A police dog performs in a public drill at the Beijing's police dog base on June 1, 2019. Photos: Courtesy of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau

 

A police dog performs in a public drill at the Beijing's police dog base on June 1, 2019. Photos: Courtesy of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau

Beijing cops are commanding  their police dogs at distance using ultrasonic remote control, and have already filed a patent for the method.

Inaudible to humans, the ultrasonic signals are heard by dogs, which have a wider range of hearing 

"We hope to silently guide our police dogs at a distance without disturbing criminal suspects, especially in some specific tasks," Liu Xiaoxiao, vice captain of the city police corps, told the Global Times.  

Dogs accustomed to one officer's voice may fail to follow orders from a different officer. Ultrasonic uses an identical passphrase coded into a radio signal, enabling different police to guide their dogs' behavior, said Liu. 

According to him, the experiment started out in 2016.

Initially they were using high-frequency dog whistles to train their dogs but discovered they also responded to radio signals. 

The method is still new to dogs, with only one or two able to respond so far. 

"It proved to be a feasible way, but we are still in development," Liu said. 

This method was on display at a Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau demonstration organized by the police dog base on Saturday. 

The trained mutts impressed audiences with their skills and intelligence at searching for explosives, sniffing for drugs on human bodies, searching for gasoline and moving objects.