SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING AN AUTOMATED LITTER DEVICE

1 . A device which is an automated litter device comprising:

a) a chamber configured to hold a litter to allow an animal to enter and excrete a waste, wherein the chamber includes:

i) an entry opening through which the animal can enter and exit the chamber;

ii) a waste opening;

iii) an axis of rotation extending through the entry opening and about which the chamber rotates during a cleaning cycle;

b) a bezel located about the entry opening and defining a portion of a front of the litter device;

c) a support base which supports the chamber;

d) a waste drawer within the support base and located below the chamber, wherein the waste drawer is configured to come into communication with the chamber via the waste opening to receive the waste during the cleaning cycle;

e) a plurality of sensors configured to detect a plurality of conditions of the automated litter device and transmit one or more signals related to one or more conditions of the plurality of conditions, wherein the plurality of sensors include:

i) one or more position sensors configured to detect one or more positions of the chamber;

ii) one or more mass sensors configured to detect a mass of the animal when inside of the chamber;

f) a controller in communication with the plurality of sensors, and the controller is adapted to receive the one or more signals;

g) a communication module, which is a wireless communication module and is in communication with the controller, wherein the communication module is adapted to communicate with a user interface via a network to transmit the one or more status signals to the user interface and receive one or more instruction signals via the user interface; and

wherein the controller is configured to receive one or more instruction signals from the user interface via the communication module to change at least one of the one or more conditions of the device.

2 - 20 . (canceled)

21 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is located on a mobile computing device, and wherein the mobile computing device includes a mobile phone, a tablet, a mobile computer, or a combination thereof.

22 . The device of claim 21 , wherein the user interface is adapted to transmit the one or more instruction signals wirelessly to the controller via the network.

23 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more position sensors include one or more Hall Effect sensors.

24 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is adapted to relay the one or more positions to the user interface via the communication module, and

wherein one or more of the positions include a home position.

25 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is adapted to relay a mass associated with the device, the animal, or both to the user interface via the communication module.

26 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors include one or more pinch detectors.

27 . The device of claim 26 , wherein the one or more pinch detectors are configured to detect one or more pinch conditions within the litter device.

28 . The device of claim 27 , wherein the one or more pinch detectors are located proximate to one or more pinch points of the device, including by an edge of the support base, the waste drawer, or both.

29 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include one or more waste drawer sensors configured to detect a presence of contents at or above a predetermined level in the waste drawer.

30 . The device of claim 29 , wherein the one or more waste drawer sensors include one or more light beam transmitters and one or more light beam detectors configured to detect the contents within the waste drawer when the contents within the waste drawer interfere with a light beam emitted from the light beam transmitter.

31 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication module comprises a Wi-Fi transmitter, a Bluetooth transmitter, an infrared transmitter, a radio frequency transmitter, an IEEE 802.15.4 compliant transmitter, or any combination thereof.

32 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to initiate one or more lockout modes of the device when received as an instruction signal from the user interface;

wherein the device includes a local user interface physically thereon; and

wherein in the lockout mode, the local user interface physically part of the device is temporarily inoperable upon receiving an input.

33 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to operate one or more sleep modes of the device when received as an instruction signal from the user interface;

wherein during the one or more sleep modes, the device is prevented from automatically executing any cleaning cycles.

34 . The device of claim 33 , wherein the sleep mode occurs over a predetermined period of time which includes a start time, end time, duration of time, or a combination thereof.

35 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to operate one or more wait modes of the device when received as an instruction signal from the user interface; and

wherein during the one or more wait modes, the device is configured to initiate one or more cleaning cycles after a predetermined period of time has passed from the animal leaving the device, the waste being eliminated by the animal, or both.

36 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the bezel has a circular or annular shape.

37 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operations include one or more cleaning cycles initiated via one or more instruction signals from the user interface.

38 . A system for monitoring and controlling a device, the system comprising:

a) the device, which is an automated litter device, comprising:

i) a chamber configured to hold a litter to allow an animal to enter and excrete a waste, wherein the chamber includes:

i-a) an entry opening through which the animal can enter and exit the chamber;

i-b) a waste opening;

i-c) an axis of rotation extending through the entry opening and about which the chamber rotates during a cleaning cycle;

ii) a bezel located about the entry opening and defining a portion of a front of the litter device;

iii) a support base which supports the chamber;

iv) a waste drawer within the support base and located below the chamber, wherein the waste drawer is configured to come into communication with the chamber via the waste opening to receive the waste during the cleaning cycle;

v) a plurality of sensors configured to detect a plurality of conditions of the automated litter device and transmit one or more signals related to one or more conditions of the plurality of conditions, wherein the plurality of sensors include:

v-a) one or more position sensors configured to detect one or more positions of the chamber;

v-b) one or more mass sensors configured to detect a mass of the animal when inside of the chamber;

vi) a controller in electrical communication with the plurality of sensors and is adapted to receive the one or more signals;

vii) a communication module, which is a wireless communication module and is in communication with the controller;

b) a user interface configured to be operable on a computing device which is a personal computing device and includes one or more screens configured to receive one or more inputs from a user;

wherein the personal computing device is configured to be in communication with a network and transmit one or more instruction signals associated with the one or more inputs;

wherein the communication module is adapted to wirelessly communicate with the user interface via the network to transmit the one or more status signals to the user interface and receive the one or more instruction signals; and

wherein the controller is configured to receive the one or more instruction signals associated with the one or more inputs into the user interface via the communication module to change at least one of the one or more conditions of the device.

39 . A method of operating an automated litter device via a user interface remote from the automated litter device comprising the steps of:

a) receiving an input from a user via the user interface to change one or more conditions of the automated litter device, wherein the user interface is operated on a personal computing device which is located remote from the automated litter device and in wireless communication with a network, wherein the network is in wireless communication with a communication module of the automated litter device, and wherein the input includes one or more instructions which instruct the automated litter device to perform one or more operations;

b) sending the one or more instructions to the communication module, wherein the communication module is a wireless communication module, is in communication with a controller, and wherein both the communication module and the controller are part of the automated litter device;

c) sending one or more instruction signals associated with the one or more instructions from the communication module to the controller, wherein the controller includes one or more processors for analyzing the one or more instruction signals;

d) automatically initiating the one or more operations of the automated litter device by the controller based on the one or more instruction signals to change the one or more conditions of the automated litter device, wherein the one or more conditions include a position of a chamber;

wherein the automated litter device includes i) a chamber configured to hold a litter to allow an animal to enter and excrete a waste; the chamber includes an entry opening through which the animal can enter and exit the chamber, a waste opening, and an axis of rotation through the entry opening and about which the chamber rotates during a cleaning cycle, ii) a bezel located about the entry opening and defining a portion of a front of the litter device, iii) a support base which supports the chamber, iv) a waste drawer within the support base and located below the chamber and configured to come into communication with the chamber via the waste opening to receive the waste during the cleaning cycle, and v) one or more sensors configured to detect a plurality of conditions of the automated litter device and transmit one or more signals related to the one or more conditions of the plurality of conditions, wherein the plurality of sensors include one or more position sensors configured to detect one or more positions of the chamber and one or more sensors configured to detect a mass of the animal when inside of the chamber;

wherein the controller is configured to determine one or more positions of the chamber based on the one or more signals and interpret the one or more signals as one or more status signals; and

wherein the communication module is configured to transmit the one or more status signals to the user interface via the network.