Since PH <3 Cats I thought this product should be posted :) It's actually a pretty cool sensor-filled gadget to control your cat's daily intake of food. Quantified cats ftw, meow!
@bramk Thanks for helping us spread the word Bram! It's nice to come across someone who appreciates our vision for quantified pets. Our engineering team has been putting some final touches on improving the design we're making lots of progress in other areas too, big news soon.
@hueypriest lol, we're working hard to ensure that while you will have access to all sorts of adorable video of your cats, the moment they unlock the food will not be one of them.
So far we've tested the prototype with 30 cats all of whom learned to use it within a couple days but none of whom have outsmarted or overpowered it yet. We're even doing testing with dogs because we anticipate they may be around in the same households so we hope to have the final product both cat and dog-proof.
We're grateful for reddit's support as we made it to the front pageof r/todayilearned yesterday so thanks for that!
@colinheilbut would love to hear more. What kind of tests have you done with multiple cats in the same household? I've got 3 and right now we feed them at the same time. It's a race to the finish as the big one tends to push the other two out of the way once he's finished eating. The facial recognition is great, though I could see one of my smaller cats going up to Bistro and the big fella pushing them out of the way once the food is made accessible. Will Bistro detect the change in weight and retract the food or are multiple machines suggested? I am very intrigued.
@rustydingo We've heard from a lot of folks with cat burglars/bullies in their families who have a tendency to steal food from others. Our solution to this is a combination of hardware and software.
On the hardware side, we allow you to control the amount of food dispensed at any one time. Meaning that if Cat A is permitted 100 grams of food during the day, you can chose to have only 5 grams dispensed at a time (and when those are eaten another 5 are dispensed) or you could choose to have 50 grams dispensed at a time. Thus in households where there is known to be stealing, only small amounts need be exposed. We evaluated the cost of a 'retraction' mechanism but it was cost-prohibitive for our first product.
Certainly any stealing would be known to the system as well and the big cat's own portion would be adjusted accordingly if he/she hasn't already eaten.
@colinheilbut I see what you mean, that's brilliant.
I glimpsed at what looked like a wood version of the Bistro in the video, was that a prototype or a potential finish option? Thanks for your replies Colin, always appreciated.
@rustydingo Impressive catch. The wood model was made before we went to 3D-printing during the prototyping phase. Offering that as an option was not something we had previously considered but if anyone else reads this and is also interested in a wood finish we'd love to hear from them!
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