scientific testing with cats

Wow. god bless nerds.

These guys have decided to test some pretty advanced image recognition algorithms by installing what's got to be the world's most high tech cat door. Flo Control, named after Flo P. Cat, will test whether the animal at the door is A a kitty, and if so, B if kitty is holding something dead in his mouth. The software will only allow the door to open for a kitty without a dead animal in its mouth.

Of course you can monitor cat door activity in real time.

When I had a cat, I used to step in to the shower in the morning and discover that my kitty, Marley or Bootzilla, had left me an offering, usually a small mammal, sometimes a reptile. Also, they often didn't actually kill these animals, they just maimed them, so that i could have the pleasure of finishing them off. I've read that this is what momma tigers will do for their young to teach them the Hunt.

I screamed and tried to get the crippled, bleeding, and now wet critter into the toilet or bag or whatever was around. More often than not i managed to drop it somewhere along the way, where it then ran bleeding into some unreachable corner of a closet to bleed and squeal and die and rot. The kitties must have thought i was hopeless.

But i can live with that. So, bravo! Quantum Picture geeks, but no kitty face recognition software for me. I know that they are only doing it because they love me, and want me to be able to eventually fend for myself in the big world out there. Maybe someday.