Intelligent slow food device

Abstract

This invention belongs to the technical field of intelligent pet feeding equipment and discloses an intelligent slow feeder, including a feeder body with a magnetic food storage bin inside, a feeding trough at the bottom, and an odor chamber connected to the top. This invention addresses the root cause of pet overeating by using a design that delivers small, slow doses of food in multiple portions and extends the feeding path. This effectively slows down the pet's eating speed, reduces gastrointestinal discomfort caused by swallowing air during eating, and lowers the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases such as gastric dilatation, vomiting, and indigestion. It also precisely controls food intake for scientific weight management, making it particularly suitable for the special feeding needs of obese pets, senior pets, and pets recovering from surgery. Employing a multimodal guidance method based on aromatic essential oils, combined with sound and visual cues, it breaks through the passive mode of traditional feeders that only provide timed feedings, actively attracting pets to eat regularly and establishing a stable eating circadian rhythm.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of intelligent pet feeding equipment technology, and in particular to an intelligent slow feeder. Background Technology

[0002] As the pet ownership rate continues to rise in China and the concept of refined and scientific pet care becomes widespread, intelligent pet feeding devices have become the core products for solving the needs of pet owners to feed their pets regularly and in measured quantities when they are busy with work or away from home. With basic functions such as automatic feeding and food storage and preservation, intelligent feeders have become standard equipment for family pet owners.

[0003] However, existing smart feeders still suffer from numerous structural and functional defects in practical applications, failing to meet the core needs of healthy feeding and emotional well-being for pets. Firstly, their feeding methods are rudimentary, offering only basic timed and quantitative feeding without specific anti-overeating designs. A single feeding can lead to rapid ingestion, causing vomiting, gastric dilatation and torsion, obesity, indigestion, and other health problems, making them unsuitable for the slow-feeding needs of obese pets, senior pets, and post-operative recovery pets. Secondly, their guidance methods are limited, relying solely on timed passive feeding without active guidance through smell, sound, or sight. This results in low feeding compliance, leading to food refusal and irregular eating habits, and fails to alleviate separation anxiety and feeding stress through sensory guidance. Thirdly, their dispensing precision is insufficient, lacking individual pellet measurement and closed-loop control structures, resulting in significant dispensing errors and hindering precise food quantity control, thus failing to meet the weight control requirements of scientific feeding. Fourthly, issues with food storage and dispensing persist. The equipment suffers from several structural defects. Firstly, the storage bins lack anti-bridging and drainage structures, leading to easy grain accumulation and blockage of the channels, resulting in poor continuous grain dispensing. Secondly, the use of screws for fastening makes disassembly and cleaning cumbersome and incomplete, increasing the risk of bacterial growth. Thirdly, the poor sealing and preservation of grain makes it susceptible to moisture, spoilage, and insect infestation. Fourthly, safety and user experience are lacking. The angular design and hard plastic contact parts can easily scratch pets' skin and sensitive whiskers, indicating insufficient material safety and skin-friendliness. Fifthly, the cumbersome interactive design, heavily reliant on an app, is inconvenient for elderly or visually impaired users. The device's status feedback is not intuitive, preventing users from quickly understanding its operation. Sixthly, the lack of personalized adaptation capabilities means it cannot adjust feeding strategies based on pet breed, age, or eating habits, resulting in severe functional homogenization and failing to meet the diverse feeding needs of different pets. Summary of the Invention

[0004] One of the objectives of this invention is to provide a smart slow food maker.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution adopted by this invention is as follows: an intelligent slow feeder, comprising a feeder body, an internal magnetic food storage bin, a feeding trough at the bottom, an aroma chamber connected to the top, a main control module inside, and a pet interaction area on the top. The feeder body integrates a multimodal regular feeding guidance system, a precise fractional slow feeding system, and an anti-overeating control module. The multimodal regular feeding guidance system consists of an aroma guidance unit, a sound guidance unit, and a visual guidance unit, using multiple synergistic guidance methods including aromatic essential oil scents, customized sounds, and dynamic lighting to encourage pets to develop regular eating habits. The precise fractional slow feeding system dispenses food in small batches into the feeding trough, preventing overeating from the source. The feeder body is made of food-grade matte ABS material, and the pet interaction area is a recessed structure simulating the edge of a food bowl.

[0006] Preferably, the magnetic grain storage bin is equipped with a vibration anti-arching plate inside. The vibration anti-arching plate is connected to the drive component inside the feeder body. The drive component drives the vibration anti-arching plate to perform low-frequency reciprocating vibration to prevent the grain in the storage bin from arching and clogging, and to ensure continuous and stable slow feeding process.

[0007] Preferably, the infrared transmitter and receiver on the inner walls on both sides of the food outlet are combined to achieve accurate counting of individual grains of food. In conjunction with the main control module, the error of a single feeding can be controlled within ±0.3g, thereby accurately managing the pet's food intake to control its weight.

[0008] Preferably, the scent guiding unit includes a scent chamber and a micro air pump; the scent chamber is made of transparent PP material and has a built-in essential oil and beeswax slow-release carrier, which can hold pet therapeutic aromatherapy essential oils; the micro air pump supports both warm and cold air modes, and can deliver the essential oil scents to the feeding trough in a directional manner, thereby relieving pets' eating anxiety through aromatherapy and enhancing the scent guiding effect.

[0009] Preferably, the sound guidance unit includes a sound outlet and a built-in voiceprint library. The voiceprint library supports custom recordings by the owner and preset prompts from the system. Before feeding, a customized sound is played according to preset logic, forming a conditioned reflex with the feeding action and improving the pet's feeding compliance.

[0010] Preferably, the visual guidance unit includes a ring light strip and a three-color status light ring; the ring light strip is a blue-green gradient light strip that can present a breathing dynamic lighting effect; the three-color status light ring is set at the top of the pet interaction area, and uses red, yellow and green lights to intuitively reflect the device status and feeding progress, and visually guides the pet to take its place to eat.

[0011] Preferably, the magnetic food storage bin is made of transparent PP material and has scale lines engraved on its outer wall. A weight sensor is attached to the bottom of the food storage bin. The visual observation of the scale lines and the monitoring by the weight sensor form a dual monitoring of remaining food, which prevents pets from running out of food and ensures regular and uninterrupted feeding.

[0012] Preferably, the feeding trough has an arc-shaped tapering structure and is made of liquid silicone. The bottom of the feeding trough is covered with a grass-textured silicone anti-slip mat. The liquid silicone material prevents scratching the pet's whiskers, the anti-slip mat prevents the feeding trough from shifting, and the arc-shaped structure extends the pet's feeding path, further slowing down the feeding speed.

[0013] Preferably, the main control module integrates an automatic anti-blocking and unblocking program, which monitors the grain dispensing status through a photoelectric counter and an infrared sensor. If no grain is detected for 3 seconds, the motor is immediately reversed and an air pump is used to blow air to unblock the flow, ensuring the normal execution of the slow-feeding process without manual intervention.

[0014] Preferably, the anti-overeating control module has a built-in AI adaptive learning unit that can automatically record behavioral data such as the pet's eating speed, proximity time, and scent preference, dynamically adjust the guidance strategy and the pace of feeding, adapt to the eating habits of different pets, and achieve the goal of preventing overeating and promoting healthy eating in a personalized way.

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows:

[0016] (1) This invention eliminates the problem of pet overeating from the root. By distributing small amounts of food slowly in multiple sessions and extending the feeding path, it effectively slows down the pet's eating speed, reduces gastrointestinal discomfort caused by swallowing air during eating, and lowers the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases such as gastric dilatation, vomiting, and indigestion. At the same time, it accurately controls the amount of food consumed, achieving scientific weight control. It is especially suitable for the special feeding needs of obese pets, elderly pets, and pets recovering from surgery. It adopts a multimodal guidance method based on aromatic essential oils and combined with sound and vision, breaking through the passive mode of traditional feeders that only feed at fixed times. It actively attracts pets to eat regularly and establishes a stable eating biological clock. Aromatic essential oils have natural healing effects and can effectively alleviate emotional problems such as separation anxiety and eating stress in pets, allowing pets to eat in a relaxed state and improving eating compliance and happiness. It achieves high-precision closed-loop control of food distribution. The measurement of individual grains of food is combined with weight calibration, and the distribution error is extremely small. It completely solves the problems of inaccurate distribution and food waste of traditional feeders and meets the core needs of refined scientific feeding.

[0017] (2) This invention optimizes the grain storage and discharging structure, and through low-frequency vibration anti-arching design and automatic unblocking program, it completely solves the industry pain points of grain accumulation arching and grain discharge channel blockage. The grain discharge is continuous and stable, without manual intervention, which greatly improves the reliability and durability of the equipment. The whole machine adopts a rounded shape without sharp edges. All parts that come into contact with pets are made of food-grade safe materials, which are skin-friendly and harmless and do not release harmful substances. The liquid flexible material avoids scratching the pet's skin and sensitive whiskers, and fully protects the pet's eating safety. The grain storage components adopt a tool-free quick disassembly structure, which makes cleaning and disinfection convenient and thorough, and effectively avoids bacterial growth. The grain storage container is equipped with a double sealing structure to isolate air and moisture, prevent the grain from getting damp and deteriorating, and prevent the growth of insects and pests, extend the shelf life of the grain, and ensure the freshness of the pet's food.

[0018] (3) This invention features a user-friendly interactive design. The device's operating status is intuitively reflected through three aspects: light, sound, and screen. Users can grasp the device's status without frequent operation. The physical control components are suitable for nighttime use, making operation simple and convenient. Users of all ages can easily get started. The built-in AI adaptive learning function can dynamically adjust the guidance and feeding strategies according to the different pets' eating habits, preferences, and behavioral characteristics to achieve personalized feeding. This breaks the limitation of the one-size-fits-all function of traditional devices and is suitable for pets of different breeds, ages, and personalities. It has multiple safety protections and environmental adaptability, supports power outage memory, low battery warning, and temperature and humidity adaptive adjustment. The device operates stably and can adapt to different home environments and usage scenarios. There is no risk of failure in long-term use. The overall modular design is highly advanced, making later maintenance and component replacement convenient and reducing maintenance costs. At the same time, the device has multiple functions such as feeding, guidance, therapy, and health monitoring. Compared with traditional single-function feeders, the use value and user experience are comprehensively upgraded. Attached Figure Description

[0019] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the present invention.

[0020] Figure 2 This is a bottom-view structural diagram of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the main structure of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 4 This is the overall system flowchart of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the multimodal guidance unit of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the automatic anti-blockage and unblocking method of the present invention.

[0025] In the picture: 1. Feeder body; 2. Display screen; 3. Physical knob; 4. Sound outlet; 5. Feeding trough; 6. Food outlet; 7. Scent chamber; 8. Food storage bin; 9. Anti-slip mat; 10. Pet interaction area. Detailed Implementation

[0026] The present invention will now be further described in conjunction with specific embodiments. It should be noted that, without conflict, the various embodiments or technical features described below can be arbitrarily combined to form new embodiments.

[0027] In the description of this invention, it should be noted that directional terms such as "center," "lateral," "longitudinal," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," and "counterclockwise" indicate the orientation and positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. They should not be construed as limiting the specific protection scope of this invention.

[0028] It should be noted that the terms "first" and "second" in the specification and claims of this invention are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence.

[0029] One preferred embodiment of the present invention, such as Figures 1 to 5 As shown, an intelligent slow feeder includes a feeder body (1), a magnetic food storage bin (8) inside the feeder body (1), a feeding trough (5) at the bottom of the feeder body (1), an odor chamber (7) connected to the top of the feeder body (1), a main control module inside the feeder body (1), and a pet interaction area (10) on the top of the feeder body (1). The feeder body (1) integrates a multimodal regular feeding guidance system, a precise multi-time slow food dispensing system, and an anti-overeating control system. The system consists of a odor guidance unit, a sound guidance unit, and a visual guidance unit. Through the multi-coordinated guidance of aromatic essential oil scents, customized sounds, and dynamic lights, it promotes the formation of regular eating habits in pets. The precise, fractional slow food delivery system is used to deliver food in small batches to the feeding trough (5) to prevent pets from overeating from the source. The feeder body (1) is made of food-grade ABS matte material, and the pet interaction area (10) is a concave structure that simulates the edge of the food bowl.

[0030] The magnetic grain storage bin (8) is equipped with a vibration anti-arching plate inside. The vibration anti-arching plate is connected to the drive component inside the feeder body (1). The drive component drives the vibration anti-arching plate to perform low-frequency reciprocating vibration to prevent the grain in the storage bin (8) from arching and clogging, and to ensure the continuous and stable slow food feeding process.

[0031] The inner walls on both sides of the feed outlet (6) are composed of an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver, which can accurately count a single grain of food. With the help of the main control module, the error of a single feeding can be controlled within ±0.3g, so as to accurately control the amount of food consumed by the pet and control its weight.

[0032] The scent guiding unit includes a scent chamber (7) and a micro air pump. The scent chamber (7) is made of transparent PP material and has a built-in essential oil and beeswax slow-release carrier, which can be used to load pet therapeutic aromatic essential oils. The micro air pump supports both warm and cold air modes and can deliver the essential oil scent to the feeding trough (5) in a directional manner. It can relieve pets’ eating anxiety through aromatherapy and enhance the scent guiding effect.

[0033] The sound guidance unit includes a sound outlet (4) and a built-in voiceprint library. The voiceprint library supports custom recordings by the owner and preset prompts from the system. Before feeding, a customized sound is played according to preset logic, forming a conditioned reflex with the feeding action and improving the pet's feeding compliance.

[0034] The visual guidance unit includes a ring light strip and a three-color status light ring; the ring light strip is a blue-green gradient light strip that can present a breathing dynamic lighting effect; the three-color status light ring is set at the top of the pet interaction area (10) and uses red, yellow and green lights to intuitively reflect the status of the equipment and the feeding progress, and guides the pet to take its place to eat.

[0035] The magnetic food storage bucket (8) is made of transparent PP material and has scale lines engraved on its outer wall. The bottom of the food storage bucket (8) is abutted by a weight sensor. The visual observation of the scale lines and the monitoring by the weight sensor form a dual monitoring of remaining food, which avoids the pet from running out of food and ensures that regular feeding is uninterrupted.

[0036] The feeding trough (5) has an arc-shaped tapering structure and is made of liquid silicone. The bottom of the feeding trough (5) is covered with a grass-textured silicone anti-slip mat (9). The liquid silicone material prevents the pet's whiskers from being scratched, the anti-slip mat prevents the feeding trough (5) from shifting, and the arc-shaped structure extends the pet's feeding path, further slowing down the feeding speed.

[0037] The main control module integrates an automatic anti-blockage and unblocking program. It monitors the grain dispensing status through a photoelectric counter and an infrared sensor. If no grain falls within 3 seconds, it immediately triggers the motor to reverse and the air pump to blow air to unblock the flow. This ensures the normal execution of the slow-feeding process without manual intervention.

[0038] The anti-overeating control module has a built-in AI adaptive learning unit that can automatically record behavioral data such as the pet's eating speed, proximity time, and scent preferences, dynamically adjust guidance strategies and feeding schedules, adapt to different pets' eating habits, and achieve the goal of preventing overeating and promoting healthy eating in a personalized way.

[0039] Working principle:

[0040] When in use, after the device is powered on, the internal main control module first performs a full system self-test, sequentially verifying the operation of core components such as the magnetic grain storage tank (8) with built-in vibration anti-bridging plate, grain outlet (6) with matching photoelectric counter, weight sensor, infrared sensor, odor chamber (7) with matching micro air pump, ring light strip, pet interaction area (10) top three-color status light ring, display screen (2), physical knob (3), and sound outlet (4). After the self-test is passed, the display screen (2) shows that the device is normal, and the three-color status light ring lights up green to complete the status prompt. Users can set parameters such as feeding time, single dose, multimodal guidance mode, and light brightness through the physical knob (3) with night light mark. After the parameters are confirmed, the device enters a low power standby state and can respond to three feeding start commands: timed trigger, remote APP trigger, and pet approach infrared sensor trigger.

[0041] When the feeding command is triggered, the device simultaneously starts a multimodal regular feeding guidance process: the scent chamber (7) opens and releases the built-in pet healing aroma essential oil, and the micro air pump delivers the essential oil scent to the feeding trough (5) area in warm or cold air mode to complete the aroma guidance; the sound outlet (4) simultaneously plays the owner's custom recording or the system preset feeding prompt sound to complete the sound guidance; the ring light strip on the outside of the device starts the blue-green gradient breathing light effect, and the pet interaction area (10) creates a sense of feeding ritual with the concave edge structure of the food bowl to complete the visual guidance. The triple guidance works together to attract the pet to actively approach and eat.

[0042] After the guidance is completed, the vibration anti-arching plate inside the magnetic grain storage bucket (8) starts low-frequency reciprocating vibration to break up the grain piled up in the bucket and prevent the grain from arching and blocking the grain outlet (6); at the same time, the weight sensor, combined with the scale line on the outer wall of the magnetic grain storage bucket (8), completes the dual monitoring of the remaining grain to ensure that there is no food shortage during the feeding process. The main control module drives the execution component to start precise and slow feeding in multiple batches. The grain is transported to the feeding trough (5) through the grain outlet (6). The photoelectric counters on both sides of the grain outlet (6) monitor the falling status of each grain in real time and feed the counting signal back to the main control module to realize the precise measurement of a single grain and closed-loop control of the feeding amount, strictly control the single feeding dosage, and prevent pets from overeating from the source; the feeding trough (5) adopts an arc-shaped tapered liquid silicone structure, and the bottom grass-textured silicone anti-slip pad (9) prevents the feeding trough from shifting, further extending the pet's eating path and slowing down the eating speed.

[0043] During the feeding process, both infrared sensors and photoelectric counters monitor the feeding status. If no food is detected falling for 3 consecutive seconds, the main control module immediately determines that the feeding outlet (6) is blocked and triggers the automatic anti-blockage and unblocking program: controlling the feeding motor to reverse and simultaneously starting the micro air pump to blow air into the feeding outlet (6), and cooperating with the vibration anti-arching plate to complete the rapid unblocking. After the unblocking is completed, the feeding will automatically resume normal feeding. During the pet's feeding process, the device collects behavioral data such as feeding speed, feeding time, and approach frequency in real time, and transmits them to the AI ​​adaptive learning unit for analysis, dynamically adjusting the subsequent guidance strategy and the feeding rhythm. When the amount of food fed in a single feeding reaches the set value, the feeding motor stops running, the multimodal guidance unit is turned off simultaneously, the three-color status light ring switches to a green light to indicate that feeding is complete, the device automatically stores the feeding data and returns to the low-power standby state, waiting for the next feeding instruction.

[0044] The basic principles, main features, and advantages of this invention have been described above. Those skilled in the art should understand that this invention is not limited to the above embodiments. The embodiments and descriptions in the specification are merely principles of the invention. Various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such changes and modifications fall within the scope of the invention as claimed. The scope of protection claimed by this invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A smart slow-food maker, characterized in that, The device includes a feeder body (1), characterized in that: the feeder body (1) is provided with a magnetic food storage bin (8) inside, a feeding trough (5) is provided at the bottom of the feeder body (1), an odor chamber (7) is installed and connected to the top of the feeder body (1), a main control module is provided inside the feeder body (1), and a pet interaction area (10) is opened at the top of the feeder body (1). The feeder body (1) integrates a multimodal regular feeding guidance system, a precise fractional slow food delivery system and an anti-overeating control module. The multimodal regular feeding guidance system consists of an odor guidance unit, a sound guidance unit and a visual guidance unit. Through the multi-coordinated guidance of aromatic essential oil odor, customized sound and dynamic light, it promotes the formation of regular eating habits in pets. The precise fractional slow food delivery system is used to deliver food in small batches to the feeding trough (5) to prevent pets from overeating from the source. The body of the feeder body (1) is made of food-grade ABS matte material, and the pet interaction area (10) is a concave structure that simulates the edge of a food bowl.

2. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The magnetic grain storage bin (8) is equipped with a vibration anti-arching plate inside. The vibration anti-arching plate is connected to the drive component inside the feeder body (1). The drive component drives the vibration anti-arching plate to perform low-frequency reciprocating vibration to prevent the grain in the storage bin (8) from arching and clogging, and to ensure the continuous and stable slow food feeding process.

3. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The inner walls on both sides of the feed outlet (6) are composed of an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver, which can accurately count a single grain of food. With the help of the main control module, the error of a single feeding can be controlled within ±0.3g, so as to accurately control the amount of food consumed by the pet and control its weight.

4. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The scent guiding unit includes a scent chamber (7) and a micro air pump. The scent chamber (7) is made of transparent PP material and has a built-in essential oil and beeswax slow-release carrier, which can be used to load pet therapeutic aromatic essential oils. The micro air pump supports both warm and cold air modes and can deliver the essential oil scent to the feeding trough (5) in a directional manner. It can relieve pets’ eating anxiety through aromatherapy and enhance the scent guiding effect.

5. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The sound guidance unit includes a sound outlet (4) and a built-in voiceprint library. The voiceprint library supports custom recordings by the owner and preset prompts from the system. Before feeding, a customized sound is played according to preset logic, forming a conditioned reflex with the feeding action and improving the pet's feeding compliance.

6. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The visual guidance unit includes a ring light strip and a three-color status light ring; the ring light strip is a blue-green gradient light strip that can present a breathing dynamic lighting effect; the three-color status light ring is set at the top of the pet interaction area (10) and uses red, yellow and green lights to intuitively reflect the status of the equipment and the feeding progress, and guides the pet to take its place to eat.

7. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The magnetic food storage bucket (8) is made of transparent PP material and has scale lines engraved on its outer wall. The bottom of the food storage bucket (8) is abutted by a weight sensor. The visual observation of the scale lines and the monitoring by the weight sensor form a dual monitoring of remaining food, which avoids the pet from running out of food and ensures that regular feeding is uninterrupted.

8. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The feeding trough (5) has an arc-shaped tapering structure and is made of liquid silicone. The bottom of the feeding trough (5) is covered with a grass-textured silicone anti-slip mat (9). The liquid silicone material prevents the pet's whiskers from being scratched, the anti-slip mat prevents the feeding trough (5) from shifting, and the arc-shaped structure extends the pet's feeding path, further slowing down the feeding speed.

9. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 3, characterized in that: The main control module integrates an automatic anti-blockage and unblocking program. It monitors the grain dispensing status through a photoelectric counter and an infrared sensor. If no grain falls within 3 seconds, it immediately triggers the motor to reverse and the air pump to blow air to unblock the flow. This ensures the normal execution of the slow-feeding process without manual intervention.

10. The intelligent slow-food maker as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The anti-overeating control module has a built-in AI adaptive learning unit that can automatically record behavioral data such as the pet's eating speed, proximity time, and scent preferences, dynamically adjust guidance strategies and feeding schedules, adapt to different pets' eating habits, and achieve the goal of preventing overeating and promoting healthy eating in a personalized way.

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