1. Automated pet feeders:
Add a scale under the food bowl and a scale where your cat/small dog sits to eat, throw in a webcam (and a mic to hear the crunchy sounds) and an embedded board to control it all and dish out the right amount of food and find a wealthy pet crazy audience who wants to see a graph of their pet's weight/consumption over time.
Have the 'community' compare breeds eating habits + figure out different eating patterns + types of food.
The deluxe model could have a speaker so you can voip to your pet loving sounds to help them digest. Partner with some of the GPS collars (and collars with accelerometers to figure out overall activity) for a full online profile of your furry obsession.
2. Bird feeders:
Capture some really closeup pictures of birds gorging themselves on your delectable food. Have a solar panel on the top + an embedded wifi board that can email pictures of cute birds eating their food to the customer.
Do it high res enough to know if a bird comes back the next spring. Email when food get's low. Create a community that shares the pictures + might even track a bird or two once they know that the reflective solar panel equals a great meal.
Have a deluxe model that weighs the bird as it stands on the perch. Add a mic to record their gossip. Give them a facebook page.
Find rich bird crazy people to pay $2k for it.
3. Networked scale:
Much like the pet concept, this would be a $500 scale that, barring dropping 20 pounds overnight, can detect you + update you on your health. It can tie into a weight watchers site, as well as play shower music.
You get a weekly email of a graph of your weight with motivational tools.
Great ideas - I actually was throwing around some remote pet-tracking ideas but couldn't crack it. The automated pet feeder idea is just crazy enough to work, my kind of idea. Also, as the lazy, gadget-loving owner of a fat cat myself (he prefers the term "pleasantly plump"), I could actually see myself purchasing something like this.
The internet controlled switch is a good idea. It exists, of course, but most examples are expensive and aimed at datacenter type applications. There is also the X10 devices.
I think that most startup oriented entrepreneurs are overly focused on web apps right now. I think people overestimate the costs and complexity of hardware, and even desktop software.
Have the 'community' compare breeds eating habits + figure out different eating patterns + types of food.
The deluxe model could have a speaker so you can voip to your pet loving sounds to help them digest. Partner with some of the GPS collars (and collars with accelerometers to figure out overall activity) for a full online profile of your furry obsession.
2. Bird feeders: Capture some really closeup pictures of birds gorging themselves on your delectable food. Have a solar panel on the top + an embedded wifi board that can email pictures of cute birds eating their food to the customer.
Do it high res enough to know if a bird comes back the next spring. Email when food get's low. Create a community that shares the pictures + might even track a bird or two once they know that the reflective solar panel equals a great meal.
Have a deluxe model that weighs the bird as it stands on the perch. Add a mic to record their gossip. Give them a facebook page.
Find rich bird crazy people to pay $2k for it.
3. Networked scale: Much like the pet concept, this would be a $500 scale that, barring dropping 20 pounds overnight, can detect you + update you on your health. It can tie into a weight watchers site, as well as play shower music.
You get a weekly email of a graph of your weight with motivational tools.