A technology that registers the iris and nose patterns of pets to prevent stray dogs is being introduced in Korea. The startup PetDoc announced on the 28th that it has signed a business agreement with IT, JD Marvelous, which has long-distance iris recognition technology, to introduce the world’s first technology to track the iris of pets to prevent stray dogs. Accordingly, the three companies plan to commercialize a system that tracks and recognizes the iris of moving pets by developing it this year.

This technology recognizes the iris, nose pattern, and face of a pet at the same time in less than a second as the pet passes through a certain space, and authenticates its identity. The recognized information is stored in the cloud system. According to the company, this technology combines iris information with nose pattern information to recognize pets, so it is more accurate than methods that distinguish animals by recognizing only the iris or nose pattern.

Therefore, companies are expected to reduce stray dogs by easily checking the information of animals and pet owners by applying this technology and registering pets. The number of households raising pets is steadily growing worldwide, but the number of stray animals is also increasing, so it is urgent to prepare measures.

In response, the government is also looking for ways to enhance the effectiveness of pets. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to promote a comprehensive animal welfare plan to develop an animal registration method using biometric information of animals to enhance the effectiveness of the animal registration system by 2024.

PetDoc has confirmed the performance of the introduced technology through prototype testing and plans to develop services and devices accordingly. Lee Tae-hyung, the chief veterinarian of PetDoc, emphasized that “accurate identification and management of pets is very important to create a healthy pet culture.”

PetDoc is a startup that provides services that directly connect veterinarians and pet guardians online, such as free veterinarian consultations. It also has a veterinary advisory board of about 30 people and is developing pet food and supplies. IT is a company that owns long-distance iris recognition technology, and JD Marvelous is a tech startup that researches the focus system of pets.

Yeon-jin Choi, IT Specialist Reporter wolfpack@hankookilbo.com