Whisker’s latest Litter-Robot uses AI to recognize your cat’s face and poop

This automatic litter container tin show aggregate cats’ toilet habits utilizing AI-powered cameras.

The Litter-Robot 5 Pro is the newest poop-scooping instrumentality from Whisker, makers of the excellent Litter-Robot 4, and it brings facial designation for your cats to the self-cleaning litter container line. The institution is besides introducing an optional subscription service, Whisker Plus, that monitors and tracks your kitty’s bath behaviour implicit clip to nutrient “detailed investigation of information trends,” which could assistance observe changes and spot issues early, according to the company.

It volition outgo you, though: $7.99 a period (or $79.99 a year) for the subscription to Plus and a whopping $899 for the Litter-Robot 5 Pro. It’s outfitted with 2 nighttime vision-equipped, AI-powered cameras — 1 to scan your kitty’s visage and the different to ticker its waste. 

The institution besides announced 2 different caller models this week, the camera-less Litter-Robot 5 for $799 and a slightly much budget-friendly Litter-Robot Evo for $599. All 3 models are disposable for preorder present astatine Whisker.com and volition vessel connected November 3rd.

The self-cleaning machines that rotate aft each usage and dump the discarded into a sealed bin person had a hardware redesign. They present diagnostic a caller power sheet with an LCD show for on-device updates, which should mean little reliance connected the app oregon trying to decipher flashing LED lights to cognize what’s going on. Whisker claims the 5 bid models tin archer the quality betwixt pee and poop and volition dispatch the second quicker for amended odor control. They besides person a larger discarded bin, truthful you shouldn’t person to bare it arsenic often.

The main quality betwixt the 5 and the 5 Pro is that the Pro has cameras and works with the caller Whisker PetTag ($29), an RFID tag that immunodeficiency the bot successful identifying pets, particularly for kitties that look similar. It besides doubles arsenic a integer ID, with a QR codification that idiosyncratic tin scan to interaction you if they find your pet. Both the 5 and the 5 Pro tin accommodate up to 5 cats, 1 much than the Litter-Robot 4. 

The cameras — 1 forward-facing camera that uses facial designation and 1 interior-facing camera that watches the litter furniture — are designed to supply much close enactment tracking and assistance observe changes successful routine. If you subscribe to Whisker Plus, you tin besides presumption and prevention video footage of your cat’s toilet activities — sorry, kitties, you can’t opt out.

The Litter-Robot Evo is the company’s cheapest robot astatine $599. It’s smaller, tin accommodate up to 2 cats, and doesn’t person immoderate of the fancier features of the Litter-Robot 4, specified arsenic automatic nighttime lights oregon litter-level sensing. But it does person a caller LCD display. The Litter-Robot 4 volition proceed to beryllium sold astatine $699.

All the robots link to the Whisker app, wherever you tin initiate cycling remotely, get usage alerts, and get enactment and value tracking for each kitty. For the regular insights, inclination and behaviour tracking — and video footage — you request to upgrade to Whisker Plus.

Some of The Verge’s kitties volition beryllium putting these caller bots to the trial to spot if this is AI gone excessively acold oregon tech that could really assistance support your favored healthy.