Anyone who lives with pets knows that the booms, pops and bangs from fireworks can be terrifying for our furry friends and their excellent hearing. And if the thought of Fourth of July celebrations fills you with dread on behalf of your cats and dogs, you probably aren’t looking forward to the revelry that brings in the new year, either.
When these holidays roll around at my house, I start looking for ways to create background noise that will cancel out the big bangs that send one of my cats running to hide under the bed. Turn on some music, run a fan — heck, I’ll run an empty dishwasher to cover up the sound of explosives every Fourth of July.
Some engineers at Ford had a similar thought, and they had the tech know-how to do something much more productive than running a loud kitchen appliance to solve this problem. On its blog, Ford Europe posted photos of their noise-canceling kennel for dogs that shelters canines from the boom of fireworks. Their video about the kennel explains the prototype, has a cameo from “The Dogfather” Graeme Hall and, of course, features some adorable pups:
The kennel, which is made of high-density cork, uses the same technology that engineers and designers built into Ford’s Edge SUV to keep engine noise out of the car’s cabin.
“When microphones pick up high levels of noise from the engine or transmission, this is counteracted using opposing sound waves from the car’s audio system,” the blog post reads.
In addition to canceling out scary noises, the kennel has a snug and stylish design that appears to be pleasing to both dogs and their humans.
Alas, this noise-canceling kennel is just a prototype for now. TechCrunch noted that it’s another product in Ford’s “Interventions” initiative, which seeks out clever solutions to everyday problems using automotive technology. The same Ford initiative also developed a cot designed to soothe fussy babies by mimicking the feel of riding in a car.
Though the cot went viral (presumably with the assistance of parents everywhere who are tired of driving their babies around at all hours to get them to go to sleep), Ford has not put it into production.
So while it seems unlikely that we’ll be buying these kennels online or at stores any time soon, I’ll still hoping Ford will build one day them — and that the company make a little one for our feline friends, too.
This story originally appeared at Simplemost.com.
