Just like with humans, hydration is pretty important for our four-legged friends. But also just like with people like me, we often forget to drink water unless it’s there already in front of us. And if you have pets at home and you can’t be with them for the most part of the day, it’s important to have enough water for them to last the whole day. Of course you can leave water in a bowl for them but it’s sometimes not enough or it’s not always that hygienic. Pet water fountains are a good option and this one in particular seems to be a pretty well-designed one.
The PAWaii Wireless Pet Water Fountain is one way to make sure that your pet is properly hydrated whether you’re at home to take care of them or not. It is one way to make sure that they will have access to clean and filtered water as it is has an NSF-certified filter that reduces calcium and magnesium ions and has UV sterilization that kills bacteria and microorganisms in the water. There are three modes that you can use and they can even be used simultaneously. There is an inductive mode, a regular mode that dispenses water per hour, and a manual mode.
To also ensure your pet’s safety, the device has a water-electricity separation design and an anti-slip silicone pad. But It also has a 5,000 mAh lithium-ion battery so it can last up to 70 days without a need to charge it if you schedule it to dispense water at least 25 times a day. The more it dispenses of course, the less the battery will last. It is also able to monitor the water consumption and drinking times and all the data is transmitted to the connected app so you can track everything remotely.
It looks like a regular water filter container for humans but the fountain part may attract your pets when the water gushes out and may induce them to actually drink whether they’re thirsty or not. It is available in a bright orange color but also a more minimalist white/transparent color, depending on your pet’s (or rather, your) taste. Now if only we could also have something similar for humans like me who need constant reminders to hydrate.
Robots are invading our homes, in one way or another. There are the rolling discs that are robot vacuum cleaners, and there are a growing number of cute robots that aim to provide entertainment and sometimes even security for the whole family. Well, at least the human members of the family. Some households have “small” a.k.a. furry family members, and these are often left unserved by these modern innovations. Worse, they’re sometimes even put at risk because of how some smart home robots are not designed with pets in mind. Turning the tables around, Ogmen Robotics is revealing at CES 2024 a kind of intelligent home robot that was designed from the ground up to be the “pawfect” playmate, guardian, and caretaker for your canine best friend.
At first glance, the Ogmen ORo looks like one of those robots on wheels designed for human use. After all, it has the semblance of a face, or at least eyes, on a tablet-like screen and a somewhat tall frame that loosely resembles a body. They say that looks can be deceiving, and that’s definitely the case here since all of the ORo’s features were carefully selected for the benefit of dogkind primarily, and humans only by association.
At the top of the list of those features is its ability to provide physical, mental, and emotional stimulation through playful activities. It keeps track of the dog’s health and even detects when they’re feeling anxious, at which point ORo will play soothing music to help calm them down. It can even help owners train their dogs through obedience games and virtual training services right at home.
When paired with Orgmen’s food and medicine dispenser, the ORo robot ensures that the pooch gets a balanced diet while also monitoring their eating habits. For humans, ORo offers the benefits of remote connectivity and interaction, allowing owner and pet to bond even when they’re far apart. The robot can also take photos of the bet’s precious moments, allowing you to easily share and boast on social media.
Technology doesn’t need to benefit humans only. In fact, it should be used to benefit all, including the planet as well as our furry friends. Ogmen’s ORo puts those very same technologies that power human smart appliances and devices at the service of the four-legged members of the family. After all, having happy and healthy family members is a good thing for both humans and animals alike.
Each doghouse is made with its own USP. If some are built with thick mattresses for comfort, there are others made with playfulness in mind. But a designer thinks existing kennels have not addressed the requirement of dogs that get hot in summers: by virtue of the environment or the thickness of their fur!
Seungmean Lee is clear about the fact that we need to care for our furry friends, especially during the scorching summer months. Since humans have the ability to regulate their body temperature, pets often struggle to stay cool, and need special attention, he believes. This is particularly true for certain breeds like Siberian Huskies and Malamutes who are more susceptible to the heat due to their polar habitation or double coat. As responsible pet owners, we need to provide them with a cool environment where they can seek relief from the sweltering heat and this is where Igloo comes in.
Designer: Seungmean Lee
Air conditioning may not be a viable option for all pet owners, as it is neither practical nor healthy for dogs to be kept in an artificially cooled space all the time. An innovative solution thereby can help pets beat the heat. The igloo is a specially designed resting place capable of creating a cool environment for pets, regardless of their breed or natural habitat.
With an igloo, all pets can enjoy the benefits of a cool space freely and comfortably helping them stay happier and healthier anywhere. Igloo features a streamlined passage and an inner dome structure that ensures optimal functionality and safety while allowing your dog to move in and out of the cool environment effortlessly.
The Igloo operates automatically via sensors embedded within the entrance. When the temperature is high, it will sense the pet entering and alter the temperature you have set to your pet’s comfort. The thoughtfully designed passage of the Igloo ensures that the cold air inside does not circulate out of the Igloo, maintaining a consistently cool interior.
Operating the igloo and its automatic cooling system is as simple as its idea. With a press of the power button located at the top, you can activate the dog house. Depending on the situation, you can set (or preset, if you’re stepping out of the house) the wind strength or temperature to create a perfectly cool resting place for your furry companion.
The Igloo incorporates an external micro camera that allows you to keep an eye on your furry friend from afar, ensuring you have a tab on well-being through real-time monitoring. Given its automatic cooling system, interesting construction and an idea every pooch will love, Igloo deserves to see the light of day.
Keeping a dog is one thing but being able to care for her the way she would want is entirely another. Pet-friendly tech innovations have made keeping track of your dog, feeding them at the right time, and even monitoring their health a little easier, but what if you could also know how your dog is feeling at a given point in time? Your communication and experience would become increasingly healthy – either way – and this is what PingPong intends to do!
Allowing the pet patent to “catch what they (dogs) feel, do what they want;” the PingPong is a communication and relationship enhancer that helps dog owners understand their pet’s behavior through their activities. Being a dog parent myself, I can say from personal experience that it’s really difficult – on many occasions – to figure out how your dog is feeling. Most dog owners would vouch for being able to understand feelings properly, but the fact is there’s more to a dog’s emotions than his wagging tail or cuddled-up sleep.
With the intention to give dog owners – new and old – not very sure of the right communication with the pets an option to use technology to their benefit. And then to be able to provide their pals exactly what they want. PingPong allows communication through expression between dogs and their owners. PingPong is a name derived through feelings of dogs captured through their expression as ‘ping’ and the activities carried out after understanding feelings as ‘pong’.
Comprising a dog collar smart tracker, a leash, charger and hub; PingPong can pick up five different dog feelings and represent the same in as many color notifications. These feelings include comfort, joy, stress, loneliness and fear. The color indications are displayed on the smart chip and leash handle. A yellow color ball bouncing high and fast displays joyfulness, blue ball bouncing rhythmically shows comfort, gray ball bouncing slowly is an indicator of loneliness in dogs, stress is shown by the red ball bouncing fast, while a fanatically bouncing purple ball is an indicator of fear!
The smart clip used on a dog collar picks up these emotions through the dog’s activities. It can measure the behavior and heart rate of the pet using onboard sensors and displays the five feelings on the app, leash or the chip itself for owners to see. The sensors can pick delicate emotional changes in the dog and the app can recommend activities that owners can undertake to match the feelings. There are daily, weekly and monthly activities recommended to the owners, to build a congenial environment/routine for the pals.
Designer: Soyoung Lee, Jaewan Choi, Wonjae Lee and Hanna Yoo
This line of modern pet furniture from Nicolas Cunsolo features a dog bed, food bowl carrier, and a small toy for your dog to get a day’s worth of fun and relaxation.
Pet furniture tends to embrace fluff over modernity. It makes sense–dogs love the fluff. If they didn’t, our couches would still be intact. But the fluffier the dog bed, the less likely it is to fit in our homes.
Modern dog bed designs have come a long way from prioritizing comfort over versatility. Argentinian industrial designer Nicolas Cunsolo created a line of pet furniture for the modern home that maximizes comfort but doesn’t skimp out on aesthetics.
Cunsolo’s modern pet furniture is constructed with a wooden frame that props up a taut, yet plush cushion where your pup can rest. Designed with a curved base, the collection’s dog bed provides a slight overhang for your dog while they’re resting on the cushion. The pet furniture designed by Cunsolo is made of different materials to provide a flexible, yet rigid feel for the dog bed.
In addition to the dog bed, Cunsolo’s furniture collection comes with a water and food bowl station, composed of a wooden frame with two circular frames that keep bowls in place for your pup to eat and drink from.
The water and food bowl frame also has a wooden build, keeping a dark wood stain and polished look to appeal to more modern kitchens.
When dogs eat and drink from the frame’s bowls, a sliding mechanism angles them to meet your dog’s mouth. The raised platform and sliding mechanism make the bowl frame ideal for aging dogs who have trouble outstretching their necks.
Cunsolo also designed a small toy for dogs to play with that keeps a similar profile to the collection’s dog bed, echoing its curved and taut design. Dogs can play with the collection’s toy for a while, drink water from the raised bowl afterward until they find a bit of respite in the furniture line’s modern dog bed.
Designer: Nicolas Cunsolo
From pouncing around with the toy, to a much-needed water break, and finally a power nap, this collection has a little bit of everything.
Conceptualized in three different styles, the dog toy won’t look out of place in the living room.
Clean lines and an overall curved design offers a modern appeal to this collection of pet furniture.
Ever felt like life would be complete if only our pets could talk? I always wonder how that would go – they would be able to express what they want to eat, how they are feeling, if they want to go out to play, and when they are feeling sick. As a cat owner myself, one of the biggest worries is that my cat can’t tell me when he’s feeling ill. Naturally, I would want to help as soon as he feels low but realistically we can’t be there monitoring them 24×7. Enter LuluPet – a smart litter box that uses AI recognition to detect symptoms of the top 7 common cat illnesses! Designs like this bridge the language barrier between our cats and us (for obvious reasons)!
LuluPet is the first smart cat litter box that uses excretory image recognition to track your cat’s health with 95% accuracy – yes, it means through their potty habits. More than 30% of the cats suffer from urinary tract diseases in their life and pet owners don’t catch it till it’s late. Cats inherently hide their pain so it makes it even more difficult to spot what is wrong especially with illnesses like kidney disease, heart disease, and urinary tract problems early on. With LuluPet you have more control over your cat’s health and you will be alerted of any irregularity in real-time whether it is a minor issue or a potentially major one. LuluPet uses AI image recognition to help identify urinary tract problems and a built-in camera, infrared sensor, and AI chips to analyze different types of feces. It distinguishes feces using the Bristol Stool Scale and combines with medical data from pet hospitals to identify symptoms of cat diseases which sets it apart from the traditional litter boxes that simply detect the weight of the feces.
The double door design helps reduce fallen litter when cats finish their business and the front entry is ideal for kittens and senior cats who are unable to jump constantly. It has an easy to clean drawer and works with all kinds of poop be it scented, unscented, clumpy, or not clumpy. Lulupet also has enough room for your pet, the hexagonal shape creates the most internal space for your cat while keeping it manageable for every size household. A nice detail is that you can keep the litter box completely closed or semi-open depending on what you and your cat prefer (maybe you both love the blue litter box more?). LuluPet makes it easier for you to keep your pet’s health in top condition without feeling guilty or being constantly worried about them not being able to tell you what is wrong and nipping issues in the bud if any. It is also compatible with Google Home and Alexa so even if you forget to check the app, your virtual assistant will send you a reminder.
The litter box is integrated with a smart app so you will get real-time alerts from the LuluPet and can act quickly when needed. This also saved pet owners from excessive vet visits and the constant worry is your cat is alright, but with LuluPet both you and your feline friend can sleep easy. Stool and urine analysis is the most straightforward way of detecting a wide range of feline diseases. LuluPet has an in-depth, cat pathology database with clinical data from more than 6,000 cats and automatically cross-references the details to ensure your cat’s health is in the normal range. Health data varies for different breeds depending on cat age, but our AI Autonomous Learning Mechanism gives a custom data model for each cat so they get a report uniquely tailored to their situation. AI accurately monitors cat weight, urine volume, stool volume, excretion duration, excretion frequency, excretion appearance, and color type – so you know what is truly happening on the inside even if they can’t express it.
LuluPet is the first smart cat litter box using excretory image recognition to monitor your cat’s health through their potty habits with 95% accuracy. You get real-time alerts from the LuluPet App so you know if there’s an irregularity in your pet’s loo time as soon as possible.
Early Detection Can Increase Your Cat’s Lifespan
Cats have a deeply-rooted natural instinct to hide their pain, making it difficult to spot the signs of illnesses like kidney disease, heart disease and urinary tract problems early on. Lulupet gives you more control over your cat’s wellbeing by alerting you of potential issues the moment it detects an irregularity. Early treatment can help prevent a minor health issue from developing into an irreversible condition.
Stool and urine analysis has become the most straightforward way of detecting a wide range of feline diseases. LuLuPet uses artificial intelligence to monitor and analyze your cat’s health through stool image, weight change and excretory behaviors.
Highly-accurate Excretory Recognition System
LuluPet uses AI image recognition to help identify urinary tract problems and a built-in camera, infrared sensor, and AI chips to analyze different types of feces. It distinguishes feces using the Bristol Stool Scale and combines with medical data from pet hospitals to identify symptoms of cat diseases.
360 View of Your Cat’s Health & Wellbeing
LuluPet keeps a complete record of your cat’s daily toilet schedule and overall health, giving you an extensive health monitoring system.
Real-time Alerts – When the data is abnormal, you get a push notification so you never miss the crucial moment to take your baby to the vet.
Failsafe Poop Discovery System – In the off chance that there’s an unrecognizable condition, each cat’s excretion behavior is also stored in a video for your own review.
Multi-cat Identification
LuluPet identifies up to 15 individual cats by memorizing faces, fur colors and different recorded data per cat, like weight. This way, every cat’s toilet schedule is recorded individually, without each cat needing a special collar or attachment for identification.
If you have two similar looking kitties, no problem! LuluPet uses their weight difference to determine who’s who—as long as it’s more than 0.11 lbs (50 grams), they can be distinguished!
Customizable Box Design for Every Cat
LuluPet developed parts that are easy to assemble and customize so every cat gets its purrfect setup—whether that’s an open-air litter box, semi-closed or closed.
Double-door Design – The top exit helps reduce fallen litter when cats finish their business and the front entry is ideal for kittens and senior cats who are unable to jump constantly.
Works With Any Cat Litter – Scented, unscented, clumping, not clumping—your kitty has preferences and LuluPet works with them all.
Easy-clean Drawer – Cleaning a litter box has never been easier with our handy, pull-out drawer design! No need to disassemble or practically climb inside, just pull out the drawer and scoop or empty.
Works With Google Home or Amazon Alexa
You can connect it with your Google Home or Amazon Alexa and get daily updates on your cat’s health without even pressing a button.
Pets are our best friends and they are also known to be incredibly crucial in reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and boost overall wellbeing. Given the times, the number of people adopting and relying on emotional support animals is only increasing. They are family and that means that they have to be protected like a member of the family – no one gets left behind. This clever animal carrier was designed to prepare you and your furry companion for disasters by equipping you with emergency kits that work for your needs and the needs of your emotional service pet.
While we love and care for them as we do for our own children, there is not enough being done in terms of disaster preparedness for them. Evacuating with animals needs a lot of advance preparation and most people are unprepared due to a lack of information or kits that are made for this specific situation. As emotional support/companion animals are increasingly becoming a new norm, we need a kit like Base which ensures their safety while doubling up as an everyday pet furniture item in the house. In the event of a disaster, you can rely on the built-in emergency kit by using Base as a carrier for your pet. The shape is inspired by a friendly cave that makes animals feel protected keeping it aligned with their natural instincts of hiding when they are scared. The product consists of two parts- the left side of the kit provides basic products and the right side can be selected by the user according to the companion animal species making it usable for a wide variety of people and pets. It also comes with rescue request stickers that help neighbors to identify the pet and help to rescue them in the case of any unfortunate events.
“The emergency kit with disaster necessaries for companion animals is built-in the bottom of the carrier, so it can be safely handled during the evacuation period by simply carrying Base carrier with the companion animal. It provides disaster preparedness manuals and emergency kits while also functioning as a carrier, allowing users to protect their companion animals from disasters. It has Disaster Preparedness manuals in the form of brochures so users are prepared for disasters in advance. It has information about what users need to know and a checklist to identify items needed in the event of a disaster, making it easy to be prepared” says the design team. In normal times, the Base can be used as an aesthetically pleasing modern pet house. Base is basically (see what I did there?) the Clark Kent of pet essentials – a sweet pet house every day that turns into a heroic product in times of crisis.
Designers: HeeSu Choi, HyoWon Son, and JiSeung Lee.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this design was a cat standing in front of the bowl, it takes a long pause and says, “Welcome to my TailTalk!” – now you can’t unsee it so let’s ‘talk’ about it. TailTalk is a multifunctional pet bowl that happens to have won the Red Dot Award 2020 as well as the Good Design Award 2019, so it certainly solves a problem most pet owners face – food spillage.
The innovative bowl takes into account that the pets eat both dry + wet foods for their respective benefits, and this product serves the purpose of holding both instead of having two bowls. The design is intuitive for pets and their owners, both sides of the liner can be used by simply flipping it over. The shallow side holds the wet food and the deeper side is for dry food, this way it prevents odor and minimizes bacterial growth. Shallow depth is chosen for wet food because it contains the moisture and makes it easy to lap up the wet bits while the deeper bowl is chosen for dry food to avoid spilling of crumbs. Clean eating isn’t just limited to ingredients, to keep the space clean while pets enjoy their meal TailTalk has a gap between the inner and outer shell which works as an anti-overflow tank. I call this gap the food moat!
Another benefit of the cleverly crafted bowl is that it avoids whisker fatigue. Your cat’s whiskers are extremely sensitive and can become easily fatigued by unnecessary contact with things like the sides of bowls. So to prevent whisker fatigue, you should make sure your cat’s food bowls are low and shallow and her water dish is wide – exactly like TailTalk which also has a gap that further minimizes contact with the sides. The simple design is effective in avoiding food waste and keeping the space hygienic which is healthy for your pets too. It saves you cleaning effort and now there are very slim chances of your pet eating food scattered on the floor that could disrupt their digestion and lead to more cleaning for you.
If you have pets, you already know that you are an experienced cleaner – not just because you have to keep your home clean but also because you always have to make sure your pet is clean, that way you both remain healthy! When you take your pets out for a walk there is bound to be dirt that comes home with them, especially if you live in a place with a wet season. This obviously isn’t good for your home but also can cause infections for your pet if not cleaned out well. It can be a tedious task to do every time you step out with them and this concept design is aimed at giving pet owners a paw-some solution!
Pet Paws is a high-tech sanitizing mat used to clean, disinfect, and dry the legs of our pets as well as the soles of our shoes. The efficient product design is a simple roll-up mat that is easy to carry and store. The team worked on elevating an existing prototype by adding improved functionality and simplifying it further – the redesigned version is now just a one-piece product, unlike the original one which had four parts. It has two areas on its surface – the first section of the mat has a multi-directional cleaning texture which bends and cleans inside the paws in a friendly manner, and the second section of the mat has a cushioned texture which helps to dry the paws as the pet walks over the microfiber sleeve.
Both parts have a texture that has been cleverly selected to maximize the efficiency of the process by making sure it can clean inside the paws without any discomfort or complex steps. The ridged cleaning part is made of recycled tire rubber so it ensures durability and the set also includes a removable microfibre cover for the other half. The mat has a central indicator to fill up 500 ml of water for the cleaning process. The soft drying surface features suction dampers at different heights to make sure that all areas of the paws are covered. Once you are done, just roll the mat over so the water will flow vertically to the front pocket where it can be stored till you dispose of it. Tilt the mat and the smart draining mechanism will take care of the rest! I bet this works for kids too.
Have you ever walked into someone’s house or office and they have this cool showpiece with a water fountain? I am talking about those mini zen gardens or crazy shapes that have constant flowing water – it always catches your attention if you see it. That same behavior works for pets too actually, they are more attracted to flowing water than a stagnant water bowl and this award-winning smart pet water dispenser does exactly that!
The PetX smart pet water dispenser designed by Beijing Kitten&Puppy Technology Co. was one of the iF Design Awards 2020 winners and rightfully so – they used the simplest animal behavioral psychology pattern and applied it to a product that worked for pets. Instead of a regular water bowl, this smart water dispenser provides clean running water for pets anytime. Flowing water is better for your pet’s health as still water has a higher chance of becoming contaminated and leading to things like urinary tract infections. Your pets are likely to drink more water due to the innovative and inviting mechanism.
The brand has a patented water flow structure designed for keeping the water clean by filtering impurities and keeping the volume below 30dB. The form of the product has a 7° slope which works universally i.e. pets with different face shapes will be able to comfortably drink water and you won’t have to buy separate bowls for multiple pets. The PetX water dispenser offers access to the IoT and has a voice control feature as well. The water frequency can be automatically switched for day and nighttime use and in case of a power failure, the water tray will still store 100 ml so your pets can remain hydrated. You’ve reached the end of this article and this is a reminder for you and your pet to drink some water.
The PetX smart water dispenser is a winner of the iF Design Award for the year 2020.
