A lot of cat owning web surfers want to know whether their cat has a pedigree and is part of a cat breed. I get lots of questions on PoC from visitors on whether their cat is a member of a cat breed.
Nearly always the cat is random bred but occasionally there are surprises. The typical response from me is that a visitor’s cat is a moggy tabby cat which looks similar to a Savannah cat or a Bengal. One of the most desired cat breeds is the Savannah cat probably because it is one of the most expensive and exotic especially the first filial cats. Visitors to PoC most often want their rescued cat to be an Egyptian Mau or a Maine Coon (after the Savannah). The Egyptian Mau is also a tabby cat which lends itself to being mistaken for a good looking random bred, spotted tabby.
This interest may be satisfied by software included in Google Pixel smartphones. Recently released to the public is an app on Google Pixel smartphones which can tell you whether the photograph that you have taken is of a purebred cat or dog and if so what breed he or she is. In fact, you simply have to point the smart phone camera at your cat or dog and it will tell you at that stage. The software is not confined to cat and dog breeds! It will recognize other objects and bring up information.
I’m not sure how accurate it is but it would certainly satisfy a lot of people. This interesting app which is integrated into Google Assistant on pixel devices might be able to provide answers.
Google Lens was announced by Google in 2017. It is integrated with Google Photos and Google Assistant apps. It is an advancement on Google Goggles a previous an similar but less sophisticated application. Google Lens uses deep learning routines. I believe that it is available on Pixel and Pixel 2 smart phones. On March 5, 2018 the software was released to Google Photos on non-Pixel phones.
