Pet bowl and indoor garden opportunities

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Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Research 2.1 Observation Studies 2.1.1 Indoor Garden 2.1.2 Pet Bowl 2.2 Expert Interviews 2.2.1 Indoor Garden 2.2.2 Pet Bowl 2.3 Surveys 2.3.1 Indoor Garden 2.3.1.1 Demographics: 2.3.1.2 Gardening Behavior: 2.3.2 Pet Bowl 2.4 Product Reviews 2.4.1 Indoor Garden 2.4.2 Pet Bowl 2.5 Summary of Stakeholder Needs 2.5.1 Indoor Garden 2.5.2 Pet Bowl 3 Market Opportunities 3.1 Top 3-5 Design Concepts 3.1.1 Rotating Automatic Feeder 3.1.2 Elevator Feeder 3.1.3 Simple Rotating Bowl 3.1.4 Vibrating Color W/ Bowl 3.1.5 Tree Console 4 Competitor Products 4.1 Web Searches 4.2 Pugh Charts 4.2.1 Indoor Gardening 4.2.2 Automatic Pet Bowl 5 Gantt Chart 6 Team Member Roles 7 Findings and Recommendations 7.1 Recommendation 7.2 User Scenario 8 Appendix A: 100 Brainstorming Ideas 9 References

Executive Summary

For this phase of the project we initially decided to explore two opportunities: indoor gardening and pet feeding. We did market research for both the indoor garden and the pet feeder and, after analyzing the findings, developed product ideas for each opportunity.

We discovered through market research for the indoor garden that there is large indoor gardening community and that people do it for multiple reasons. Some people grow their own herbs and spices, while others do it merely for aesthetics and as a way to relax. There is also a wide variety of effort levels people are willing to put in. Many just want to have an automated system while others want to water and take care of the plants. They car more about the process growing of the plants and really enjoy doing every part by hand. The current automated solution to indoor gardening in the AeroGarden which has 7 individual plant housings that can distribute nutrient rich water to the plants and has a light above for the plant.

The pet feeder market research showed us that there is a need for a better solution to feeding multiple pets. In households with multiple pets, it is common for one pet to eat the others food, which is not ideal in many situations such as when one pet in on a diet or needs to take individualized medicine. As it stands many of the current solutions are not good and keeping the pets from getting into each others bowls and actually can harm the pets. Also many of the current solutions are very expensive. One of the current products, the wonder bowl, uses a RFID activated lid to cover the food. However, this product has had complaints of closing on the pet and harming it.

Ultimately, we decided that creating a simple rotating bowl that has a compartment of food that has a rotating cover over it would be the optimal solution. We used a Pugh chart to weight the pros and cons of each design, and compared them against the wonder bowl. The vibrating collar had the highest score, but was too simplistic mechanically, which makes it a poor project to work on for the rest of the semester. The simple rotating bowl had the second highest score, so we decided it was the best project for this course. The simple rotating bowl uses a RFID sensor to identify the correct pet and a motor and encoder to control the rotation of the lid, the food can be kept away from incorrect pet and can keep the food fresh without fully trapping the pet like other competitor products.

Market Research

Observation Studies

Indoor Garden

To observe how people garden indoors, we visited Mary Lessard, an avid gardener who lives in the Allegheny Mountains. Mrs. Lessard owns a pair of Aerogardens, a small hydroponic device that allows her to grow fresh herbs in her kitchen any time of the year. In comparison to conventional gardening in potted soil, the Aerogarden is significantly easier to use. All Mrs. Lessard needs to do to keep her herbs healthy is refill the water and fertilizer reservoir on her Aerogarden, and the system will otherwise take care of itself.

However, she did have some problems with the Aerogarden system that left room for improvement. First, the system only accepts proprietary seed pods, limiting her selection of herbs to the ones that Aerogarden's manufacturers choose to sell. Also, the small system is unable to take care of larger plants, like most fruits or vegetables. Finally, because the Aerogarden uses a single reservoir to water and feed her plants, she needs to own two systems to care for different kinds of herbs and flowers.

Pet Bowl

As our observation study, we watched an individual take care of three pets during meal time, and even tried the feeding process ourselves. We fed one large cat, one small cat, and one small dog. We found that the large cat finished first and immediately went over to the small cat's bowl and started eating its food. We had to then manually move the big cat and then stand by the little cat's bowl while it ate. The big cat then would go over to the dog's bowl and start eating its food until we moved the large cat away again. We ended up sitting around for 15 min while the animals finished their food. The experience was rather annoying and time consuming, and the large cat was never really deterred from eating from the other animals' bowls. The pet owner faced the exact same challenges, and she hated the process, but didn't know of any other good solutions.

Other observations from the feeding process:

• The dog and the little cat did not put up a fight when the big cat came over to eat their food.
• The little cat did not eat all its food at once. It would walk away from the bowl for a few minutes, and then come back to finish.
• The dog and the little cat would sit next to their bowl while the big cat ate its food. They would wait patiently until the big cat left or was moved away and then would continue eating.

Expert Interviews

Indoor Garden

For our expert interview for the indoor gardening idea, we interviewed a staff member of Phipps conservatory, Mr. Dunigan. Phipps is a plant conservatory located in Pittsburgh. Most of the plants are located indoors, in a very controlled environment, and are maintained by a full staff. Generally the plants are grown in a greenhouse located behind the conservatory and then moved out to the main area once fully grown. Mr. Dunigan and the other staff members grow all kinds of plants, from all over the world, and thus know a lot about the difficulties associated with indoor gardening.

Here are the main conclusions we drew from the interview with Mr. Dunigan:

• The hardest part of growing plants indoors is maintaining the environment. Plants often require specific environmental conditions and, if these conditions aren't met, the plants will die. On top of this, different plants can require very different conditions, which
• Heat and light is generally provided by a heat lamp, and the intensity of the heat lamp is dependent on the needs of the specific plant.
• Plants are watered carefully, as to not drown the plant. The amount of water used is also dependent on the needs of the specific plant.
• One common problem people have with growing plants at home is maintaining a temperature. Oftentimes, especially in places that have central heating and air conditioning, plants experience a wide range of temperatures, which can make plant growth difficult.
• Plants are very expensive to maintain.

Mr. Dunigan was very helpful in learning about indoor gardening and the difficulties involved, though it should be noted most of the issues he dealt with involved growing large numbers of plants in a greenhouse. This information is still very relevant to our topic and helpful when making our design choices in regards to indoor gardening.

Pet Bowl

We also interviewed a care taker named Brin who works at Mission Viejo Animal Shelter in California over the phone. This animal shelter takes care of a large number of animals but we inquired specifically about cats and dogs. We asked about the feeding process and how animals behave while eating. At the shelter, the pets are kept in kennels and to feed the pets, the volunteers or workers move a cart with clean bowls, a large bag of food and cans of wet food from kennel to kennel with a scooper and will dump dry or wet food into the appropriate bowls. The time it takes to finish eating varies from pet to pet according to Brin. She said that smaller pets tend to take their time eating while larger pets tend to eat much faster. After the pets are done eating, the bowls are collected and are then put in a washing machine.

Here are some of the observations she had of adopted pets and pets in the shelter.

• When eating the food would usually stay in the bowl while the animals eat

• Adopted animals usually do not eat in unfamiliar surroundings. They start eating once they feel comfortable in their new home.

• Adopted cats who enter a new household usually get along with other cats and don't have issues with eating each others food initially. However, adopted cats introduced into a new home with a pre-existing dog usually have issues with the dog eating the cats food and are instructed to keep the cats food away from the dog.

It should be noted that the pets in the shelter are kept spar so their eating habits were on an individual basis.

Surveys

Indoor Garden

To further explore peoples' attitudes about indoor gardening, we developed a brief survey on SurveyMonkey.com and posted it on reddit.com/r/indoorgardening, an online interest group for indoor gardeners. The survey asked demographic questions like age, gender and housing situation, as well as indoor gardening-specific questions like what sort of plants they grow and how much they'd be willing to spend on a system that automates gardening tasks. From the 30 people who responded to the survey, we were able to determine the following information:

Demographics:

• The average indoor gardener is 31 years old, but a majority of indoor gardeners are under 30 - The product should focus on young adults
• Nearly all of the survey respondents live in either a single-family house or an apartment

Gardening Behavior:

• The number of indoor plants people own varies widely, from 2 plants to over 50 - however, most respondents have between 10 and 20 indoor plants
• Over 60% of respondents would like to be able to regulate the temperature of their plants
• Over 75% of respondents prefer gardening in soil, rather than using hydroponic or aeroponic systems
• Most respondents are willing to pay roughly $100 for a system that automates gardening tasks

Pet Bowl

From surveying friends and online pet enthusiasts, we gained further insights into what pet owners would want from an automatic pet feeder. People were especially interested in a product that could combine feeding only certain pets certain foods with a timed product to feed pets if owners were out for a night or two. There was the biggest interest from people with multiple pets in their households, but it was also mentioned that this could be useful for research labs or kennels where multiple animals are kept. The biggest concern was pet safety, and it was pointed out to us that not everybody likes to keep collars on their pets while they are home. This is seen as a choking hazard by some pet owners. Other concerns raised were that the product would be inexpensive, $50-$100 was reasonable for people with a large need, and that the product was easy to clean.

Product Reviews

Indoor Garden

Through websites like Amazon, CNET, Mommy Poppins, and Pinterest we were able to learn about the main problems customers who want the ideal indoor garden face. A lot of people who have bought their own indoor gardens from competitors or have made theirs, wish their systems could work completely on their own. Customers want the system to be able to take care of all of the plant’s needs: water, light, nutrients, soil, temperature, and space.

A customer wants their experience cultivating plants to be simplified. Being able to replace plants is a challenge since plants must be re-potted and soil needs to be replaced. Some of the existing products do not handle this step and don’t notify the user when the plant must be re-potted.

Another feature customer look for, is a system that can be customized for each plant. If the water/light cycle could be set differently from each plant, that would be ideal. Customers would like pots to come in different sizes, be able to manage different types of water/light cycles, and also to be able to adjusts lights during the day and night. Current products don’t provide these settings to customers which are necessary if someone wants to produce more than one type of plant in their home.

Pet Bowl

The main concern pet owners have with automatic feeders (i.e. The Gatefeeder) is that the pet bowl could potentially harm their pets. Through online reviews, current pet bowl feeders with sensors have the tendency to close the lid/door on the pet. This can cause injuries, or can lead to the pet no longer wanting to eat from the bowl. Also, these sensors don't always work. When the sensor can't register the right pet it will open and close uncontrollably or simply not open at all. Similarly, many sensors were just too bulky, and pet owners didn't want such a large sensor hanging from their pet's collar. Lastly, an automatically closing pet feeder can be used to keep food fresh, stopping unwanted odor. In summary, from product reviews we learned pet owners want a product where they can store the food and have it accessible only by the correct pets without them having to fret about the pet's safety.

Summary of Stakeholder Needs

The main stakeholder for these products are the consumer. The consumer is the main person operating these devices and is the one who will suffer the most if they fail. Cost, reliability and safety are a few of the needs the consumer has from the products. However, the consumer isn’t the only group that these products has an impact on. Retailers, manufacturers, and Shippers/transporters also have interactions with the products.

Indoor Garden

	Primary	Secondary
Consumers	Maintains healthy plants Plants have water, light, preferred temperature, and nutrients Can be customized for different numbers and sizes of plants Plants are visible Still allows users to enjoy the process of gardening Inexpensive Easy cleaning	Easily re-potted Portable Can be located in different areas of the house Modular Easily maintained Sensors to alert users when plant needs attention
Retailers	Profitable Little effort to sell Product demand	Appealing display Access to the niche market Lightweight Modular design Potential sale of add-on components
Manufacturers	Common/cheap materials Easy machining processes Minimal parts Simple Assembly Product Demand	Lightweight Possible automated manufacturing processes Easily replaceable parts
Shipping/Transport	Lightweight Compact packaging Durable Affordable shipping	Focus on shipping to urban areas Profitability considering relatively niche market Possibly combining shipping other garden products

Pet Bowl

	Primary	Secondary
Consumers	Pet is safe Each pet reliably has access to only its own food Pet is comfortable using the bowl (not scared away) Pets can leave food and come back at will Bowl is inexpensive	Bowl is easy to clean Food is kept fresh Bowl can be used with wet or dry food Bowl also deters other invaders like children or wild animals Easy maintenance
Retailers	Profitable Little effort to sell Product demand	Appealing display Access to the niche market Lightweight
Manufacturers	Common/cheap materials Easy machining processes Minimal parts Simple Assembly Product Demand	Lightweight Possible automated processes Easily replaceable parts
Shipping/Transport	Lightweight Compact packaging Durable	Product delivery is not hindered by pets Possibly combining shipping other pet products

Market Opportunities

Top 3-5 Design Concepts

Rotating Automatic Feeder Rotating Automatic Feeder This design is for people with multiple pets who don’t want the animals eating each other’s food and wants minimal upkeep. This bowl would most likely use an RFID sensor to identify when the correct pet is near and will rotate a pocket of food to an open position so the pet can consume the food. When the pet goes away or the wrong animal approaches, the food pocket will rotate around the track to the enclosure where the pocket will be refilled by a hopper that is connected to a guiding tube. By rotating the pocket to the hopper everytime, the pet will always have food to eat, and the wrong pet cannot get to the other pets food. The center of the bowl also could be used for water. The food is loaded by lifting the cover of the enclosure and pouring in food. Pro: User can leave unattended for long periods of time Doesn’t allow wrong cat to get any food Doesn’t harm pet Dual use Con: More expensive due to automated feeder. Large Not for outside use Hard to clean Patent: US 20080289580 A1 (Automated pet feeder): has multiple compartments with programmable timer. US D563605 S1 (Automated pet feeder): Drops food into bowl with similar hopper technology. Elevator Bowl Elevator Feeder This design is similar to an existing product the Gatekeeper in the sense that it restricts the number of pets that can reach the food at one time, but instead of using a housing to do this it uses elevation and a ramp. Initially this housing has the food in a lowered position with a barrier, but once the correct cat gets close to the housing, the food gets raised up and the barrier is moved. The pet walks up a ramp and can poke its head in the bowl and eat. If the wrong pet comes near the bowl or the correct cat leaves, the food will be lowered so the pet cannot eat the food and to prevent falling, the barrier is raised so as to push the pet upwards. The food is loaded by opening a compartment when the bowl is in the lowered position taking out the bowl and pouring more food in. Pro: Only one pet can eat at a time preventing other pet from giving food away. Doesn’t harm pet Prevents the wrong pet from getting any food Easy to clean con: Large More expensive Indoor Patents: US D685141 S1 (Elevated pet feeder bowls): Uses elevation to keep food away from pet. Simple Rotating Bowl Simple Rotating Bowl This design uses a simple motor to rotate a cover that is over a partitioned bowl. When the correct pet approaches, the cover rotates to a compartment with food. If the correct pet moves away from the bowl or the wrong pet moves toward the bowl, the cover rotates to block the food. The motor would be activated by a RFID sensor and the food would be loaded by lifting the cover making the product easy to clean. Pro: Cheap Easy to clean Con: Could potentially harm pet if it is eating and wrong pet Indoor Patents: US6349671 B1 (Rotating multiple pet feeder): Uses sensor to open appropriate compartment. Vibrating Collar W/ Bowl Vibrating Color W/ Bowl Where the other designs focus on stopping the wrong pet from getting to the food, this design aims to keep the incorrect pet away from the bowl entirely. Like the other designs, this vibrating collar would have an RFID sensor attached to the pet via its collar that would start to vibrate using an offset weight to generate the vibration. Once the pet gets close to the wrong bowl, the vibrations would start making it difficult to eat. The amount of vibration would also be proportional to the distance the pet was in relation to the bowl. The closer the pet is to the wrong bowl, the stronger the vibration. Pro: Light weight, compact No upkeep Doesn’t harm pet Con: No defense of bowl if pet overcomes vibrations or system fails. Indoor Pantents: US 20080156277 A1 (Animal Training Device): Use a Vibration Probe to Deliver a Vibration Stimulus to an Animal Tree Console Tree Console Instead of having a singular housing for all of ones plant, this design allows the user the option to move his or her plants around his or her apartment or house. The pods have to be plugged into the walls or the center console that is shaped like a tree. The pods have water tanks that allow the user to fill them up and the sensors will regulate the amount of water the plants will get. The pods also have LED lights that give the plant even light. The pods and the center console are designed to look aesthetically pleasing, but due to the large number of sensors, the pods are slightly difficult to program. Pro: Plants aren’t all in one location Minimizes user action Aesthetically pleasing Con: Pods need to be near an outlet or the center console Hard to replace Patents: US 8549788 B2 (Hydroponic growing system): Uses a planting trough, solar panels, and liquid nutrients to care for plants. Competitor Products Web Searches Indoor Garden Competitors Competitor Name Image Description Click and Grow [2] The click and grow is a box that comes with plant cartridges that have the plant's seed and fertilizer in them already. All the user needs to do is to fill the bottom of the box with water. The system keeps track of moisturizing levels and applies the water during the day.The fertilizer decomposes gradually so the plant isn't receiving it all at once. Users need to place the device close to a window to receive sunlight. AeroGarden Ultra [3] The system can be placed anywhere around the house. The device provides three full-spectrum fluorescent lights which can be controlled. There are "seed baskets" which have the soil, the seed, and a mix of nutrients that are gradually added during the plant's life cycle. More than one type of plant can be harvested. On-screen tips are given by to the user advising him/her when the plant will be ready. Nutrient packets must be replaced every two weeks. Window Farms [4] Users must place the system next to a window so the plants can receive light. The device uses pumps to circulate water and nutrients to the plants which come in a column. So highest plant in the series receives the water first and it falls down to the other plants. This cycle happens for fifteen minutes every hour. The system is pretty simple to build but it cannot hold more than three types of plant. The system is easy to maintain and clean, but a lot of people have had problems with the pumps malfunctioning. Pet Bowl Competitors Competitor Name Image Description Gatefeeder [5] In an enclosed space it keeps the wet/dry food stored and ready for the pet. The door to the food opens only when the right cat comes close to the gatefeeder. The cat has a smart ID, that is mounted to the collar and allows access to the food. If the wrong cat comes near it will not be able to get in. The device keeps odors out and food fresh for a weekend. WonderBowl [6] The pet bowl has a lid which opens and closes when the right pet comes near. The bowl works for cats and dogs. The device uses a tag to identify the right pet to give food to. The bowl must be filled with food by the user. It is not an automatic feeder as well. Automatic Pet Feeder [7] The feeder displays five meals, enough for a week. It displays the right meal at the right time. The top lid moves to display the food and keeps rotating to deny access to it. However some are just timed to open, it is not based on a collar signal. Vibrating Collar [8] Vibrating collars are used for training purposes. They are not programmed to work with a bowl/auntomatic feeder for the pet. They work by applying an electric shock or vibrations to the animal's neck to cause annoyance. Pugh Charts Indoor Gardening Pugh Chart: Automated Indoor Gardening from this Pugh chart, it becomes evident that the Tree Console is actually inferior to the already-existing Aerogarden. The Expandable Pot appears to offer significant advantages over the Aerogarden, but it doesn't really fulfill the same need in the market, and there are a number of collapsible, foldable, or otherwise expandable pots on the market already. Automatic Pet Bowl Pugh Chart: Automated Pet Food Bowl From this Pugh chart, it becomes evident that both the vibrating collar and the rotating bowl provide significant advantages over their existing competitor, the WonderBowl. Gantt Chart We created a general overview of our work plan over the next couple weeks. The project is divided into three general phases, indicated in red, and all the breaks, blue, and deadlines, black, are shown. We used a free online Gantt chart generating software called Smartsheet [9]. Team Member Roles Melanie Jasper: - Team Leader, Pet Bowl Online Research Lead Derek Lessard: - Indoor Garden Online Research Lead Daniel Mark: - Indoor Garden Market Research Lead Gloriana Redondo: - Existing Technology and Opposition Research Lead Daniel Tabrizi: - Pet Bowl Market Research Lead Findings and Recommendations Recommendation Using our Pugh chart and the findings front the user studies and market research, we decided the simple rotating pet bowl concept was the optimal design for building in this course. We found that the vibrating collar design got the highest score on the Pugh chart, but it has a very simplistic design, and thus not optimal for building as a project for the rest of the semester. The simple rotating bowl design was only one point lower in total in the Pugh chart, and we felt that is was a simple, yet effective design. This design will maintain the low-medium cost we were looking for while still effectively and consistently being able to prevent animals from eating from the wrong bowls. The other designs, other than the vibrating collar, were so complex that they would be too expensive and the complexity would lead to concerns about the products reliability. The design also fairly safe for the animals, seeing as it is designed in such a way to minimize parts of the animal getting caught. Finally, the design is fairly easy to clean due to its simplistic design and it can hold dry and wet food, which can be a big problem in more complex designs. User Scenario Before There is a family of two parents and a small child who own a cat and a dog. The cat has health problems so it must take medicine with its food. However, the dog routinely will eat the cat’s food once it is finished with its own food. On the other hand, the small child sometimes gets to the pets bowls and tries to eat the food. The family has disposable income, but is unwilling to hurt the dog to fix the problem. After With the implementation of your product, the pets now eat their own food and are in fine healthy. The small child has grown up and it never ate any of the pet's food because it was always covered. As the family has gotten larger, the parents never had a problem with small children eating the pet's food. The family now feels like they can handle more pets because our bowls make the feeding process less intimidating. They recommend our product to their friends who are in similar economic and social standings. Appendix A: 100 Brainstorming Ideas Idea Generation: Automated Indoor Gardening Idea Generation: Pet Bowl References 1. Flowerlink. "Holiday Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory." Flowerlinkla.com. 2013. Web. February 7, 2014 <http://www.flowerlinkla.com/wp/2013/12/holiday-flower-show-at-phipps-conservatory/> 2. Moser, Laura. "The Best Indoor Gardening Gadgets." The Wall Street Journal. May 16, 2013. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324744104578474963531404732> 3. GateFeeder. "Feeds the right meal to the right cat." BeansBox. 2014. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://gatefeeder.com/> 4. AeroGrow. "Miracle-Gro AeroGarden 7-Pod Indoor Garden with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit." Amazon.com. 2014. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Gro-AeroGarden-Indoor-Garden-Gourmet/dp/B000FI4O90/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t> 5. Hydrofarm. "Hydrofarm CK64050 Germination Station with Heat Mat." Amazon.com. 2014. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-CK64050-Germination-Station-Heat/dp/B000HHO1RO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1393129138&sr=8-6&keywords=garden> 6. Garden at Home. "Garden at Home 42414 Italian Herb Trio." Amazon.com. 2014. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Home-42414-Italian-Herb/dp/B0009WRJ6C/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&qid=1393129303&sr=8-34&keywords=garden> 7. Lombardi, Candace. "Desktop Gardening." cnet. November 21, 2006. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9664329-1.html> 8. Fader, Anna. "My Apartment Garden: How to Grow an Indoor Herb or Vegetable Garden." Mommy Poppins. March 18, 2012. Web. February 7, 2014. <http://mommypoppins.com/newyorkcitykids/apartment-garden-how-to-grow-an-indoor-herb-or-vegetable-garden-with-grow-lights> 9. Smartsheet Online Gantt Chart Tool - <http://www.smartsheet.com>