Let's begin by discussing the high-definition camera we mentioned earlier. To play interactively with your dog, Companion must see your dog and identify its exact positioning, as this determines how Companion will respond, what it will say, and where it will launch a treat. In terms of technical specifications, Companion's camera records at 30fps and 1640x1232 resolution, placing its footage between 1080p and 4k. In addition to capturing high-quality footage, it also boasts a wide-angle lens to capture as much of your dog's movements as possible. Companion does train your dog to stay in front of it during play, but we want to ensure your pup gets as much playtime as possible, so Companion's camera has a 67° horizontal and 53° vertical field of view. The vertical view, combined with our AI (which you can read more about <here>), guarantees that whether you have a Chihuahua or a Cane Corso, Companion is ready to play.

When Companion identifies a behavior with its camera that should be reinforced during a session, it proceeds to launch a treat to your dog. However, we don't just launch a treat anywhere. Every treat launch is precisely determined based on the behavior being reinforced and your dog's current positioning. In milliseconds, Companion determines how far to the left, right, front, or back to launch a treat. Within the design of every game is logic that ensures Companion launches a treat away from your dog. It is able to calculate this by identifying the zone the dog is in and choosing to launch in a different zone. If the dog is in all the zones, because it's very close to Companion, the treat is not launched until your dog backs up to a safe distance. This begins to teach the 'reverse' behavior while also ensuring your dog never gets a treat to the face, even if they wouldn't mind!

Some of Companion's games take it a step further and launch a treat in a specific zone based on the behavior we want to reinforce. For example, when teaching a "Come" behavior, Companion will say "Come!" and launch a treat as close as possible to encourage the dog to come close and eat the treat. Pretty soon, whenever Companion says "Come," your dog runs toward Companion, knowing a treat will land right in front of them. Your dog has then already learned a "Come" behavior! This technique is how Companion can teach your dog all sorts of directional commands, even left and right!

Companion's launcher can be angled at over 50 degrees and has a variable launch distance between 0.7 and 2.5 meters. The distance is precise because of its solenoid launcher. The front of Companion has a small tube, sometimes referred to as a cannon, which rotates to the desired angle and guides the treat during its initial stage of the launch. This tube is large enough that a variety of treats are compatible with Companion; it was engineered specifically for medium to high-value moist training treats. However, it is also compatible with a variety of kibbles, so you will never need another puzzle or slow feeder for your dog. And all those treats or kibbles are kept in a 4-cup capacity secure treat hatch so that no dog (or tiny human!) can access it.

Like any good friendship, communication with Companion is a two-way street. Not only does Companion read what your dog is doing, but it also has a speaker to mark desired behaviors, name new ones, and prompt learned behaviors. While Companion comes with default cues, you can record your own as well. As your dog is playing with Companion as you are on that phone call they are still responding to your voice, using the vocabulary you and your dog have developed together. Another unique and exciting feature Companion offers because of its speaker is dynamic desensitization and counter-conditioning to potentially unpleasant auditory stimuli. Companion can play sounds of fireworks or thunderstorms beginning at inaudible levels and gradually increase the volume, all while playing games with your dog to make it a positive experience. Unlike a CD or YouTube playlist, if Companion notices your dog becoming even slightly aware of the sound, it can immediately decrease the volume while continuing to play games until your dog is confident enough to progress again.

And we're not done with the communication piece! Companion doesn't just watch your dog; it can listen too! But don't worry, the only thing Companion listens for is barking. Unlike other bark detection devices on the market, Companion doesn't just tell you your dog is barking. Companion will be able to fix it! When a bark is detected, Companion can immediately initiate a barking-specific session, reinforcing your dog for periods of silence to redirect them while also decreasing your dog's likelihood of barking in the future. This will be the solution for those bored apartment dogs with landlords at their wit's end, and those great watchdogs net to the napping baby with the dreaded delivery driver on their way.

Okay, let's get back to the two-way communication. Companion can communicate with your dog effortlessly in a way that no other technology can do! In addition to the camera and the microphone and the speaker, the front of Companion has an LED logo light that can display different colors as well as flash in various patterns. Some of our games utilize this as a visual cue in addition to the audio cues heard from the speaker. For example, the game 'Blue Light Yellow Light' teaches your dog to rapidly chase treats, then freeze in a 'stay'. It's based on the children's game 'Red Light Green Light,' but dogs can't see red and green! So we altered it to blue and yellow, which they can see, and the front of Companion can light up in the corresponding colors to let them know which phase they are in - whether they should be rapidly running or holding perfectly still.

Last, but certainly not least, let's talk about the brains of Companion! Inside every Companion is a computer, because Companion is doing far more than just launching a treat when told. It's observing your dog, interpreting their behavior, deciding how to respond, and potentially launching a treat - all independently from humans and all in fractions of a second. This timing is critical because dog behavior and dog training require almost instant responses - a dog cannot learn or understand if a marker word or a cue is given even a few seconds late.

When developing Companion, our engineering team quickly realized we wouldn't be able to compute in the cloud because that would take too much time - we needed a computer within every Companion. It's essential that this computer can run artificial intelligence models incredibly quickly, as Companion still has to mark the behavior and launch a treat in under a second. Yet, it's also critical that it is a low-power computer that doesn't waste electricity and doesn't produce an audible sound. That's how we landed on the Jetson. It can essentially run AI models 100x faster than your laptop while drawing a fraction of the power.