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talking treads

 an aid for the visually impaired.
 
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my daft old dog only seems to see the large things in life these days like trees and lamp posts – the finer details are, I imagine, very blurry ( I throw her a biscuit, she misses and then we both end up wasting time looking for the damn thing. dog biscuits are remarkably well-camouflaged on your average house carpet but I digress)

she also misjudges the last steps on the stairs, flings herself off from about 3 or 4 from the bottom and ends up in a painful heap on the floor. what would be most useful for her would be a device that senses weight on the step and speaks out, that it is the bottom step (or the top one). it would not take her very long to learn and be guided by this audible alert.

humans too might benefit on unfamiliar flights of stairs - its my guess that they count the steps in buildings familiar to them.

—po, Jun 04 2003

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       If your dog is that daft, is it going to stop to listen to the stairs? And how will it understand them?! ("I talk to the stairs, that's why they put me away...")   

       Perhaps you should rework this as a counting aid to children. And teach your daft dog to count.
—DrCurry, Jun 04 2003
   

       Dogs are remarkably clever creatures, [DrCurry]. And old ones can learn new tricks (mine did). I'm pretty confident the dog would learn the bottom step if everytime it went upstairs, it heard the same signal at the same location. I'm convinced, I like this. +
—saker, Jun 04 2003
   

       Hey, I don't doubt that. But po specifically said she had a daft dog. (Even though it looks more like her dog just needs glasses.)
—DrCurry, Jun 04 2003
   

       daft was really a term of affection. she is an extremely clever dog (or was) she would bark to pretend that someone was at the front door and while your attention was diverted she would eat what she fancied from the table. (as you can tell, I love her to bits) she would very quickly learn which step to jump from with an audible cue[daftDrCurry] <grin>
—po, Jun 04 2003
   

       yes I really like that - I was thinking of the cost involved in having them on all the steps.
—po, Jun 04 2003
   

       whats a slight british accent like?
—po, Jun 04 2003
   

       Well, anyone calling it a walkway can't have more than a slight British accent. My guess is he means Bostonian.
—DrCurry, Jun 04 2003
   

       its all very upsetting really. I think I am losing her today. she is not well at all and I have some hard decisions to make.   

       spent the day - giving her spoonfuls of water...
—po, Oct 11 2003
   

       Sorry to hear that po! Our thoughts are with you...
—krelnik, Oct 11 2003
   

       thanks. I cannot begin to tell you how unhappy I am..
—po, Oct 11 2003
   

       That's sad po. How old is she?
—FarmerJohn, Oct 11 2003
   

       I just want to make the passing easy for her - my best friend.
—po, Oct 11 2003
   

       she's 17 which is much younger than me..
—po, Oct 11 2003
   

       I'll lay my head on the cold forest floor and wait for a yellowed blueberry leaf to fall and think of you and your faithful friend.
—FarmerJohn, Oct 11 2003
   

       she will whine for a biscuit! she is sleeping now. I think the vet will say - let her go peacefully.   

       I love that whining, moaning, under-my-feet, dominant, bossy dog... I just don't want to let her go...   

       I hope someone loves me as much at the end...
—po, Oct 11 2003
   

       night, night Dino. thanks for 17 years of friendship & loyalty & fun.
—po, Oct 13 2003
   


 

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