For pet owners who travel a lot, or people who just plain miss their animal companions, this will help ease you and your pets’ separation anxiety. It’s a video phone that lets you ‘chat’ with your dog or cat face to face.

PetChatz video phone is a little wall hub that’s meant for on-the-go pet communication. It comes fully-loaded with a microphone, mini display, camera, sound/motion sensor, speaker, and, for the coup de grace, a treat dispenser. With the tap of a button, you can keep Fido or Whiskers happy.

An app for your computer or mobile device lets you call your pet to PetChatz by playing an attention-getting chime. Granted, your dog or cat has to be disciplined enough to learn to come to the device, but if you can manage to get over that hurdle you can then see, speak to, and hear your canine or feline friend.

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An animated short entitled ‘Talking of Tomorrow’ proposes two types of technology will be commonplace among executives of the future. Made in either 1960 or 1962, the cartoon lead works for an “interspace engineering company” and communicates purely through video phone. Crazy idea, huh?

Future-retro shorts like this one were common in the mid-20^th century. The thriving economy of the era led to manufacturing booms and rampant advertising, the two catalysts of the popular interest in innovation. Bell Telephone Labs were at the cutting edge of communication technology – at least according to this animated short.

The film speaks of “business materials” being transmitted via “telephonic machines.” This is presumably the precursor to the fax machine. The idea of video conferences presented by the short could be seen as the original Skype. Are shorts like this one prophetic or simply following the logical growth of technology?

The post 50-year-old Animated Short Predicts Modern Technology first appeared on Gajitz.