Artificial intelligence stray cat shelter identifies cats versus dogs and some diseases

A Baidu search engine employee, Wan Xi, took pity upon stray cats in general when he discovered a small cat hiding in his car during cold weather in China. For those of you who are unaware, Baidu is a major search engine in China.

AI cat shelter for stray cats
AI cat shelter for stray cats. I have added the words. The original has Chinese words. Drawing: mp.weixin.qq.com

Wan Xi wanted to help stray cats and he used his expertise in artificial intelligence to design a stray cat shelter which recognises cats and more. It therefore allows cats into a winter shelter (outdoor cat house) and protects them from predators or hostile animals such as stray dogs as they are barred.

In addition, it is able to recognise, they say, certain feline diseases such as stomatitis, external injuries and skin diseases. I do not know how accurate this tool is but if it is accurate it is certainly helpful. This is because the software can also send a message to, for example, volunteers who manage TNR colonies to tell them that a cat is injured whereupon they can attend upon the cat for treatment.

AI cat shelter for feral and stray cats
AI cat shelter for feral and stray cats

It would seem that this sort of AI software could be very useful for cat doors (cat flaps). Perhaps it could be designed to recognise a particular cat and therefore shut down the cat door against intruding cats or even human thieves who can use cat doors to burgle homes.

The AI cat shelter system can recognise 174 different kinds of cats. I don’t know what that means. Perhaps it is referring to the different cat coat markings as opposed to body confirmation. It can also recognise cats at night.

Both in China and America temperatures in certain areas of these countries can plummet in winter presenting a genuine life-threatening hazard to stray and feral cats. This system combined with a good shelter may save lives.

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