

Swiss sheep to warn shepherds of wolf attacks by SMS - PaulMcCartney
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-swiss-sheep-shepherds-wolf-sms.html

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drblast
What an incredible world we live in if this system is cheaper to operate than
owning a guard dog.

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ihsw
It's not difficult to argue that electronic systems are more efficient and
less error-prone than any organic system, be it guard dog or human. In the
future milk production may be replaced by machines by artificial synthetic
production.

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sliverstorm
Electronic systems _can_ be more efficient and less error-prone. But they can
also be a lot worse, too. Organic systems are adaptive both through learning
and selection, so at least in their areas of expertise they are usually still
superior to all but the best electronic systems.

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_delirium
What I found more interesting than the SMS is the auto-release of a wolf-
repelling chemical. The sheep gain a weapon of sorts, though not fired under
conscious control. Sort of a cyborg-ish extension to the sheep's natural
ability.

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ChuckMcM
Sheep are a tremendous source of methane [1], I think we should patent a
device which collects the methane and includes an ignition system that is
triggered by metabolic symptoms of fear or distress. Combined with head
tracking, the preferred embodiment would collect methane into a holding tank
on the sheep's back. When the device detects sheep panic, it turns an exit
nozzle for the tank toward the direction the sheep is looking, releases the
stored methane while simultaneously applying an ignition source. This ignites
the methane which converts it into heat, water, and CO2 which has a much lower
impact on global warming. The resulting jet of fire not only discourages the
wolf but through the effects of Newton's third law of motion causes the sheep
to be rocketed away from the source of danger thus saving it from harm.

We will of course require new signage in the grazing area suggesting that
people really really should not startle the sheep.

[1] <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561039911777481.html>

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indiecore
Quick, call the patent office!

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billpg
I wonder how they tested it without causing a false alarm. Too many false
alarms and people won't trust those alerts.

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theorique
The sheep who cried wolf?

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ChuckMcM
Get it right, the sheep who texted wolf. :-)

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tathagatadg
Hey can some one give some pointers where I can find such modules which would
send the text message and can be interfaced with an arduino board to build a
generic alarm system. I dont have any background in hacking arduino, but it
seems for web enabling cool systems( fetch data and send control commands) the
following is the easiest route:

sensor + actuator assembly__on__arduino<->sms_module<->AT&T_Jasper
like_gateways<->my server

Probably my terminologies are wrong but hope you get the point.

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greenyoda
One problem with this scheme is that areas where sheep are raised would
probably have pretty sparse cellular coverage.

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NewHighScore
This is great! How long before shepherds start setting up twitter accounts for
them?

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christiangenco
<http://i.imgur.com/4tXan.png>

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Zenst
Interesting and in some area's will add to the past-time of cow-tipping i
suspect in the youth market, oh to be young.

Still, once we get scarecrows with lasers is when I know things are going too
far.

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GiraffeNecktie
I wonder if it would also warn of attacks by lonely shepherds.

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malkia
TIL SMS stands for Sheep Monitoring System.

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gdsafsadfsaasdf
Phys.org? Really? There's not even a citation.

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_delirium
I would be curious to know where they got it from as well. Some preliminary
searching doesn't turn up any solid info, but does turn up that the one person
they quote by name, Jean-Marc Landry, previously worked on a project to reduce
conflicts between shepherds and the reintroduction of wolves
(<http://www.kora.ch/en/proj/cdpnews/cdpnews001.htm#Landry>), so it's
plausible he'd be working on something like this.

