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Monday, December 14, 2009
Snif Labs reinvents as General Sensing, drops RFID pet tracker
By Galen Moore
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Better just get Fido a bone this Christmas: Snif Labs has discontinued the RFID-enabled collar accessory it launched last November, designed to track pets’ exercise and social activity.
Snif Labs founders, who spun the company out of MIT’s Media Lab in 2005, are abandoning their Snif Tag and the undisclosed number of users who bought it, just over a year after they brought the product to market in slick packaging.
However, they’re sticking with the technology behind the product. Still operating out of their Lincoln Street offices in Boston’s Leather District, they’ve changed the company’s name and are aiming for success in the healthcare industry — hoping hospitals will buy it to ensure their employees wash their hands.
“Launching as a luxury dog product in November of 2008 wasn’t, in hindsight, the best timing,” said company spokeswoman Elizabeth Cotter.
The Snif Tag, a compact RFID and accelerometer device that communicates with tracking software via a base station, was built for dog owners to track their pets’ exercise. When two tag-wearing dogs encountered one another, the system tracked the interaction. Owners could track their animals’ social graph using a Facebook-style social network.
Snif Labs founders Jonathan Gips and Philip Liang have renamed their company General Sensing, and are pursuing a market they first explored while at Snif Labs. Earlier this year, University of Arizona researchers put the pet product to use in a study designed to measure how healthcare professionals’ collaboration impacted outcomes in an institutional setting. The new application will also use base units and RFID tags to ensure staff comply with handwashing policies, Cotter said. A third co-founder, Noah Paessel, is no longer with the company, Cotter said.
“We’re going into health care trying to get a clean start,” Gips said. “It’s a lot of the same people but basically a new company.”
General Sensing has brought on a former board member, Richard Blundell of California-based 2degrees Venture Partners, as its CEO, said Cotter.
Snif Labs’ founders still hope to return to the Snif Tag product, Cotter said, but will need cash to market it effectively.
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