Facial Recognition Software Could Help Bring Fido Home

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Three Sacramento area animal shelters have launched a free app that uses facial recognition technology to help pet owners find their lost dogs.

The app, called Finding Rover, uses facial recognition technology to identify lost dogs.

It only takes a few minutes: you start by downloading the app, uploading a picture of your dog from different angles and creating a profile in the program's database.

Once someone finds a lost pet, they can go on to the site, upload a picture and the system will do a search to hopefully find a match.

While the launch is new, they've had at least one success story so far after a shelter staff member uploaded a photo of a lost dog.

"Within 30 minutes someone knew the owner of that dog," said Bobby Mann, public relations coordinator for Front Street Animal Shelter. "That's really exciting for us."

Front Street, the Bradshaw shelter and the Sacramento SPCA are the first to launch it. Just one of these shelters takes in 10,000 lost pets a year with a return to owner rate of under 20 percent.

This app is free and only for dogs right now. But come December, they will be launching and fusing a version for cats as well.