The Humane Society of Sonoma County (HSSC) is adding a new weapon in its arsenal to reunite lost pets with their owners: facial recognition technology. The shelter now offers the community an additional tool to help lost and adoptable dogs and cats find their forever home, through a partnership with the company Finding Rover.
According to a 2013 article in CNET, Finding Rover founder John Polimeno partnered with the Software Development Center at the University of Utah.
“He funded the research while the center cracked the nut of facial recognition for our furry four-legged friends. The programmers ended up developing an algorithm called Pet Match that uses machine learning and computer vision to pick up on key features of dogs that differentiate them from the rest of the puppy population,” said the article.
The algorithm uses 138 points on an animal’s face for identification. Finding Rover claims 98% accuracy, though that claim is nearly impossible to verify.
Locally, every dog and cat that enters the HSSC’s shelter system, at their Santa Rosa and Healdsburg locations, will be registered on Finding Rover. Users of Finding Rover can search the shelter and surrounding areas right from their smartphone or computer in efforts to find their missing pet, a neighbor’s missing pet, the family of a found pet or search for adoptable pets.
Every dog and cat that leaves HSSC, through a reunion or an adoption, can remain protected on Finding Rover when the owner registers on Finding Rover with the same email address that the shelter has on file. If that dog or cat ever gets lost, their record will already be in the system, and identifying that pet will be simple.
“We decided to team up with Finding Rover because this technology seemed like another way to help get lost pets back home with their owners,” said Adoption Program Manager Meagan Dallas. “We get a lot of calls each day from people who have lost their pets and we tell them all the things they can do — check the local shelters, put up flyers in your neighborhood, etc. Now, we have one more resource to tell people about to locate their lost pets in hopes of them returning home. We did not have any prior experience with facial recognition technology but it seemed too good to pass up.”
Finding Rover has a website and a downloadable app. You enter a photo of the pet you have lost (or one you have found) and the program returns a series of photographs and geographic locations for animals its algorithm deems a match for the pictured animal. You can also use the program to search out adoptable pets that match breed or other criteria (for instance, a stock photo of a German Shepherd will yield similar dogs for adoption).
Registration is free. Go to findingrover.com and:
1. Upload your pet’s photo
2. Enter a few details about your pet
3. Enter your name, email address, and zip code
If you’ve lost or found a pet, the program should run in about three minutes, providing matches and information.
At the moment, Finding Rover is only available at HSSC’s shelters, but according to Dallas, plans are in the works for the local municipal shelter, Sonoma County Animal Service to partner with the service also. Finding Rover’s website boasts partnerships with about 700 shelters nationwide.
“This will help create even better coverage throughout our community and hopefully increase the return to owner rate at both shelters,” Dallas said.
The app is downloadable on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and all features are also available at findingrover.com.
“We are hoping that more lost animals are able to return home to the families that love and miss them,” said Dallas.
