Just in case you didn’t look at the internet yesterday, I wanted to make sure you saw this incredible new use of technology for cats. It’s the Bistro Smart Feeder, which just launched a Indiegogo campaign and has been lighting up tech news around the world. It’s another brilliant use of technology to help improve the lives or cats, and if it does what they say it can do, it’s pretty spectacular.
Bistro uses facial recognition technology to identify each of your cats as they approach the feeder so it can track all kinds of data about the cat that will help you monitor his or her food and water intake, eating patterns, and body weight. The cat steps on a scale to reach the feeder, so it can measure weight, then the feeder dispenses food and water and tracks how much the cat consumes. All of this data is instantly sent to your smart phone and recorded so you can track patterns over time.
There are sensors in both the food and water dishes so if one cat doesn’t finish eating or drinking, the amount is measured for the next cat to use the feeder. It looks like you can program it to dispense specific portions for each cat, or you can just use it to dispense a specific amount of food at set times.
The camera used for the facial recognition also sends images to your phone so you can keep an eye on your cat when she’s at the feeder, plus you’ll be able to share images with other cat guardians in a online community. Between all the new technology that lets us watch our cats on our digital devices, we will soon be able to watch them all day long! Employers everywhere are thrilled.
The Bistro feeder connects to your home wi-fi network in order to function. Apparently, they recommend using one feeder for up to three cats, primarily because of the food and water capacity, but you can have multiple feeders in your home all connected to the same system so all data flows together and any cat can use any feeder.
One drawback is that the feeder only works with dry cat food, they can’t make it work with canned or raw food. Also, the food and water are right next to each other and, remember, cats prefer their water source to be farther away from their food. They did make both the food and water dishes ceramic in order to help reduce feline acne, which could occur with plastic feeding dishes.
Visit the Bistro Indiegogo page to get all the details and see the perks you can get for supporting the campaign. The first Bistro units will be available in February 2015 and they are expected to retail for $249 USD.
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UPDATE 7/13/15: The Bistro cat feeder is now called CatFi and more info can be found at CatFi.com.
Iinteresting, and I know there will be some who are enthusiastic about this.
Very cool! I would have to buy two – one for food and the other for water. Like you said, many cats, including mine, like some distance between their food and water.
This is a nice idea, but I wouldn’t buy it. My boy Siamese would knock it over in a heartbeat to get the extra food. My cats don’t like raised bowls and my girl cat is tiny, not sure she even could get the food. Plus they like to eat at the same time or one feels they are being punished.
That scale looks like it takes up a lot of floor space. I wish it was optional.
I like that they are trying to use technology to bring things to the next level. But, I don’t think most of the people in their target market free feed dry food/kibble… Personally, I would be excited if someone would invent an automatic feeder with refrigeration built-in, so I can set it up to feed my kitties their raw dinner on nights when I am going to be working late. And one of my cats will scarf his food down and then eat the other cats food, too…so, it would be great if technology could solve that problem, too! haha
I have the same issue mentioned in a previous comment. I have one tiny cat who cannot spare any weight that likes to pick at her food. The other will eat just about anything and in huge quantities and needs to lose some weight. Feeding them is an everyday challenge! How to keep one fed, but keep the other from obesity? I am considering building a feeding station for the little one and using a microchip activated cat door for access. My budget is tight though, so I’m trying to think up something less expensive.
*DISCLAIMER: I am the inventor.
Hi Jackie,
If know your concern about how sturdy Bistro is. One of our designer has a Karate cat who can break a peice of wood easily. The way to fight them is to make Bistro hackable so you can easily mount a large/heavy base to the feeder itself. As for the scale, the size is around 11.1 x 21.4 inches. Hope that works for you.
Hi Tricia,
Thanks for your comment! We do receive lots of cat owners who want to feed wet food with Bistro. However I have to apologize that Bistro is not designed for that at this moment. Mounting a refrigerator seems over-kill for the first product, but we will definitely explore market possibility for such high-end product in the future.
Hi Kimberly,
How to keep both cats well-fed with correct amount is challenging, but we build Bistro to serve that purpose from the beginning. I would say it’s both art and science and so far there’s no perfect solution, but at least Bistro can track the amount of food/water taken for each cat. In addition, the smart portion control can give out certain amount of food based on which cat, how much has been fed, and how often the food was stolen. It’s hard to get it right, but we try to make things as simple as possible, so we will keep improving the feeding algorithms and strategies and do our best to outsmart them.
And thank you all for the great comments. We will keep improving the product throughout the campaign to make Bistro more awesome, so please back us up 🙂
I have exactly the same issue – one cat that would happily free-feed by eating a couple of kibbles at time every couple of hours and another who could eat a whole bag in a heartbeat :-(. It’s really hard to get the one enough food while trying to keep the other from stealing – or bullying her way into – the other’s food. Maybe you could find a way to “lock out” one cat based on their facial features? The Bistro could be used for the eater who picks, which would then adjust to her small eating habits and then the other wouldn’t be allowed any food out of the Bistro – that one could be fed via another Bistro or some other feeding device….