Cat Recognition Algorithms?

skunkeh writes "So your cat keeps bringing dead (or half dead) animals in to your house. What do you do? Obviously, you set up a digital camera to monitor the cat door and lock her out if she has something in her mouth..."

This is quite spiffy.

[dotderf]

Great application of technology! If it can recognize cats, I bet it can recognize terrorists (*groan*) But practically speaking, why not just get up and let the cat in?

Re:The words

[pgrote]

You're kidding, right?

This isn't just some cobbled hack. This is really solid use of image recognition in daily life.

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[Anonymous Coward]

the issue is that cats often want to get into the house at times when the occupants are asleep or unavailable, and finding a dead animal lying in your living room in the morning is no fun. This is a fairly simple application of the technology, but one that thousands of cat owners can certainly appreciate.

What about other cats?

[rehannan]

Very cool. It seems to be pretty good at blocking other animals (skunks, etc...), but what about another cat?

If possible, they should combine the image recognition with the magnetic collar. This would allow the door to open *only* for a rodent-less Flo and not just any ol' rodent-less cat.

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[darkonc]

I have a cat door. It allows my cats to go in and out of the house at will. One cat even learned to use a second floor cat door by jumping across from the neighbour's roof.

I'm not up to the idea of waking up at 4AM to let my cat out for 35 minuts before he decides it's too wet out and he want's back in. Better to let him implement his indoor/outdoor policy.

Radical idea:

[mikosullivan]

Stop letting the cat out! [hsus.org]

a cat story

[Laplace]

When he was in graduate school my advisor lived in a house with several other students. Most of the people living there were environmental and population biologists (as opposed to microbiologists or biochemists) and had lots of neat animal observation stands set up around the house. One of these stands was a hummingbird feeder, which attracted a particularly rare (and endangered) breed of hummingbird. Another student there had a cat. Now the cat took to eating the hummingbirds, which didn't make the other residents in the house too happy. Several attempts were made to encourage the owner of the cat not to let the cat outside, but the owner refused. One day the owner of the cat came home to find his cat dead, most likely from poisoning.

This brings up an interesting point about cats. They have a devastating effect on indigenous wildlife. Lots of rare birds and small animals are killed by cats that are given the opportunity to go outside. This shows a tremendous amount of ignorance on the part of pet owners.

It is also dangerous for cats to roam. They are very territorial, and will fight with most other cats in the area. I had a cat once that became infected with FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV) through fighting with other neighborhood cats.

The cat recognition is a cool hack, but keeping the cats indoor would be safer and more ethical.

Re:Cat's aren't that smart.. neither are we

[RadioheadKid]

I just can't believe that a cat would figure out "the system" and know the reason it's not being let in is due to having a bird in it's mouth.

Obviously, you've never lived with a cat...