In a team consisting of five, spread across four countries, we came up with a great project with the brief of IoT. Meeting together in Zurich Switzerland for the IPOLE project in cooperation with Swisscom, it was definitely one of the most impressive briefs given to us over our time at university.
Virtual Shepherd is the new way to look after your animals. Our target market was owners of high valued animals such as a bull or a great race horse, who need to tend to their animals but have the problem of a busy schedule. Using a device attached to the animal that monitors it’s respiratory rate, heart rate and temperature, it sends regular updates to your phone or tablet, letting you know how they’re doing, and sends you push notifications when there is a problem. You are also able to use the app as a note taking platform, so all your information for your animals are in one place.
The app has been stripped down and simplified, with the signing in process being as minimal as possible, and then a brief summary of the entire app to simply swipe through. The app has been given a nature combined with health colour scheme, and still remains a friendly and approachable app. As the user continues through they will see that the screens are consistent with one another and show the same style throughout.
The product is different and better than the other competitor apps already on the market as this uses Swisscom's Low Powered Network (LPN), meaning that the app doesn’t have to work from wifi or bluetooth, and has a far better range. This means that the bull could be out in pasture and the farmer would be able to know well it is from around his property, without tending to him.
