Sly ate out of a metal bowl on the floor next to a PetMate automatic water bowl. The food was difficult to pour into the small hopper and the feeder itself slid around the tiled floor while the food was pouring in. The dogs were noisy and pushy and got canine saliva on the owner and the automatic feeder. Sly actually got his head into the hopper and started eating right out of the tank before the owner could get the lid on.
Both dogs jumped and barked at the owner as they filling the PetMate feeding hopper. Each product has its selling points, but they all come with some downsides that our design team will take into consideration when we move forward with our prototype.įilling the feeder was a challenge. Each model's specific features are explained, and some important user criticism and compliments are also included in the Customer Reviews portion. Their are 3 types, a high tech model, a cheaper simple model, and a non regulated portion model. We focused on the areas of feeding mechanism redesign because it previously allowed food to be fed intermittently, and we focused on the owner's experience operating the device by creating a solution for remote operation and notification.īelow is a list of the basic types of competitors to our product. We have drafted several changes to the product to improve it by either reducing failure or enhancing it with greater functionality. Additionally, the observation of pets using the product interacting with their owners brought up the issue of how this product, which is designed to operate remotely, doesn't allow one of its major stakeholders - the owner - to do anything remotely or be aware of the pet being fed for a peace-of-mind. Large dogs are aggressive with the product and can induce mechanical failure through normal operation. Our user study suggested that the PetMate pet feeder is problematic for large dogs. Our market research concluded that there are a variety of competing products that were essentially the same while some provided the ability to feed the animal for longer durations depending on the size of the storage unit.
The PetMate LeBistro Portion Control Automatic Pet Feeder is of the former type. There is an automatic portion control device in which the owner prescribes the amount of food and then there is the variety that ensures that there is a constant amount of food in the feeding cavity at any time. The space of automatic pet feeders comes in two varieties. 5.2 Owner Feedback Improvment: Remote operation and notification.
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