Pura is a smart fountain for cats

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Pura lets you monitor the water intake of your kitties right from your smartphone.

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Though the age-old proverb may lead you to believe that curiosity killed the cat, in actually, it was dehydration. Research has shown that urinary diseases are one of the leading causes of fatality for felines, not to mention nearly half (46%) have suffered from a urinary system at one point in their life. This is typically the result of either too much dry food or a lack of proper fluid intake. In order to prevent these occurrences, it is imperative to provide the household pet with access to fresh water at all times. Enter Pura.

Just as the Internet of Things has opened the door for various smart bottles for humans, Noacare is hoping to usher in a similar movement for cats. To make that a reality, the Taipei-based startup has designed a sleek, intelligent fountain that not encourages better H2O habits, but helps owners keep tabs on consumption right from their smartphone. Pura is able to monitor how much water a cat drinks by connecting to a Bluetooth ID tag on its collar.

Upon setting up a profile for each of your pets, just as you would a wearable device of your own, Pura’s accompanying app will calculate how much water they should take in daily given their breed, age, weight and dietary preferences. The monitoring system is triggered by each cat’s tag and logs whenever they visit the fountain, in addition to how much they drink based on the weight of the water left in the fountain after walking away. What’s more, the team even developed an artificial intelligence platform that can interpret each kitty’s behavior and precisely recognize real intake — opposed to playing near the bowl, water evaporation and other unpredictable events.

Should they not drink enough water, or too much for that matter, Pura will send an alert to your smartphone. Other features of the app include affection levels, abnormal behavior notifications, daily water changing reminders and helpful tips.

The fountain’s 30-degree-angled, ergonomic design decreases neck strain for our furry friends, therefore creating a much more enjoyable water-drinking experience. And thanks to its 4mm-wide stream, cats will never have to worry about wetting their whiskers either. Aside from that, Pura’s recirculating running water and exclusive Smart 360-Degree Cat Sensing Technology enables kittens to drink from any position.

As you could imagine, Pura boasts a few cat-friendly features as a way to entice them to head over to the fountain, such as a steady stream of water with a glowing LED light. t’s also has several elements that will appease owners as well, namely quick refills, easy cleaning and a sturdy, slip-proof base to avoid messes.

“Cats are wired to be adventurous and it is in their nature to find multiple water sources. By placing multiple Pura at various locations of the household, it increases the chance for your beloved kittens to drink more water. In addition, Pura’s auto sync feature allows all Puras to be connected and automatically sync the data to your phone. The more Pura fountains you have in the house, the better chance your kitten would drink more water and the better you understand his or her health,” its creators explain.

The only potential drawback of this smart system is the fact that the app is only compatible with cats who don’t mind wearing collars, not so great for those who hate having anything around their neck. Think this fountain may be purrfect for your feline friend? Hurry over to its Indiegogo page, where the Noacare crew is just about halfway to its $100,000 goal. Delivery is expected to begin sometime around April 2016.