Whisker’s Latest Litter-robot Uses Ai To Recognize Your Cat’s Face And Poop

This automatic litter container tin show aggregate cats’ toilet habits utilizing AI-powered cameras.

The Litter-Robot 5 Pro is nan newest poop-scooping instrumentality from Whisker, makers of nan excellent Litter-Robot 4, and it brings facial nickname for your cats to nan self-cleaning litter container line. The institution is besides introducing an optional subscription service, Whisker Plus, that monitors and tracks your kitty’s bath behaviour complete clip to nutrient “detailed study of information trends,” which could thief observe changes and spot issues early, according to nan company.

It will costs you, though: $7.99 a period (or $79.99 a year) for nan subscription to Plus and a whopping $899 for nan Litter-Robot 5 Pro. It’s outfitted pinch 2 nighttime vision-equipped, AI-powered cameras — 1 to scan your kitty’s visage and nan different to watch its waste. 

The institution besides announced 2 different caller models this week, nan camera-less Litter-Robot 5 for $799 and a slightly much budget-friendly Litter-Robot Evo for $599. All 3 models are disposable for preorder now astatine Whisker.com and will vessel connected November 3rd.

The self-cleaning machines that rotate aft each usage and dump nan discarded into a sealed bin person had a hardware redesign. They now characteristic a caller power sheet pinch an LCD show for on-device updates, which should mean little reliance connected nan app aliases trying to decipher flashing LED lights to cognize what’s going on. Whisker claims nan 5 bid models tin show nan quality betwixt pee and poop and will dispatch nan second quicker for amended odor control. They besides person a larger discarded bin, truthful you shouldn’t person to quiet it arsenic often.

The main quality betwixt nan 5 and nan 5 Pro is that nan Pro has cameras and useful pinch nan caller Whisker PetTag ($29), an RFID tag that immunodeficiency nan bot successful identifying pets, particularly for kitties that look similar. It besides doubles arsenic a integer ID, pinch a QR codification that personification tin scan to interaction you if they find your pet. Both nan 5 and nan 5 Pro tin accommodate up to 5 cats, 1 much than nan Litter-Robot 4. 

The cameras — 1 forward-facing camera that uses facial nickname and 1 interior-facing camera that watches nan litter furniture — are designed to supply much meticulous activity search and thief observe changes successful routine. If you subscribe to Whisker Plus, you tin besides position and prevention video footage of your cat’s toilet activities — sorry, kitties, you can’t opt out.

The Litter-Robot Evo is nan company’s cheapest robot astatine $599. It’s smaller, tin accommodate up to 2 cats, and doesn’t person immoderate of nan fancier features of nan Litter-Robot 4, specified arsenic automatic nighttime lights aliases litter-level sensing. But it does person a caller LCD display. The Litter-Robot 4 will proceed to beryllium sold astatine $699.

All nan robots link to nan Whisker app, wherever you tin initiate cycling remotely, get usage alerts, and get activity and weight search for each kitty. For nan regular insights, inclination and behaviour search — and video footage — you request to upgrade to Whisker Plus.

Some of The Verge’s kitties will beryllium putting these caller bots to nan trial to spot if this is AI gone excessively acold aliases tech that could really thief support your pet healthy.