable. To put it simply; no two dogs will have the same nose patterns, and the pattern of the dog’s nose will not undergo alteration during its growth.

As of right now, the dog nose identification app is being aimed at finding lost dogs. However, it might also be used for cracking down on ‘uncivilized dog keeping’ by authorities. What do you think of this amazing app?