One of the most frustrating aspects of trying to match "found" animals with "lost" animals is discrepancies in how different people may describe the same animal.
It's difficult enough for a lay person to try to identify purebred dogs... but now we have dozens of "designer dogs," too!
So, instead of playing "guess the breed", PetLynx's unique DataSketch™ application helps the user "draw" a picture of the dog (or cat) by simply identifying colours and identifying marks. It does not take other physical characteristics into consideration.
DataSketch™ narrows down the description choice to seven main colours and acknowledges different situations, such as a brown dog is similar to a tan dog.
Once the information has been input to DataSketch™, the PetLynx AutoMatch™ system works its magic. Rather than scanning for similar breed listings -- which may be incorrect -- it compares coat colour. It then creates a list of the most likely matches, with a 100% rating, followed by less relevant matches.
While this system works great, it is imperative that people registering lost animals understand that it is their responsibility to follow up on AutoMatch™ notifications to determine if a match is their pet or not.
11 September 2009
Mistaken Identity
Does PetLynx use physical descriptions to match lost and found pets?
Labels:
AnimalTRACS,
automatch,
datasketch,
HomeSafe,
Lost and Found,
Matching,
shelterlynx,
time saver,
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