Intel’s tiny Edison “maker computer” powers a grumpy stuffed cat that judges what you eat

Intel announced the global availability of its tiny ‘maker’ computer, Edison, at its IDF Keynote yesterday. The device, widely seen as a modern miniature Raspberry Pi rival, will be available starting from $50 and will sell in 65 countries by the end of the year.

Intel Edison

The Edison development board is a small computing platform designed by Intel for the Internet of Things (IoT) in an effort to make it easier for developers to build connected or smart objects. The company aims to make the technology available to everyone, with hopes to see more people turning their designs into prototypes and shaving time off schedules to bring ideas to market.

From the floor of the Intel show, Intel software developer Yan Xu showed off a connected, grumpy stuffed kitty cat that judges what you eat. It’s powered by the Intel Edison. When showing an integrated camera the food you are about to consume, the cat will recognise whether it’s a healthy choice, if it is it shows its approval by nodding appreciatively combined with a background lighting up.

Intel Edison powered Grumpy Judgemental Cat device

However, if you device to go for something less healthy, you will get a red light warning whilst the cute grumpy kitty cat shakes its head in disappointment. The system is designed to persuade users into making better decisions when making food choices, and doesn’t necessarily have to be embedded in a stuffed cat. It is also said to be capable of noticing if the user gets out of the house enough, if the surroundings are too noisy, or how well people are sleeping.

Edison runs a dual-core Silvermont Atom chip clocked at 500MHz, alongside a 100MGz Quark chip, the company’s low-power processor designed for wearables, and was first showed off at CES 2014 back in January.  It comes with 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 4GB of flash storage, a USB 2 port, a 70-pin connector and supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4 and SD cards.

Measuring at 25.5x25x3.9mm, “it’s pretty much what would have been a full desktop not that long ago, on the size of a postage stamp,” said head of new product design, Mike Bell, at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. If you would like to take a look at other prototypes with Edison integration, you can check them out over at PC Pro.