My last article must have been over a decade and a half ago for AMD3D, this being my first for Funkykit. I’m used to the more technical aspect of writing things with full on charts and numbers, but I thought we’d take a look at some funky kit thats a bit different…..
The 2016 Pet Show in Hong Kong is an annual affair, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year. Its very similar to Crufts back in the UK, but obviously nowhere near as big in Wanchai’s Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). You’ll find the usual pedigree contests on show, with all the major brands of pet food taking up the bigger booths, distributers of international pet products, and a smattering of local animal charities; SAA, SPCA and HKDR to name a few. What really got my attention was some of the technical gadgets being sold for you and your pets’ enjoyment. So much so that when I first started writing this article I didn’t realize I’d cover so much that I would need to split it into 2! So without further to do, let us jump straight into part 1 and see what I found.
The DoggyTLK
Priced at only HK$198, this is what I would refer to as a pet ‘Fitbit’. Sure you can stump up for a proper Fitbit for around 4 times the price and hang it on your pet’s collar, but it’ll look darn ugly. The DoggyTLK is basically a movement tracker. As you can see from the photo below, it comes with the tracker itself (weighing in at less than 14 grams of plastic), an attachment strap to strap onto your pet’s collar, and a watch battery which will reportedly last around 3 months.
The people manning the stand was very adamant that this is their 1st version, and that later versions would have a better design (I’ll mention more later) and hopefully more functions such as GPS to track your pets.
To go along with your DoggyTLK tracker you need to download an app for your smartphone, via the Google Play Store or the iOS AppStore. Within the app, you set up your pet’s profile (name, age, breed, sex, weight, etc) and connect up to the tracker. Here’s where I found the highs and lows of using the DoggyTLK. For the first 3 hours I could not get the tracker to pair up with the app. I tried different batteries I had lying around and different smartphones.
I then discovered DoggyTLK has a Facebook page, on which they reported that messages to them would normally be replied within the hour. So I wrote them a message with my problem, and they replied about hour after! And this was at 2am! The must have a decent backend setup as they could see from their end that my tracker had not paired. The fix was that I had to bend and extended the battery connectors a bit more, and the company rep was very grateful for
the feedback I gave for which they will take into consideration for future designs. The app itself has a built in small community for other users to share their pets’ photos and data…..Facebook for pets I guess.
As you can see, my dog, Mylo, is just plain lazy. First day of tracking recorded him of just 6 hours of movement! For HK$198, the DoggyTLK does its job. Its never going to be 100% accurate, and there’s far more types of data that it can collect. But for that price, what more could you expect.
Pettion
Designed at the HK Science Park, the Pettion tries to do everything in one go. What looks like a Macintosh 1 with a feeding tray attached to it front, it’s…….. I’m not too sure how to describe it. Let me list for the functions that a Pettion (pronounced ‘pet-tee-on’) can do, and maybe you can help me categorize it:
- – iP cam
- – remote feeding by the pressing a button on the app to release snacks
- – an in-built laser which shoots down onto the surface in front of the Pettion for your pet to chase about
- – monitors the amount of activity of your pet
At the Pet Show they were trying to sell me one for HK$2000, and if I heard correctly, these things normally retail for around HK$2900, so its not a cheap piece of kit, and I still haven’t figured out how one of these Pettions actually record and monitors your pets’ health. But the overall design has been properly thought out, I guess this stems back from the Science Park research. The unit is well weighted and balanced, so even a clumsy big dog bumping into it will not knock it over. The edges around the unit have been precisely designed so that unless the size of your pet’s jaw opens to a huge opening, the material and angles prevent the unit from being damaged or gripped on.
Compared to other pet cams on the market, this is definitely much more expensive, but a Petition is way more robust and you can do way more with it.
Pawbo
This is another IP cam with an auto feeder. The Pawbo boasts a 720p live streaming, a ‘light chase game’ (laser), auto updates, apps for both Android and iPhones, and can use your Dropbox storage to store footage the camera captures.
My first impressions of this was that it was rather flimsy. Its quite plasticky and light, but was reassured that you can mount the Pawbo onto a more secure surface. i can’t see how the Pawbo would suit a medium to large sized dogs, and the design is just too lightweight, but most importantly, the dispensing system can only dispense snacks the size of around 3 kibbles. My personal experience with the demo unit wasn’t all that great when I pressed the dispensing button on the app on a tablet, it took about 5 presses and then a lag of 3 seconds before the snacks dropped out of the Pawbo.
Petcube
Another IP cam with a laser for your pets to chase about, but this one has 2 way sound, so not only can you hear your pets snore whilst you are out, you can also frighten the life out of it by speaking into the smartphone app and it’ll stream your voice to the Petcube and play it through its speakers. I didn’t get the chance to play with this, and I can just imagine the joy I’d have screaming into it….!
Boasting a 138 degree wide angle camera shooting at 720p, this seems to be one of the better cameras for your pets around. I first heard of Petcube around a year ago, and even back then they had built up a sizable number of users who have joined their online community.
In the next I’ll be looking at a local craze coupled with pet use……action cams! So stay tuned for HK Pet Show 2016 Funky Kits! (Part 2)
