推特喂狗器

A dog-lover has invented a high-tech way of feeding his pet by Twitter. Computer buff Nat Morris, 30, has rigged up a system to give his pet a ‘tweet treat by sending him a Twitter message.

Dog Toby gets a snack from an automated food dispenser whenever Nat sends a message to ‘@FeedToby.

IT consultant Nat spends a lot of time working away from home and isnt always able to feed Toby by hand. But using his new invention he is able to send his dog a treat from anywhere in the world.

Nat said, “Toby absolutely loves it. At first he didnt know what was going on. Now he sits underneath, wagging his tail and waiting for the treats to drop.”

Nat loads up the feeder with crushed dog biscuits, but not too much in case four-year-old Toby gets too many messages. When a comment is received the mechanism drops a helping of crushed up dog biscuits out of the tube.

And Nat has even rigged up an online camera so he can see Toby enjoying the food at his home in Milford Haven, West Wales. Nat is even considering patenting his system.

But one problem is that friends and family have been amazed with the ‘Tweet treat dispenser. And they have been joining in to send Tweets to Toby, so Nat has had to introduce restrictions to make sure Toby doesnt turn into Tubby.

Nat added, “People have been sending him food at all hours of the day, so I had to limit it to between nine in the morning to nine in the evening. Im thinking of doing an updated version which features a scale to weigh him before he is fed just to make sure hes not putting on too much puppy fat.”

How The Twitter Feeder Works:

When a message is sent to @feedtoby it is received by a mini-computer known as a Nanode microcontroller. This is linked up to little motor taken from a household printer HP Deskjet 500.

When the mini-computer receives the message, the buzzer goes off and Toby comes running over and sits beneath a tube under his feeder contraption. Then the motor comes to life and pulls open a trap door which releases a serving of food. The doggy treat then comes dropping down the tube and into Tobys food bowl. Then a digital camera then takes a photo of him and sends it back to Nat on Twitter, so he knows Toby has been fed.

一位爱狗人士发明了一种高科技喂食方法：用推特给爱犬喂食！30岁的计算机迷奈特莫·里斯给自己的爱犬设计了一套推特喂食系统，只要发一条推特，狗狗就不会饿肚子了。

无论何时只要纳特给FeedToby这个账号发送信息，自动喂食器就会自动落下食物，这样他的狗狗托比就能吃到食物。

纳特是位计算机顾问，每天有大部分时间都要离家去上班，没法亲自给托比喂食。不过现在有了这个新发明，他在世界上任何角落都能给爱犬喂食了。

纳特说：“托比当然喜欢这种进食方式啦！刚开始它不知道是怎么回事，现在它听到声音就会乖乖地坐在机器底下，摇着尾巴等着食物掉下来。”

纳特设计的喂食器里装着压碎的狗粮饼干，但数量不会特别多，因为他担心收到的信息太多使四岁的托比吃不消。只要在推特上收到信息，装置里就会有一份压碎的狗粮顺着管道掉下来。

纳特还在家里安装了一个数码摄像机，这样他在工作的地方也能看到托比在位于米尔福德港市的家中享用美食的情况。纳特目前正在考虑为这个设计申请专利。

不过有个问题是亲朋好友都太喜欢这个推特喂食器了，他们也加入了给托比喂食的行列中。所以纳特设置了一些限制，要不托比就该变成大胖狗了。

纳特表示：“人们都太热情了，一天到晚都通过推特给托比喂食。所以我将喂食器限制在上午9点到晚上9点之间操作。我目前在考虑做一个升级版本，在给它喂食前先称称体重，别让它长太多肉。”

推特喂食器是这样工作的：

只要有人给账号FeedToby发送信息，一个被称为“Nanode微控制器”的迷你电脑就会接收到此信息。微控制器与一个从惠普Deskjet 500家用打印机上取下的小马达相连。

一旦迷你电脑接收到信息，蜂鸣器就会嗡嗡作响，托比听到声音后奔过去，坐在那台奇妙装置下方的管道边等着。小马达开始工作，狗粮储存仓下面的活动门就会打开。狗粮饼干随即顺着管道落入托比的碗中。摄像机会同时拍下托比进食的照片并通过推特传给纳特，这样纳特就知道托比已经开始进食了。