AI

Jan 15, 2024

As we raise a toast to International Cat Day, it’s purr-fectly appropriate to celebrate the furry felines that bring joy, companionship, and a dash of sass to our lives. Yet, beyond their adorable antics, it’s truly intriguing how our interactions with these whiskered companions have evolved in the digital age.

Enter the world of smart gadgets for cats—a realm of innovative technology that is reshaping and enriching the way cats and their devoted caretakers live together.

Empowered by the wonders of the AI of Things (AIoT), a cat lover’s dream is steadily coming to fruition: a connected world where technology serves to deepen our bond with these furry friends, monitor their health, engage with their curious minds, and alleviate the challenges of cat parenthood.

The evolution of these smart gadgets is transitioning from basic connectivity to incorporating advanced AI-driven features. What lies ahead in terms of enhancing the lives of both cats and their human companions? Does the presence of these well-crafted gadgets redefine the traditional role of cats in our lives, or do they remain irreplaceable?

We explored these topics with various individuals, including representatives from gadget vendors like HHO, globally renowned Internet of Things (IoT) developer service provider Tuya Smart, influential cat content creators such as Sanmao on Bilibili, and dedicated cat caretakers. The following highlights reveal the insights gained during these discussions.

AI, or artificial intelligence, has received enormous attention in recent years, primarily focused on its impacts on human lives. However, when it comes to pets, the integration of AI is still in its nascent stages.

Yu Weijing, head of Smart Home Appliance Solutions at Tuya Smart, explained, “At present, we are still in the stage of internet connectivity. The widespread incorporation of AI capabilities is still limited; most existing products lean towards functional hardware.”

For example, consider cat feeders or litter boxes—these gadgets often employ multi-cat recognition technology. Some products utilize weight measurements to differentiate between various cats, essentially logging their activities. While these offerings may not boast powerful AI features, they fall under the category of semi-AI. Within this semi-AI domain, one notable application is the ability to distinguish individual cats using weight-sensing technology, as elucidated by Yu.

He mentioned that cat identification through cameras poses greater challenges. This research path will require more extensive investment and a longer developmental trajectory. Such an endeavor could encompass the automatic detection of specific behaviors exhibited by pets, recording these actions, taking casual photos, and even enabling remote feeding. This expanded functionality would contribute to enhanced interaction between pet owners and their cherished companions.

R&D staff from HHO talked up a theory of three dimensions when designing such products – controllable, visible, and shareable.

The intelligent connection of devices allows for data to be digitized and remotely controlled, achieving a dimension of controllability. In contemplating the next steps beyond control, HHO believes that for users, their pets are considered families, to whom they should be able to genuinely and realistically connect.

As for the pets themselves, from their birth to their eventual departure a decade or more down the line, HHO maintains a steadfast commitment to cataloging every moment of their lives.

Based on these dimensions, they started a tech stack from hardware to software for the O Sitter, a smart cat companion and feeder. With the purpose of recording and sharing, all features align with content capture. So first, elevating the camera's functionality was imperative.

A broader view and perspective were deemed essential, prompting HHO to engineer a sophisticated gimbal mechanism to facilitate seamless cat tracking. Furthermore, the camera is also used to monitor the bow’s status within the feeder. This task necessitated the integration of a specialized lens and intricate algorithms to ensure optimal performance.

There is also a need for AI to help automatically summarize and edit clips of cats' moments snapped by the cameras. And HHO has also worked on this issue, listing major moments by category as a timeline in their app and generating a short video on a daily basis for sharing.

However, adopting AI won’t be as simple as it’s often portrayed. Developing AI-powered cat gadgets comes with a host of formidable challenges. Among these challenges, a profound comprehension of the intricate nuances and behaviors exhibited by diverse feline companions is imperative. Leveraging these insights can be instrumental in crafting a product that seamlessly fuses advanced AI capabilities into its framework.

Yu highlighted that a significant obstacle lies within the biological aspects of the cats themselves, including understanding their daily routines and behavioral patterns. This makes technology implementation a challenge when tailoring solutions to cater to cats’ needs.

To illustrate this, Yu took the feeder as an example. Creating a healthy feeding regimen for a pet requires a comprehensive understanding of variables such as breed, gender, age, and the specific exercise regimen they need. Through meticulous classification based on these parameters, tailored feeding plans can be devised. Moreover, these plans must be continually updated through collection and iteration based on actual usage to optimize them.

He also commented on the technological side. For instance, if you wanted to implement facial recognition and mood detection for cats, this would require a substantial undertaking in terms of algorithmic modeling and intricate training processes.

R&D staff from HHO shared more technical insights on AI. They pointed out that in terms of AI, especially pet recognition, they have a large model library, roughly containing tens to hundreds of millions of databases related to pets.

HHO's first-gen product was actually developed based on a pet database. They worked on the identification of pets and subsequently spent over a year adjusting and evolving the AI model across nine major versions. The main focus was to ensure the accurate detection of pets, including in various environments such as homes, various walls, televisions, plush toys, and even garments.

Furthermore, they boast a sizable cat house that accommodates multiple cats. Within this cat haven, an array of devices are active 24/7, capturing data and serving as a pivotal wellspring of information for them.

To obtain more authentic dates, they have partnered with approximately a hundred domestic and international cat owners. These are users with whom we engage early on, placing HHO’s product in their homes as part of a co-creation process. Throughout this process, they work together to enhance the algorithm’s capabilities. This leads to an expansive repository of data originating from genuine user environments, replete with authentic video content.

Through these data and training instances, HHO has managed to perform residual food detection within feeding bowls and adeptly discern cat behaviors.

However, it was the needs of users and markets that drove the progression of these innovations.

One pet owner shared with us that the smart products they currently employ lack significant AI enhancements, or if present, the integration is rather minimal. They envision features such as a pet feeder capable of recording precise eating patterns of their cats or formulating feeding plans based on the cat’s information using AI will indeed lead to more scientifically-informed pet care. They would be more fond of services that provide a higher degree of intelligence or personalization through AI-enabled capabilities.

Another pet owner expressed that they believed cat litter boxes would be safer with AI detection. They hold the belief that companion robots or pet toys have the potential to evolve into more intelligent entities. However, their confidence in this prospect is tempered by the notion that their cat’s unease around robots may not solely stem from the robot’s lack of responsiveness but could instead be rooted in an inherent apprehension of machines. This intriguing insight implies a potential avenue for refining product design. Furthermore, they hold a vision for in-home surveillance systems, perhaps even being able to automatically edit and generate exciting clips like what HHO is doing, and so forth.

We also heard positive answers from a cat video content creator named Sanmao, who hosts the channel Sanmao and Three Cats Catlive (花花与三猫Catlive) with millions of subscribers on the Chinese video platform Bilibili.

She prefers AI-powered smart products and has experimented with a small toy akin in size to a surveillance camera. This robot assumes the role of a feline companion, documenting interactions through an accompanying app and incorporating a laser pointer for playful engagement. However, this creation hails from two years ago, and she notes a discernible lack of refinement in its design.

She attended a pet expo and had the chance to observe more sophisticated and intelligent toys for cats, embodied in the form of robots. This progressive stride in pet technology appeared notably sharper and genuinely liberated feline aficionados, amplifying their effectiveness and engagement.

Given the current technologically advancing epoch wherein people are adopting more AI products, it piques the question: why can’t we apply these intelligent technologies toward the realm of pet ownership? If technology holds the capability to liberate our hands and enrich our lives, then the prospect of embracing and integrating it into the tapestry of pet care becomes all the more enticing.

Like it or not, AI is coming for your furry friends. Insights gleaned from conversations with HHO and Tuya Smart underscore the impending need to revamp conventional smart cat gadgets with new features such as health care.

Yu shared Tuya Smart's solution for cat nests, which now focuses more on basic functions with adjustable temperature and humidity. If you are to further enhance their intelligence capability, this could potentially encompass the nuanced assessment of an individual’s sleep quality.

Another commonly mentioned need is the analysis of cat fecal conditions.

Sanmao shed light on a noteworthy innovation within this sphere: intelligent litter boxes equipped with the ability to measure a cat’s weight both prior to and subsequent to entering the box. This ingenious feature seamlessly calculates the weight of the cat’s daily waste output, enabling a continuous assessment of weight fluctuations and health status, particularly in relation to bowel movements. This very functionality extends to certain water dispensers and feeders as well.

However, the prevailing trend in smart litter boxes tends to center around fundamental functionalities. As a result, cat owners might only become aware of potential anomalies when cleaning them after a few days, according to Sanmao.

HHO's engineers have mentioned product concepts to fulfill such needs when talking about their following plans. The company’s trajectory encompasses a proactive exploration of advanced cat health care avenues, envisaging the utilization of AI to monitor feline heartbeat rates and analyze waste, offering a comprehensive approach to maintaining their well-being.

Moreover, cats will never get bored with smarter toys. Tuya Smart’s Yu believes this category will be a new trend in the market with more AI-programmed features, including route planning and navigation.

Sanmao has five cats, and she told us that half an hour of playing with each cat is needed every day to consume their energy, which is an integral facet of their inherent hunting instincts. The cumulative requirement for her five cats translates to a substantial 2.5 hours per day, a significant commitment. If her cats have more energy, they may run and mess around at home and fight with each other. Given this dynamic perspective, Sanmao warmly embraces the concept of AI-powered toys.

The topic brings to mind a video on Bilibili showcasing the creation of an AI-powered system adept at monitoring the status of cats and controlling toys to entertain the felines during their rest periods.

But the question arising here is - if AI-powered gadgets aptly cater to every conceivable whim and fancy of felines, could they potentially dilute the very essence of pet ownership? Those interviewed for this piece echoed similar sentiments.

Sanmao contends that owning cats provides emotional companionship, a sentiment that cannot be replicated by machinery. Cats, in their essence, evolve into emotional companions for their owners, embodying a form of cherished attachment. Conversely, smart gadgets function as pragmatic tools adept at offering convenience. Cats often show greater affection for the entity that feeds them. However, the presence of other gadgets appears to have minimal impact on the emotional connection between cats and their owners.

R&D at HHO suggested that AI tools primarily aim to offer convenience, allowing cat owners to more effortlessly manage their pets, resulting in enriched quality time. As a side benefit, these tools have the capacity to capture moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. For instance, consider a scenario where a cat patiently waits by the door each day at 5 a.m. for its owner to rise. These seemingly minor yet profoundly meaningful instances assume a treasured significance.

One cat owner expressed a particular interest in the potential for deeper communication with his cat through the medium of AI tools, given that the precise meanings of “meows” are largely a mystery.

Speculating on the future, if AI continues to evolve at its current pace, the possibility of raising virtual cats could become more plausible.

The realm of smart cat gadgets has been witnessing a steady rise in prominence, with a notable surge occurring within the cat litter box domain. This burgeoning trend extends its reach to encompass feeders and drinking fountains, collectively forming the three primary categories, as succinctly outlined by Yu.

However, there are other categories afterward, including smart cat toys equipped with visual capability and powerful AI. Looking at the overall market, the user base continues to expand, with a palpable surge of interest directed toward new trailblazers.

This even includes the focus of manufacturers in the home appliance industry, which collectively channel their efforts to amplify the growth trajectory of this thriving sector. It evolves from a functional product to a smart product, ultimately culminating in the realm of AI-centric offerings—a trajectory deftly articulated by Yu.