Top 10 pet-friendly gadget designs that use tech to help you take the best care of your furry friends!

If you’re an obsessive pet owner like me, then you’re probably always thinking of ways to make your pet happy! Ensuring your pet feels safe, secure, and comfortable at home is every pet owner’s priority. We want to make sure they always feel loved and truly at home! It’s important to create an environment where they feel completely safe to let their guard down, while also managing to stay active and playful. Interactive tech designs are one way of keeping our pets busy, content, and jolly! Tech products for pets are a whole new ballgame these days. From IoT pet devices that use smart technology to let you interact with your pet while you’re away to AirTag collars that let you use Apple’s ‘Find My’ feature to keep track of your pets – these ingenious gadgets are all, you need to take the best care of your beloved pets!

1. The DogTag

Say hello to DogTag – a pet-collar tag designed by the fine folks at Studio Proper that houses an Apple AirTag within it. Designed to work with dogs as well as cats, the DogTag lets you easily keep track of your furry little friend when they’re scampering about outdoors or even playing hide-and-seek with you inside the house. Relying on Apple’s powerful ‘Find My’ network, the DogTag lets you be able to keep track of your pet no matter where they are. You can create no-go zones for them, knowing if and when they scale your fence and jump right into your neighbor’s prized flower-bed… and if they decide to play hooky right before bathing time, you can easily ‘ping’ the AirTag inside the collar to give up your furry little monster’s location, or use the Find Nearby feature to help guide you to them!

2. MeowMate

Designed by Joint Technology Co, MeowMate is the perfect companion for your cats when you’re away! The adorable little gadget basically follows your cat around all day (it simply replaces you), and helps you keep an eye on them! It features a 1080p ultra-clear video quality and HD voice intercom, allowing you to watch and hear your pet clearly and sharply. It also boasts real-time delay monitoring compensation to ensure a high synchronization between images and sounds. You simply have to download the MeowMate app on your smartphone, switch on the MeowMate device, and scan the QR code at the bottom of it, to connect it to the app on your phone. You can then control MeowMate on your smartphone, and move it about as you please. It allows you to remotely interact with your pets, and help stay connected with them.

3. Migo

Migo is short for ‘amigo,’ which means ‘friend’ in Spanish. Each component of Migo communicates and connects to one another via Bluetooth, which allows for remote interaction between dogs and their owners. The system’s main appeal is the collar since it comes equipped with a tracking system, temperature sensor, heart rate monitor, audio output, and an LED flashlight. Owners can also have all eyes on their dog at home through the camera unit that functions as a traditional surveillance camera. The camera even comes with a speaker so that owners can speak to their dogs whenever anxiety levels seem high.

4. The PETKIT Eversweet 2 pet water fountain

The PETKIT Eversweet 2 pet water fountain has been equipped with a circulation system that infuses more oxygen into your pet’s water for a fresher and better taste! It ensures that your beloved pets always have access to clean and fresh drinking water. Moreover, the pump automatically shuts off, when it detects that the water levels are depleting. It even has a window that lets you observe the water level, so you’re always informed about your pet’s water consumption. An LED light lets you know when it’s time to fill up the fountain with more water! It also keeps you updated about the dispenser’s working status.

5. The Link Smart Collar

Do you wish you could track your dog’s location in case of emergencies but don’t want to embed a tracker in his or her body? The Link smart collar offers an alternative, more pet-friendly solution with its removable GPS. However, the Link is for more than emergencies – it includes features that improve your pet’s health and quality of life every day. So, what does the Link do? The collar itself holds the GPS tracker and a LED light for visibility during night walks. Additionally, with the Link companion app, the product can log your dog’s physical fitness, vet records, and other stats related to his or her health. Basically, it’s a FitBit for your pet – keeping them happy, healthy, and safe.

6. The PetSafe 900-Yard Remote Trainer for Dogs

The PetSafe 900-Yard Remote Trainer for Dogs is perfect for those naughty little puppers and doggos who love to run out of sight! The trainer helps to call back your pet with three different kinds of stimulation – audible tone, vibration, or 15 levels of static. You have to simply attach the nylon collar to your pet, and use the remote to call them back, whenever they waver off! The remote has been amped with a backlit, large font display, and well-positioned buttons. In fact, you can even train two dogs with one remote!

7. The Ebo Catpal

The Ebo Catpal is a robot companion that serves as both a cat sitter and a favorite toy. It’s essentially a mobile security camera that can follow your pet through the house like a Roomba. Similar to a Roomba, the device has sensors to detect obstacles in the vicinity. It also will automatically return to its charging station when low on battery. The camera’s feed is accessible through a mobile app, similar to many home security systems. It also serves a second purpose … let’s be honest, what owner can resist snapping close-ups of their pet’s hijinks? For this reason, the Ebo’s camera records high-resolution footage, which you can save, edit, and post to social media. You can add cute stickers to an image, or even create gifs.

8. Puro

Puro is a multi-functional, autonomous robot that does…a lot. It implements three distinct modes: play, clean, and air purification. In ‘play’ mode, Puro tosses dog treats when your pet is left alone in order to help alleviate some of your dog’s anxiety. Once the treat is tossed and your pup is munching, Puro enters ‘clean’ mode and vacuums over any fallen crumbs. From there, Puro operates as an air purifier to neutralize odors and suck in loose hairs or strands of fur. One of the many features that come with Puro is the smart cleaning function. Similar to the smart robot vacuum, Puro meanders around your floor in order to collect dust, dirt, hairs, and fur, avoiding your pup and other household items along the way.

9. TrickyPaw

TrickyPaw is a smart hunting toy that’ll keep your cat busy and playful! It functions as the perfect companion to your pet, and helps your cat stay healthy, active, and happy by helping them engage in their true hunting nature. You can use the gadget’s companion app to control it in real-time! The toy has been amped with an intelligent automatic mode, as well as nine programmed escape routes for the prey. It even comes with nine different sound effects, that you can keep switching between! TrickyPaw also emits LED light patterns, for your cat to chase!

10. Mopet

Mopet is a pet-friendly e-scooter with an integrated storage compartment so small dogs can come along with you on rides in a secure crate. There aren’t many options for dog owners to get around cities with their little pup in tow. Resolving to pulling their dogs on leashes or stowing smaller pups inside bicycle baskets, the options are either inconvenient or unsafe. Providing a solution for dog owners to crate their dogs around with them, Mopet is an electric scooter design that integrates a spacious and secure storage compartment where owners can keep their dogs while they scoot around from place to place.

The post Top 10 pet-friendly gadget designs that use tech to help you take the best care of your furry friends! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Google expands its free Shopping listings to merchants worldwide

With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the retail industry hard, many sellers have placed more focus on e-commerce. Google has helped out merchants in the US by allowing them to list their products on the Shopping tab for free since April. Retailers thro...

Google lets merchants sell for free in its Shopping tab

With physical retail stores closed due to COVID-19, retailers are being forced to sell exclusively online. To help businesses that may be struggling, Google is making it free for merchants to sell on Google. Beginning next week, search results in the...

Sorry, MasterCard’s free trial protection only applies to physical goods

Yesterday, MasterCard announced a new feature that would protect its customers from the automatic billing that kicks in after a free trial. The policy will require merchants to notify users about the end of the free trial, the cost of continuing with...

The secret to rendering white products on white backgrounds

I usually never recommend rendering any sort of product on a white background unless it’s truly necessary. When rendering, the background plays an important role along with the foreground, helping complement/balance it, or create a heavy contrast (that’s usually the photographer or designer’s call), but a white background can generally feel slightly template-ish. The real problem, however, is rendering white on white. A white product on a white background can usually be a nightmare because they tend to merge into one and another, creating ambiguity, and often end up concealing details of the product rather than revealing them… so how exactly does one render white on white? There are a few tricks you could master.

The first trick is realizing that your product, background, and lighting are NEVER the same color. When you load a model into a rendering software, chances are, you’ll use pure white on your product, while the background and lights by default are set at white too. This similarity begins causing your product and background to be practically indistinguishable. The fix? No product is perfectly white, and conversely, no backgrounds are perfectly white either. Choose a shade that’s 98% white (on the black to white spectrum) and your product immediately stands out against the background, while looking more realistically white, rather than perfectly white. You may also want to add a hint of blue to enhance its perceived whiteness, or maybe go in the other direction and drop in a tiny bit of yellow to make it look on the warmer side. Consider using a warmer or cooler shade of white as your background too to create a contrast that your eye will easily pick up on because of the difference in color. You could exploit Keyshot’s color options, even using their extensive Pantone color set.

white_on_white_1

white_on_white_1

Trick one relied on choosing your product and background colors. Trick two requires a fair amount of expertise, but if done right, can make renders look stunning, regardless of how plain your product is. In fact, it’s something Apple has mastered over the years. With products that usually constitute straight lines and geometric curves, Apple relies heavily on perfect lighting to make their products pop. Take for instance the Apple Airpods (image below) that are placed against a white background. The idea is to have lights that illuminate the correct places, and cast shadows on the correct places. Never have a light shining on the side of a product, because a highlight on the side makes your product’s edge disappear into a white background. Always aim for a shadow around the edge, giving your product a gray outline, which helps a viewer easily pick up on the product’s shape. If all fails, add a light in a way that casts a shadow on the floor around the edge of a product, making it more visible. Keyshot has tonnes of environment options that help accentuate product details (consider experimenting with an environment that has a dark-ish background rather than settling for the default environment setting). With time, you can build your own environments to add a signature touch to your renders, placing lights exactly where you need them, creating accurate highlights on your products. This, in turn, will also help you brush up on your studio lighting skills, when you’re dabbling in photography. Another pro-tip? A glossy finish on your product makes highlights and shadows more pronounced. If your product is matte, the crisp lighting details often turn fuzzy. Want to render a matte-finish white product? Make sure your environment has a good balance between light and dark elements, so that they show up well on your matte product.

white_on_white_33

Not really getting the exact highlight you want on your rendering software? No problem! Trick number 2.5… just build the highlights in photoshop. Take your render to a photo editing software, and add your highlights using a brush. This gives you MUCH more control over your render, and if it’s any consolation, touching up renders and adding artificial highlights is something ALL companies do to make their renders look more flashy.

white_on_white_22

The last trick… just manually increase the contrast on your pictures. If your product has black details that are getting lost when you increase the contrast, try meddling with the Curves tool (ctrl + M or command + M) in photoshop to increase the intensity of just the grays. That way, you’re not touching the whites or the blacks. You’re just taking the ‘almost white’ parts of the image and making them more gray. To finish off, try adding a vignette to the image, giving it a bit of a distinct border, and helping it create a spotlight on your product.

white_on_white_444

Rendering white on white is quite a challenge, but the trick is being able to have either a mental or visual reference. If you know exactly what you want, where you want highlights, where you want shadows, it makes execution easier. As far as personal advice goes, stay away from templates and try to build materials and environments from scratch. It makes rendering a much more hands-on activity, and more so, helps YOU stay true to YOUR vision, rather than getting lucky by dragging and dropping colors, textures, materials, and environments. And most importantly, when rendering white on white or rendering anything in general… stop thinking like a product designer, and start thinking like a photographer. Your renders will look absolutely stunning!

white_on_white_55

Video Credits: Luxion Keyshot
Mouse 3D Model: Luxion Keyshot
Car 3D Model: Taufiqul Islam
Airpods Image: Apple
Clock Vase Image: Jaro Kose