Smart Cat Shelter Uses AI To Let Strays Inside, Keep Dogs Out (mashable.com)

"China's top search engine company Baidu made a smart cat shelter in Beijing that uses AI to verify when a cat is approaching and open its door," writes Slashdot reader AmiMoJo. "The cat shelter is heated and also offers cats food and water." Mashable reports: It can accurately identify 174 different cat breeds, as to let them enter and exit as they please. A door will slide open if the camera spots a cat, but it won't work on dogs. Multiple cats can fit inside the space. Another neat camera feature is that it can be also used to detect if the cat is sick -- it can identify four common cat diseases, such as inflammation, skin problems, and physical trauma. Once a cat is identified as needing care, associated volunteers can be informed to come and collect it. "Homeless cats often struggle to survive the winter in Beijing, and even though volunteers feed them their water bowls freeze over in the cold," adds AmiMoJo. "Due to many people living in apartments that don't allow pets, they can't simply bring the cats home."

Baidu has a blog post detailing the shelter and its use of artificial intelligence.

Comments

Re:Too many damn cats

[AmiMoJo]

A slightly more humane option is to fix them so they can't reproduce.

Many people there keep cats to deal with rodents, but don't look after them properly and abandon them when they get pregnant or too old, so forcing them to get their cats neutered would be a good start. Aside from anything else it would extend the cat's working life considerably.

Re:Cruel

[AmiMoJo]

Probably for the safety of the dogs as well. When cats and dogs exist in the same space, cats are usually the dominant ones.