At Build 2015, Microsoft and Fujitsu gave an unusual demonstration that showed how they are using Internet of Things (IoT) technology and the Azure cloud computing service to build an Internet of cows in Japan. Fujitsu offers a product called GyuHo (Japanese for “cow step”) that is essentially a cow pedometer/health sensor. It connects to an Azure machine learning service which helps farmers track the health of their cattle, and more importantly, identify when they are ready to be bred. If farmers inseminate cows during the first four hours of estrus, they are much more likely to produce female calves, so the service gives the farmers a greater ability to control the sex of their calves.
At the Build conference, developers were invited to build their own experiments using Azure machine learning APIs. No word on whether anyone is building an Internet of cats.