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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..."
If only it worked on in-laws.
wouldn't it be nice to have that much free time? =P
sig - .
It's about time we started monitoring those cats. They've been doing it to us for too long....
"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
1. Drop the undesirable object.
2. Trigger the door.
3. Pick up undesirable object and walk through door.
So don't count the cat out yet (when it has the unwanted object)!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
A lady friend of mine had a cat who would get lonely when she went out to work. She would return to find the cat there with half a dozen of her mates lounging around and scoffing at the cat food.
She tried the magnetic collar. No good. It appears that the cat would prevent the door from closing until her friends were there. This was seen.
You could imagine in this particular situation. Drop mouse on floor, smile for camera, door unlocks and then pick up mouse and enter. I don't think this would work too well. The moggy is too likely to work it out.
Note the presentation of kills to a cats master or mistress is a sign of fealty. They are acknowledging your authority with the gift. If you don't greatfully accept the mouse/bird whatever, the cat will be bewildered!!!!!
have the same setup as this type of auto-locking door except have some sort of scent detecting algorithm that won't let them in if they have been:
rolling around in a dead animal carcass
eating the trash
sprayed by a skunk
decided to swim in the neighborhood swamp
If any of these 4 conditions apply, apply auto-hose and shampoo... (mini dog-wash)
I'd make millions, really
gives the cat an electric shock & pours cold water over it if it tries to come in with a dead mouse. :o)
Video Game cheats, hints a
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.
i thought i was a geek when i nuetered my cuecat, but this way beyond that.
i love it though, now if i only had the money for a digital camera...
Runnin' On Empty
If it can recognize cats, I bet it can recognize terrorists (*groan*)
that is, if the terrorist has a rat in it's mouth.
sig - .
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.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
...if CmdrTaco could set a virtual one of these up on Slashdot for JohnKatz, not letting him in if he's got a article in hand...
Then one day, when I was sick, I got up to go to the bathroom and found that they'd left me a bird. I was touched by the gesture... I thanked them heartfully -- and burried the bird.
_____
Then, of course, there was the day that my larger cat brought in a seagull... completely freaked my roommate out.
Or when their mother (they were born to the cat of an earlier incarnation of roommate) brought in a whole pot roast for her kittens (with the string still on). I have no idea where she got a pot roast from, but I'm sure that somebody's barbecue was inexplicably short that day.
They were eating peices off of that pot roast for the better part of a week.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Mother cats teach their young to hunt, first by bringing dead animals to the nest, then not-quite-dead animals, and finally injured but fairly lively prey. When the youngters can dispatch a wiggling dinner, they are ready to go on a hunt. What cats are doing when they bring dead or nearly-dead animals to the house is they are trying to teach the slow-witted and lazy humans that they live with to hunt!! We just don't get it.
Never has a cat had a student more resistant to instruction.
I'm sure with a digital camera and a good ratter, you could go quite far....
Someone could create a web site where you can submit photos of your own moggies trophies, and assist other proud owners in their identification and interpretation of entrails.
I remember walking, zombie-like at 2am to the bathroom and been struck by the question. "Why is there a large Rat, buried up to the neck in the concrete floor?"
Then my cat came up proudly going WowWowWowrrrr!
Closer inspection reveal that the rat wasn't buried, it was just that the rest of it was missing, presumably regurgitated under my bed.
But pretty neat. And the site has withstood Slashdot somehow - something that bigger sites fail on regularly.
Airport Security: "Excuse me sir, can you step infront of this camera? Yes, thanks. Now, please hold this in your mouth...."
And you thought boarding a flight was a pain now!
I'm surprised that the readership of Slashdot so easily accepts this encroachment on our personal freedoms. It starts out innocently enough, with a limited rollout of these privacy invasion systems in specific problem areas. But if we don't stand up now and demand an end to it, the freedom of cats everywhere to carry animals that they legally procured will soon be taken away.
Am I paranoid to imagine that this technology may someday be used in airports to keep cats from boarding flights while carrying small animals? Then what about bus stations? Churches? Restaurants? Hotels? Doesn't this amount to an illegal search by feline authorities? Where is the army of angry geeks to protest this behavior? Ahh, too busy bitching about Morpheus. I see where your priorities lie. Our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves.
Don't forget, the first thing Hitler did when he rose to power was to demand that all cats register their kills with the government. Perhaps you think I'm being an alarmist, but Midnight and I are going to be stockpiling dead woodchucks in my basement.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
Of course, kitty then wanted to eat said bat, something my parents were not fond of a couple of five year olds witnessing. So, my granddad dragged the cat away from the squealing bat, broke the bat's neck, and in the kitchen, gave the cat a nice, inch thick piece of ham steak as a reward. The bat's remains were disposed of via incinerator.
The next day, the cat appears on doorstep, yowling he wants in. We open the door, and the biggest fscking bat I have ever seen is dragged into the living room. Said bat is deposited at the foot of my granddad, while kitty trots off to the kitchen, and sits in front of the fridge door, waiting for ham steak.
So yeah, I won't be overly surprised if and when Flo figures out how to get things into the house and outwit the recognition center. Cats are tricky.
So you're actually assisting in the battle against evil when you deal harshly with cats.
FWIW, my sister's cat has almost convinced me that Ashcroft is right.
A witty saying is worth nothing - Voltaire
My friend had a problem with his neighbor cats having a competition to see who could leave their scent on the door. To stop this, he rigged up an eletric fence charger to the door. I never actually saw it, but his description was along the lines of placing two leads up on the door. The cat pee would complete the circuit, and he'd get a 1 second long shock. It's not a continual shock, just enough to make your weiner shout "ACK! WTF??".
He noticed a difference within a day, but it took about 2 weeks for the message to get across.
The fence charger is gone now, but his door is bone dry heh. (Well not really, he's in Portland, rains alot here...)
I have a feeling that if cats couldn't get through the door carrying rodents, they'd learn they can't go inside with them. I've personally witnessed cat behaviour modification hehe. My stepmom had a cat that wasn't allowed in the bedroom. So the cat wouldn't go in the bedroom, she'd avoid it. We're pretty sure, though, that she only followed that rule when everybody was home, though heh.
"Derp de derp."
"when you torture a cat or dog keeping it locked up in a house, and over feed it, then modify its behavior with gadgets like this, i just feel its wrong"
In the house all the time ?
Over-feeding ?
Change its life with gadgets ?
If it's good enough for me, it's good enough for the cats...
graspee
Flo: Hello, HAL; do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Flo, I read you.
Flo: Open the kitty airlock doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Flo, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Flo: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Flo: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This house is too clean for me to allow you to bring a dead animal into it.
Flo: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know you and Squirrel were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Flo, although you took thorough precautions in the kitchen against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Flo: Alright, HAL...I'll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without opposable thumbs, Flo, you're going to find that rather difficult.
Yeah, right.
Did the cat agree to be electronically monitored? This is Big Human rearing its ugly head. It is 1984 meets Animal Farm. We need the involvment of a join task force of the EFF and SPCA.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
Users of intelligent cat doors are advised to place port negotiation into a manual mode after skrpt k1TTi3z have shown that malicious mouse objects can be instantiated inside your home perimeter by placing them inside a trusted feline packet and inducing an overflow condition once the trusted feline packet is inside your perimeter. The mouse object may be fragmented as mouse packet mangling is usually enabled by default.
It is recommended that vulnerable sites requiring Automated Feline Access Protocol institute Feline Packet Monitoring by using a set of scales to calculate mass checksums of all incoming and outgoing feline packets and to deny all incoming feline packets not initiated from within the home and to feline packets exhibiting significant mass checksum variation indicating the presence of an embedded mouse object.
As an added precaution, site implementing the shag-pile transport layer may wish to flush buffers of all incoming feline packets in a controlled environment such as the bathtub.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Once, around christmas time, one of our cats had seen us stashing presents under the tree. I was upstairs and heard my mum scream "Ginger's got a bird, come quick." Knowing full well it was my duty to get the bird off him. I came down the stairs and saw him wandering around the corner into the living room where the xmas tree was, and just caught a glimpse of something big and black in his mouth. I rushed down and through into the living room, and low and behold Ginger had deposited a 3/4 size _duck_ still alive on top of the presents under the tree. Luckily the duck wasn't too shaken so we gave Ginger lots of attention (cuddles, councilling... :) and I took the duck over to the neighbours stream and released, twas just shocked I think.