技術宅拯救世界：牛人發明微博喂狗器

　　A dog-lover has invented a high-tech way of feeding his pet - by Twitter. Computer buff Nat Morris, 30, has rigged up a system to give his pet pooch a ‘tweet treat’ by sending him a Twitter message。

　　愛狗人士發現了一種高科技喂食的方法：用推特給愛犬喂食！30歲的計算機牛人奈特莫里斯給自己的愛犬設計了一個推特喂食系統，只要發一條推特狗狗就不會餓肚子了。

　　Border terrier Toby gets a snack from an automated food dispenser whenever Nat sends a message to ‘@FeedToby’。

　　只要納特@FeedToby這個帳號并發送信息，喂食器就會自動落下食物，這樣他的邊境梗犬托比就能吃到食物。

　　IT consultant Nat spends a lot of time working away from home and isn’t always able to feed Border Terrier Toby by hand. But using his new invention he is able to send his dog a treat from anywhere in the world。

　　納特是計算機顧問，每天有大部分時間都要離家去上班，沒法親自給托比喂食。不過現在有了這個新發明，不管他在世界上任何角落都能給愛犬喂食了。

　　Nat said: ‘Toby absolutely loves it. At first he didn’t know what was going on. Now he sits underneath, wagging his tail and waiting for the treats to drop.’

　　納特表示：“托比當然喜歡這個啦！剛開始他不知道是怎么回事，現在他聽到聲音就會乖乖坐在底下，搖著尾巴坐等食物掉下來。”

　　Nat loads up the feeder with crushed dog biscuits - but not too much in case four-year-old Toby gets too many messages. When a comment is received the mechanism drops a helping of crushed up dog biscuits out of the tube。

　　納特設計的喂食器里裝著壓碎的狗糧餅干，但數量不會特別多，因為擔心收到的信息太多四歲的托比吃不消。只要在推特上收到信息，裝置里就會有一份壓碎的狗糧順著管道掉下來。

　　And Nat has even rigged up an online camera so he can see Toby enjoying the food at his home in Milford Haven, West Wales. Nat is even considering patenting his system。

　　納特還在家里安裝了一個數碼攝像機，這樣他在工作的地方也能看到托比在位于米爾福德港市的家中享用美食的情況。納特目前正在考慮為這個設計申請專利。

　　But one problem is that friends and family have been amazed with the ‘Tweet treat’ dispenser. And they have been joining in to send Tweets to Toby - so Nat has had to introduce restrictions to make sure Toby doesn’t turn into Tubby。

　　不過有個問題是親朋好友都太喜歡這個推特喂食器了，他們也加入了給托比喂食的行列。所以納特也設置了一些限制，要不托比就該變成大胖狗了。

　　Nat added: ‘People have been sending him food at all hours of the day - so I had to limit it to between nine in the morning to nine in the evening. I’m thinking of doing an updated version which features a scale to weigh him before he is fed just to make sure he’s not putting on too much puppy fat.’

　　納特表示：“人們都太熱情了，一天到晚都通過推特給托比喂食。所以我將喂食器限制在上午9點到晚上9點之間操作。我目前在考慮做一個升級版本，在給他喂食前先稱稱體重，別讓他長太多肉。”

　　How The Twitter Feeder Works:

　　推特喂食器是這樣工作的：

　　When a message is sent to @feedtoby it is received by a mini-computer known as a Nanode microcontroller. This is linked up to little motor taken from a household printer HP Deskjet 500.

　　只要有人@FeedToby發送信息，自動喂食器內的Nanode微控制器就會接收到。微控制器與一個從惠普Deskjet 500家用打印機上取下的小電機相連。

　　When the mini-computer receives the message, the buzzer goes off and Toby comes running over and sits beneath a tube under his feeder contraption. Then the motor comes to life and pulls open a trap door which releases a serving of food。

　　一旦微處理器接收到信息，蜂鳴器就會嗡嗡作響，托比聽到聲音后奔過來，坐在喂食器裝置下方的管道邊等著。發動機開始工作，狗糧儲存倉下面的活動門就會打開。

　　The doggy treat then comes dropping down the tube and into Toby's food bowl. Then a digital camera then takes a photo of him and sends it back to Nat on Twitter - so he knows Toby has been fed。

　　一顆狗糧餅干隨即順著管道落入托比的碗中。攝像機會同時拍下托比的照片通過推特傳給納特，這樣納特就會知道托比是否進食了。