Pet Lovers

[Kachina624]

I recently heard about a new free app where you post a photo of your pet and it identifies the breed (s).  I had a hard time finding it as it's not in any app store.  It's an experimental Microsoft Garage Project.  For me it's only worked on iOS systems, no Android.  They're still working on it and invite input.  Here's a link, I hope you can get to the app by using it because it's a lot of fun.  It was pretty much correct in identifying my dogs except it called my Aussie a border collie, an honest mistake with just a head shot.

http://news.microsoft.com/features/fetch-new-microsoft-garage-app-uses-artificial-intelligence-to-na...

If you use it, input a side view of the whole dog.

[Venezia]

What's the point of it?  (No, I'm not being snarky, I'm being serious.)

I already know the breed of any animal I've had or have so I can't imagine what use this would be.

[KingstonsMom]

If you have a pedigree dog, you may 'know' their breed, so it may not be useful to you, but millions of people have 'mixed' breeds, so we would find it very interesting and useful.

Useful in respect to understanding some of their traits, habits, temperament, etc.

Thanks for the info @Kachina624!

[Kachina624]

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@Venezia wrote:

What's the point of it?  (No, I'm not being snarky, I'm being serious.)

I already know the breed of any animal I've had or have so I can't imagine what use this would be.

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@Venezia  I think it's mostly a fun thing for people and maybe rescue groups that have mixed breeds.  It's probably a good experiment for some budding engineers at Microsoft.  

I have a mixed rescue that I wonder about, so I've gotten a kit to send to a lab a sample of her skin cells for a DNA test.  We're taking bets on the outcome.  This Fetch website tagged her a corgi, which I could understand from her head but her body and tail look like one of the Spitz varieties.

[Venezia]

@Kachina624 - Okay, I get how that could be useful and even fun.  And I think it could be important to know with a mixed breed especially, to understand the potential temperament.

Thanks!

[NickNack]

This was fun.  I did it with four different dogs that I've had.  It identified three of them correctly.  I had a Japanese Chin that died a year ago.  I uploaded this picture, and it said he was a Pekingese.