· 3D Hardware
· 3D Software
· 3D Video
· 3D TV and Movies
· 3D Art
· 3D Picture of the Day
· 3D Modeling
· 3D Printing
· Reviews
· Gaming
· How To
· News
· Everything Else
· Off Topic
· Around the Web
· Virtual Reality
Posted by: Beth Snyder on: 05/01/2016 05:04 PM
The Temptations Lab (yes, named for Friskies Temptations cat treats) is about a year old, and was created "in order to inject some serious fun into cats’ lives." They believe through the application of technology they can bring more humans to an understanding of cats, thus improving the lives of both. It's not a bad thought, really, if a little Utopian. There are many folks who simply do not like cats, and no degree of technology will change that. However, for the rest of us, understanding our feline friends will make their companionship even more enjoyable. Catterbox is the first result of their efforts, and it's pretty neat.Studies have apparently been done that show adult cats don't meow when they communicate with each other, only when they are trying to communicate with humans. Catterbox analyzes those sounds and created a program to detect the different types of sounds and interpret them, then translates them into a human voice. You can then have a conversation with your cat in which it actually answers you instead of you making up what it might be saying, which is pretty darn neat. However, as with all translations (and as you'll notice in the video), there is a certain disconnect between the cat's verbal meow and the computer-generated human voice that follows.
Catterbox is 3D printed, which is why you're reading about it here. It is quite a bit larger than your standard cat collar, but that doesn't appear to bother the cat in the video much. Your mileage may vary depending on your cat, of course. The collar connects to an app (no word on which operating systems are compatible), which allows you to choose your cat's new voice.
This looks like just a concept at the moment, recently unveiled in New Zealand and the United States, but it's being hailed as a technology breakthrough just the same. I bet over time it will be revamped, re-engineered, and generally improved until it's something we consider commonplace. In the mean time, we'll all just have to continue responding, "I know, I know" when our cats looks at us and meows, obviously trying to tell us something.
Source: Damn Geeky