Pier 9: Smart Bone Fetch Finder™

The Smart Bone Fetch Finder™, first created in the year 2027, empowers dogs to take control of who they are best friends with. In this future, dogs will approach people in parks and offer to play fetch as a service. The first fetch is free, and additional play time can be purchased by humans through an app that pairs with the Smart Bone™. Premium services such as personal defense, and not getting your lawn pooped on can be purchased through premium fetch packages.

This Smart Bone Fetch Finder™is an Artifact from the Future, created as part of a series of objects titled Animals Doing Capitalism. For step-by-step instructions on crafting your own Artifacts from the Future, or if you’re wondering why animals have taken to capitalism, see: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Arti...

If you want to Craft your own Smart Bone™, You'll need the following tools and materials:

• A Piece of Wood
• RFID Chip
• Two-Part Epoxy
• Band Saw
• Sander and Sand Paper
• Chisel
• Wood Finish

Optional:

• Metal for Stand
• Drill Press and Clamps

The first step is to find a piece of wood that is approximately bone-sized, and to draw the a bone shape on your piece of wood. Then cut out this contour on a bandsaw.

Start out on a sanding wheel to get the shape you want, then work your way up through increasingly fine grit sand paper. I used 150, 200, 220, and 400.

Draw an outline of your RFID chip.

Use a chisel to make a pocket for the chip, and check the fit.

Mix up some two-part epoxy, cover the chip, and let it set.

Sand the epoxy down flush, again using increasingly fine grits of sandpaper.

A natural beeswax finish was applied to this bone, which makes it smell nice too.

This app interface was created in Illustrator. It isn't a fully functional app, just a screenshot hosted on a website.

The image URL is uploaded to the RFID chip.

When someone tags their phone on the Smart Bone, it will bring up the app that shows information about the different fetch packages available.