This project is meant for cat and dog owners to be able to control how much their pet eats. It can take any standard dry pet food and, and also dispenses water. When the pet approaches the device, the pet dish opens up allowing the pet to eat any food that the owner as released into the dish using the phone application. The device is meant for one pet, and one would need to be purchased for each pet. (Currently, the app only supports one device).
The device can detect the weight of the food and water left in the device, as well as the food left in the dish which the pet as access to eat. These weights are displayed on the device, as well as on the phone application. In addition, the device can detect when the pet is nearby, and at this point would open the food dish container. To simulate this, the background will turn green when the pet is near by. When the total food or water left in the device is too low, the background turns red, and a notification on the application alerts the user. In addition, when the phone app requests more food to be released in the device, the background turns yellow for a few seconds. The amount of food given to the animal would be a mechanical mechanism on the device itself. In reality, all of these background color changes would be LEDs turning on and off on the device, and the screen would not exist. The reason for this, is the this device would be better as a low powered device, so that it can run off of batteries instead of requiring to be plugged into walls.
As mentioned before, the companion app allows the user to feed the pet, view the same notifications that appear on the device, and view the Food and Water weight data. In addition, the app allows the user to view how much food and water have been consumed since the last time the user reset the data. The device does this by adding t0 the food and water when there is less food and water than the last sample. If the food or water goes up, it takes note of this and does nothing. There is anti jittering in place, so small variations will not trigger this mechanism. Everything is stored on the device, so if the user closes and reopens the device, the data is still present.
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