Dog sniffs out memory cards?
- Thread starter Mynight
- Start date
Soldato
yeah, considering the many thnig you have done for this forum, while being in said workplace
You promised not to mention the pics I sent you.
Soldato
I was being deliberately vague
do dogs like sniffing window frames? maybe they are really trained to find the missus pvc dresses
That's the thing as a good 70% of all my household plastics are PVC so it can't be the plastic they sniff out.
Soldato
This is why I store all my memory cards by pushing them into an onion.
Haha just found this;
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_and_Flo
Apparently this isn't a new thing.
I guess all DVDs are made from the same substance so they could be trained.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_and_Flo
Apparently this isn't a new thing.
I guess all DVDs are made from the same substance so they could be trained.
I don't know who or what you're arguing against here, the effectiveness of dogs in finding other items/substances is common knowledge; searching every single possible location by hand would take forever.
If a dog can smell something it stands to reason they can probably be trained to search for it.
Surely it's as simple as storing your hard drive/memory card in a sealed glass jar? Non-porous = dog can't smell it? No matter how highly trained it is.
Edit: Although I realise the conversation is more about exactly WHAT the dog is being trained to smell for in this day and age of EVERYTHING having electronics in it.
Edit: Although I realise the conversation is more about exactly WHAT the dog is being trained to smell for in this day and age of EVERYTHING having electronics in it.
Well if its anything like the drugs dogs they'll find it no matter what its hidden in(well at least that's what watching the border force would have me believe). Bigger problem with a glass jar would be making the card much more obvious to a human searching.
Soldato
Commissario
It's probably possible to a degree, as most memory cards and sticks will use one of a handful of plastics, which combined with the other smells that they have (things like the PCB backing, the plastic packaging of the chips, the coating on the PCB) will likely make something that is reasonably unique.
You then get the dog to sniff it out and basically the dog will hopefully point to spaces where there is possibly such a card, with the human doing the final decision/
I've got a feeling they already use dogs to help sniff out certain other plastic compounds used in contraband/counterfeit items (IIRC CD/DVD).
The idea isn't so much that the dog knows it's X, but that the dog can find something that smells like it, and point the human trainer towards it, which for things like memory cards that are easily hidden could both find stuff that might otherwise be missed, and save a lot of time on searches (you can hide a micro SD card in a really tiny place, such as the joint between two bits of wood, or behind a screw).
Apparently the space station has to have anything sent up checked for smell by a specially trained human team, as well as chemists to avoid sending anything up that could potentially create a toxic atmosphere in the sealed station (I think they discovered sending up too many CD's could do it!), or create lingering harmless smells that would build up and both become an annoyance, and possibly mask smells that could indicate a problem (overheating electronics etc).
I know it seems odd, since surely most circuitry would smell the same if a dog were accurate enough to detect them, however I would not doubt it. With what little I have seen on animal documentaries and Mythbusters, dog senses are insanely accurate, they seem to live in a world of smells rather than sight.
I had never heard about the space station bit that's really interesting. Its surprising what things we take for granted can be such an issue in space.
I quite agree if there is a standardised plastic/pcb/glue used then it could be trained to find similar items. I'm struggling to find the plastic they're made out of (I assume pvc). In some ways akin to the space station with the possibility all plastic/eclectic devices in the house smelling the same or similar could the dog actually pick out a memory card with all the ambient smells smelling I assume the same.
For example say it is a pvc plastic along with solder/pcb and hot glue then if I hid a memory card in my kitchen could they find it over the dishwasher/cooker/microwave/washing machine/tumble dryer that are all made of the same sort of materials (Just thinking aloud not saying you're wrong).
I know dogs have an insane power of smell but I'm still a bit sceptical. They apparently have a much stronger senses of smell would that mean they're able to pick out a particular in a room full of similar smells? Drugs I can understand as even I can smell the difference between a letter and canabis(admittedly not an attempt at hiding it).
I quite agree if there is a standardised plastic/pcb/glue used then it could be trained to find similar items. I'm struggling to find the plastic they're made out of (I assume pvc). In some ways akin to the space station with the possibility all plastic/eclectic devices in the house smelling the same or similar could the dog actually pick out a memory card with all the ambient smells smelling I assume the same.
For example say it is a pvc plastic along with solder/pcb and hot glue then if I hid a memory card in my kitchen could they find it over the dishwasher/cooker/microwave/washing machine/tumble dryer that are all made of the same sort of materials (Just thinking aloud not saying you're wrong).
I know dogs have an insane power of smell but I'm still a bit sceptical. They apparently have a much stronger senses of smell would that mean they're able to pick out a particular in a room full of similar smells? Drugs I can understand as even I can smell the difference between a letter and canabis(admittedly not an attempt at hiding it).
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Soldato
What about if you wrapped the SD card in a piece of lead sheet?
Or you could hide it inside another electrical item, like a keyboard or mouse and then hide that as well.
Or you could hide it inside another electrical item, like a keyboard or mouse and then hide that as well.
Soldato
Just because you can't smell something doesn't mean it doesn't have a smell...
Dogs noses are immense!
Dogs noses are immense!