h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A Dutch company has developed drones which detect and dispose of dog poo:

http://tinki.nl/dogdrones-en?wvideo=ph6en58isk

Is this:

a) Wow, at last we have a practical application for this technology!

or:

b) it's another sad reflection of what our society has become?

How does it get the little bags out of the trees?

<BB<

I'm more worried about Piers Morgan being submitted to drone attacks every time he goes outside.

I quite like that. Ask any councillor or MP what issue tops the concerns of constituents and it's dog mess. Not Brexit, not the NHS, not the economy.

I wonder if they can come up with robotic street sweepers along the lines of the driverless cars they're trialling?

I have sometimes fantasized about someone coming up with a cheap & efficient way to DNA profile poop so the owner would get a fine through the post, like a speeding notice.

Either that, or the dog poo fairy http://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.wa0cW6yz5UkPMGe-jWgY9gEpEs&w=157&h=160&c=7&qlt=90&o=4&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7 was real, but instead of cleaning it up, she made it track down the owner and follow them round, perhaps squeaking "You forgot me! Don't leave me behind!".

I do think of some odd things whilst trying to avoid standing in a pile when cleaning up my own dog's

Deb

Rabbits poop in my flower garden all the time, and no one reads them the riot act. Bears poop in the forest, which is nature's way of providing fertilizer. Cats bury their poop. People waste a zillion gallons of water flushing it elsewhere to be processed.

A simple natural function is treated differently in so many ways. Wouldn't it be simpler to trade your dog in for a lower-maintenance pet like a cat?

Automated poop-picker-uppers and street sweeps wouldn't be required if people took simple responsibility for their own messes . . .

That IF is as high as Mount Everest, though.

Can we have one that'll change babies' nappies?

<BB<

That's all very well but I am not going to attempt to toilet train a bear!

If anyone tries there is a very good chance they may well be transformed into the aforesaid excrement!

"You forgot me! Don't leave me behind!"

Love it - that would be perfect indeed!

I have once... encountered... fox poo or something in my parents' garden one summer, which was just bad luck, but the problem is when mess is left on a narrow footpath so it's hard to avoid... Even horse poo can be a problem - at least it is only vegetable matter, but it is still messy under wheel...

To a plant, nothing is more excellent than excrement.

Deb, they're doing that already.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dna-testing-dog-poop-id-lazy-pet-owners-seattle-article-1.2175545


As for poo drones, . This is just silly. I don't think it's a serious proposal. In that video they mention detecting the poos by heat. I don't imagine it takes very long before a poo reaches thermal equilibrium. You're also talking about two drone "pilots", one aerial, one surface vehicle, to operate this "system". Plus aerial drones, like the one shown, typically have a 30 minute or less flight time.

I think this is just some attempt at viralocity*.



*Yeah, I just made that word up.

They'll have to keep them away from the National Poo Museum: https://www.poomuseum.org/

<BB<

I'd prefer the Pooh Museum

http://www.assiniboineparkzoo.ca/park-landing/home/explore/pavilion-art-in-the-park/pavilion/the-pooh-gallery

oo. fabulus idea. just so long as the drones are trained, or piloted to then tip the dog mess oer the head of the perpitrating dog-owner concerned

2Legs, that's the most brilliant idea you've ever had!

Unless the real culprit has left the premises, and the drone assumes that whoerer is still there is the culprit.

not all my own idea I'm afraid....... - My Father did something very simular.... - having had a problem, a few years back, with one dog owner, letting his dog soil, every day, all up the road my Dad lives in; annoying all the other people who live there... My Dad.... decided to do something.... he collected it all up, for a week.... went out early one day, spotted the culprit, followed them... discoverd where they live... and returned it to them... and then did the same, for aobut a week or so, each day returnign the dog mess, to the guys' lawn, driveway, or his car bonnet/hood - I'm the sane one in my family. - apparently the dog messing on his road then stopped eventually after a while

"I'm the sane one in my family. " [2Legs]

I hope you're kidding.

No one believes me when I say that.... until they meet my Dad, Brother or the family dog then they realise I tell only the truth... I'm not only the only saine one in my family, I'm so much more sainer than them, that I actually appear to be really very saine. . . no... seriously... I do