Spherical Pet Toy With Slidable Door For Treat Dispensing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing animal treat dispensers fail to sustain a pet's attention for extended periods, leading to short engagement and boredom due to lack of interactive and engaging features.
Innovation Solution
A spherical animal toy with a slidable door and flexible legs, allowing the door to be in open, closed, or partially opened positions, and enabling unpredictable movement and access to treats, encouraging prolonged play and interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If a treat dispenser toy is designed with simple openings and holes, then the toy is easy to manufacture and understand, but the pet's attention span is not sustained and boredom occurs quickly
Solution Approach 1:
The door is designed to be movable between closed and open positions, transforming a static structure into a dynamic one. This allows the toy to change state based on pet interaction, maintaining engagement by preventing the pet from easily accessing treats while still allowing eventual access through manipulation
Solution Approach 2:
The toy is divided into distinct functional components: the body, the door mechanism, and the treat dispensing system. This segmentation allows for increased complexity in the overall system while maintaining simplicity in individual components, resolving the contradiction between sustained engagement and manufacturing ease
2Duration of action of moving object
If a treat dispenser toy is designed with obstructed interior and hidden treats, then the challenge and engagement are increased, but the device complexity and difficulty of operation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The toy is designed so that the pet itself performs the action of opening the door through manipulation, chewing, or licking. The structure provides the challenge while the pet's own actions resolve it, maintaining ease of operation in the sense that no external intervention is needed while still providing extended engagement
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The toy prolongs engagement and interest by providing a challenging and entertaining experience through unpredictable movement and access to treats, maintaining pet attention and extending toy usability.
Implementation Method 1
The slidable door is configured to frictionally fit within open such that the door is capable of being in an open position, a closed position and a partially opened position
Implementation Method 2
a plurality of flexible legs. Each of the plurality legs includes an arcuate portion so as to at least partially surround the generally spherical center portion
Data Source
AI summary
An animal toy includes a generally spherical center portion having an opening, a slidable door configured to close the opening, and a plurality of flexible legs. The slidable door is configured to frictionally fit within open such that the door is capable of being in an open position, a closed position and a partially opened position. Each of the plurality legs includes an arcuate portion so as to at least partially surround the generally spherical center portion.