How to teach your dog to take selfies... and text them to you
When life gives you technology and a very cute puppy... you teach your furry friend how to text selfies to you, of course.
The makers of cloud communications company Twilio created a box, powered by an Arduino Yún, that will let your dog send you selfies.
Greg Baugues, a coder at Twilio, decided that teaching Kaira, his puppy, how to turn on the light switch wasn't enough and took it to the next level by teaching her how to press a button that would snap a selfie of the pup and text it to him.
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We caught up with Baugues so we could play with Kaira learn how to master this tech hack.
What you need
Using some easily obtainable parts, some basic programming and the Twilio service, Baugues created a gadget that lets his pup be the millennial she truly is.
Box
Arduino Yún, $75
Big red button, $10
Webcam, $30
Twilio phone number, $1 per month
1. Attach the big red button to the top of the box
2. Connect Arduino to the big red button, power source and webcam
3. Connect to the Arduino from your laptop via Wi-Fi
4. Write a short script that sends an MMS with Twilio
5. Write and upload an Arduino Sketch that runs the script when the button is pressed
6. Finally, give your dog lots and lots of treats until she figures out what you mean by, "selfie!"
It took Kaira a couple of treats tries to snap the perfect selfie.
But when she finally hits her mark...
Voila! Your pup is ready for Instagram.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of this hack, check out Baugues' complete how-to.
A lover of satirical debate, wine and a good bowl of guac. Originally from Ethiopia, Mariya received a B.A. from Vassar College, where she studied international relations, with a regional focus on the Middle East and concentrations in political science, history and film.
