Connected consumer product / Pet care
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth massage bed for dogs with an owner mobile appHardware investigation, firmware, mobile app, web and IoT cloud development
App, firmware and cloud for a connected massage bed for dogs
Dog Cloud developed a massage bed for dogs with a motor section and a sensing section, and wanted owners to run and follow the bed from their phones. The bed needed connectivity, control firmware and an app before it could become a connected product.
Choose how to connect the bed, make its motor and sensing hardware controllable from a mobile app through an IoT cloud, and give owners an app for massage programs, notifications, usage reports and a profile for their dog.
- Product
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth massage bed for dogs with an owner mobile app
- Buyer
- Consumer-product companies adding app control and cloud connectivity to a motorized product
- Engagement
- Hardware investigation, firmware, mobile app, web and IoT cloud development
- Indeema scope
- Hardware investigation, Firmware, R&D and specification, Mobile app and UX/UI, Cloud and web
The product need
What had to become possible
Choose how to connect the bed, make its motor and sensing hardware controllable from a mobile app through an IoT cloud, and give owners an app for massage programs, notifications, usage reports and a profile for their dog.
Ownership, made clear
Where the work started and what Indeema owned
Starting system
Massage bed hardware
The bed, with a motor part for massage and a sensing part, was the client's product.
No connectivity yet
The bed had no established Bluetooth/Wi-Fi link to a cloud or app; the available hardware had to be investigated first.
Indeema owned
Hardware investigation
Investigate the available hardware and recommend a microcontroller that enables Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connection between the bed and the IoT cloud.
Firmware
Develop firmware so the motor and sensing parts of the bed can be controlled from the mobile app.
R&D and specification
Run R&D and write the project specification to set priorities and goals.
Mobile app and UX/UI
Design wireframes and the UI, and develop the iOS and Android owner app with analytics charts.
Cloud and web
Build the IoT cloud back end and web parts, and connect app, microcontroller and cloud end to end.
Worked with
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
The recommended microcontroller connects the bed to the IoT cloud and the app.
IoT cloud
An AWS-hosted back end with Node.js and MongoDB links the bed and the mobile app.
Product constraints
What made the engineering difficult
- 01
Connecting the bed
Establish a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connection between the massage bed and the IoT cloud, starting from hardware without connectivity.
- 02
Controlling motors and sensors remotely
Firmware had to expose both the motor part and the sensing part of the bed to app control.
- 03
Detecting the dog on the bed
Track whether the dog is on the bed reliably enough to drive notifications and usage reports.
- 04
End-to-end connection
Keep the mobile app, the microcontroller and the IoT cloud working together as one system.
Engineering judgement
Decisions that shaped the product
Pick the microcontroller for connectivity
Recommend a microcontroller that provides both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so the bed can reach the cloud and the app.
User calibration for presence detection
Add a calibration step in the app so owners can tune the bed to correctly detect whether the dog is on or off it.
Wireframes first
Produce wireframes early, which let the client start marketing well before the release.
One team across layers
Cover firmware, cloud, web, mobile and UI/UX in one team to resolve cross-layer issues quickly.
Product system
How the product moves from signal to user
- 01
Massage bed
Motor part runs massage programs; sensing part detects whether the dog is on the bed.
- 02
Microcontroller and firmware
Bluetooth/Wi-Fi MCU firmware controls the motor and sensing parts and reports state.
- 03
IoT cloud
AWS-hosted Node.js and MongoDB back end links the bed with the app and stores usage data.
- 04
Owner mobile app
iOS and Android app for massage programs, notifications, reports, dog profile and calibration.
Delivered product capability
What the product can do
- 01
Remote massage programs
Start and control the bed's massage programs from the app.
- 02
Real-time notifications
Get notified when the dog gets on the bed and when a massage starts or finishes.
- 03
Usage reports
View statistics and charts of massage sessions and the dog's time on the bed.
- 04
Dog profile
Store the dog's name, sex, weight, birthday and other details used in reports.
- 05
Bed calibration
Calibrate the bed's on/off presence detection from the app.
Product change
What changed for the product team
The Dog Cloud massage bed became a connected product: its motor and sensors can be controlled through firmware on a Bluetooth/Wi-Fi microcontroller, and owners use a mobile app for massage programs, presence notifications and usage reports.
For a consumer-product company adding connectivity to a motorized product, the case shows the full path from hardware investigation and microcontroller choice to control firmware, cloud and an owner app, with presence detection the owner can calibrate.
- Delivered firmware, IoT cloud and an owner mobile app that control the bed and report its use.
Technology, in context
Bluetooth · Wi-Fi · AWS · Node.js · MongoDB · Swift · Java · Firebase Analytics
A comparable product problem?
Dog Cloud connected bed
Bring the product context, the system that already exists and the engineering decision you need to make.