Actijoy: A smart device for healthier dogs

The idea was to monitor a dog's activity and nutritional intake via smart sensors on the dog's collar and in their food and water bowls. We had to make sure the app could communicate properly with different sensors, process the data correctly, and present it in a user-friendly way. The most challenging aspect was synchronizing the communication between devices, servers and phones.

When developing the Actijoy mobile app, we leaned on our experience from other projects with IoT devices with an emphasis on Bluetooth connectivity. We solved the 'Android Bluetooth challenge' and secured functionality across all Android devices, including issuing updates every time a new OS version is released. The app runs in the background so users have the most recent data available immediately.

The most difficult part was gathering data from sensors. The Actijoy tracker uses a special 6-axis motion sensor, so to interpret the data correctly, we cooperated with a data scientist who used machine learning techniques for training the system.

The biggest challenge was synchronizing communication between IoT devices, servers, and phones. The Actijoy tracker's special 6-axis motion sensor required machine learning to correctly interpret the data. We also had to solve Bluetooth connectivity issues across the vast diversity of Android devices.

Actijoy plans to add new features to their sensors for even more comprehensive information about the dog's wellbeing, including a sleep tracker and data on eating speed. We are thrilled to help as developers and be a part of the startup's continued success as co-owners.

At first, our mission was to accelerate Actijoy's development process, but that evolved into a deeper relationship in which we completely took over the app's development. Actijoy started mobile app development with our Martin Homolka as CTO, and over the course of our relationship we went from being a supplier to being investors.

First, we needed to demonstrate the technical feasibility. Then we created communication protocols and the mobile app's architecture. We needed to find a solution for communication between phones, sensors, and servers, and solve the challenge of synchronization — the app had to work with multiple mobile devices connected to the same tracker.

It took many experiments and iterations to find the optimal solution in terms of battery life (both on sensors and phones), device memory, Bluetooth throughput, and synchronization speed. We created a testing framework for automated testing to scale functionality without being hampered by regression testing.

For phone-to-tracker communication, we wrote a custom library ensuring constant background connection, data synchronization, and mutual communication. The firmware update was solved by the Nordic Library.

We are ready to handle new challenges to ensure Actijoy's growth and establishment in the market. From new features to actualizations to new IoT devices, our CTO and dev team remain at the disposal of the client and their noble goals.