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..."

Comments

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[ore]

I concur, it's absolutely a great idea for pet owners who might have to deal with occasionaly stinky offering from their loving pets. I particularly enjoyed the the details the author went into concerning the image analysis itself.

Several strikes against this story though.

First, if you'll note from one of the snapshots, the machine it's running on is on Winders. Doh! And second (and I've been resisting doing this for several weeks now), although not about the story itself, Slashdot has got stop recycling content from Daypop. It starting to show through guys. At least, if you're going to re-post what is old news to quite a few of us, make a serious effort of getting the attributions (i.e. give Daypop credit for making you aware of it) correct. And perhaps, try to add something new.

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[Peyna]

/. editors don't have to give Daypop credit for the story, since skunkeh is the one who submitted the story, for all we know, he found it on his own.

Asking them to give credit to Daypop for this would be like asking a local TV station to give credit to another for a story on a car accident. Obviously it's something that exists independently of either TV station, or in this case, news reporting website.

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[ore]

You could absolutely be right in this case. Point taken. But there has been an alarming rise in frequency of content from the Daypop Top40 being posted on /. 3-10 days after it hits. It's just a little lame.

Re:wouldn't it be nice if you didn't nick my joke

[Profe55or Booty]

yeah. i saw yours after i posted mine. if you'll notice, there's a 1 minute difference. *hug*

Cats and Birdkill

[FFFish]

From several web sources:

"Despite the difficulties in showing the effect most predators have on their prey, cats are known to have serious impacts on small mammals and birds. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except habitat destruction."

"Most domesticated cats gobble endless bags of cat chow. But they also like dining outdoors where their meals comprise 70 percent small mammals, 20 percent birds, and 10 percent assorted live bait. "

"Cats cause the deaths of more songbirds than any other animal. ...an outdoor cat can kill up to 1,000 animal per year."

" The combined total of pets and free-ranging cats in the U.S. is probably more than 100 million."

"...rural free-ranging domestic cats in Wisconsin may be killing between 8 and 217 million birds each year. The most reasonable estimates indicate that 39 million birds are killed in the state each year. Nationwide, rural cats probably kill over a billion small mammals and hundreds of millions of birds each year. Urban and suburban cats add to this toll."

It may be argued that responsible cat owners not only neuter their cats, but also keep them strictly indoors or on a leash.

Re:wouldn't it be nice if you didn't nick my joke

[56ker]

It seems to have got modded back down to 2 - so it can't have been as funny as we thought.

Re:Cat killing tips wanted

[maroberts]

[this may be a troll, but]
Be warned that Cat killing can be illegal under general cruelty to animals laws.

Re:Cat killing tips wanted

[sirsex]

I suggest a cat-apult

Re:This is quite spiffy.

[w3woody]

LOL! And me without any moderating points today...