In celebration of International Cat Day today (8th August), IoT Insider takes a look at the IoT technologies concerned cat owners can use to keep their pets safe. From GPS trackers to smart collars, these technologies are providing owners with peace of mind and protecting their pets.
GPS trackers
The development of GPS trackers has seen its popularity fuelled by the growth of the asset tracking market, which has commonly been deployed to track patients in healthcare, or shipments in industrial IoT. But cats are no exception.
GPS trackers can be attached to a cat’s collar and provide their owners with real-time location tracking. Using a dedicated app – depending on the device manufacturer and their capabilities – owners are able to monitor their cat’s movements and ensure they stay within safe boundaries. Some cats are prone to wandering and travelling long distances, and this technology enables owners to quickly locate them if they fail to return home.
Smart collars
Smart collars offer a range of features designed to keep cats safe. These collars can monitor their activity levels, detect changes in behaviour and track health metrics such as heart range and temperature. Cats who are unwell are notorious for disguising their symptoms, perhaps out of self-preservation instincts, and having access to data which can spell out to an owner when a medical intervention is required can be hugely beneficial.
Providing comprehensive data can also enable owners to detect potential health issues early on and stage an intervention, to prevent particular issues from becoming worse down the line.
Other applications
Because of the often intrinsic ability for IoT technologies to collect and analyse data, they’ve also been applied to smart pet doors, which can be programmed to control which animals can enter and leave the house, helpful for keeping intruders at bay; automated feeders which can be controlled via smartphone apps and enable owners to monitor feeding times and quantities, and some come with cameras to watch your cat while they eat; health monitoring devices which can be used to track specific aspects of a cat’s health – for instance, smart litter boxes can monitor bathroom habits and flag up health issues like digestive problems; and smart beds, which come equipped with sensors to monitor rest and sleep patterns.
In the case of smart beds, they may incorporate different types of IoT products. The sensors could be pressure and motion sensors, temperature sensors and/or weight sensors. The bed might use Wi-Fi connectivity, which allows the bed to send data to a central hub or smartphone app, or Bluetooth connectivity for short-range communication with nearby devices. Data collected from the sensors could be stored in the Cloud, to facilitate long-term tracking and analysis.
Conclusion
According to Statista, consumer spending on pets and pet related products reached an all-time high of £9.89 billion in 2022, double the figure spent on pets ten years previously. The data doesn’t lie; people are willing to spend more to ensure the health and happiness of their pets. The development of IoT technologies has seen them applied to a range of applications to provide pet owners peace of mind and security.
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