Japanese company using mee-AI-ow to detect stressed cats A Japanese company called Rabo that makes a smart collar for cats and uses the motto “Because nine lives are never enough” has started using AI to monitor feline stress levels. Rabo named its smart pendant “Catlog_” and sells it for ¥14,850 ($102), although it’s currently on sale at half that sum. The device can detect when a …
So, how long before the companies that have announced to the shareholders that they are "going to leverage AI everywhere" and are also fed up trying to get the dev team to all March To The Corporate Drum on using Copilot ("this is like herding cats!") put two and two together and update the company dress policy?
It'd be an easy sell to the Board ("Oooh, datapoints! We can make them into metrics! We like metrics. The dashboard will be pretty").
But good luck on getting your coders to groom themselves ("No, not like that - I'l use the water spray!")
In the corporate version, the stress metric on the dashboard will get greener, the more stressed the underling gets. If you aren't stressing them enough, there is still surplus value there to extract.
Humans have bigger necks than cats, so the corporate version for employees will have space for the shock mechanism. Monitor and correct behaviour automatically if they show any signs of independent thought, or behaviour. When the time comes to downsize them, the small explosive charge will make termination a breeze. Reduce headcount the literal way!
Yes, cats can get stressed.
Cats are creatures of habit, so essentially, unusual behavio(u)r of any kind can be a sign of stress. I'm not going to write a book about it here, but I'll bet you a plugged nickle that your Vet has a little pamphlet (usually free, but these days it might be online instead of dead-tree) that covers most of the obvious signs.
Top Cat Stress Inducers
1. Switching caviar from Marky's to Meow Mix from Walmart.
2. Written plot detailing owner's demise has gone missing.
3. Kids are watching original Tom & Jerry cartoons on TV.
4. Old lady next door that could be relied on for daily canned tuna and on-demand petting has moved to elder care facility.
5. Could not make out if owner said 'tutoring' or 'neutering'', either one is a no-go.
6. The neighborhood bully cat is on catnip-fueled psychosis.
7. Oops, that was life number 8.
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This post has been deleted by its author
mine gets stressed when i'm standing in a doorway he wants to get through. seems he thinks i'll step on him which is rich considering how often he tries to tackle me in the dark walking through the living room. think it's an attempt kill me and make it look like an accident.
Have to kinda disagree here. Sure, if a cat is stressed the way we understand it in everyday speak - run for the hills or at least have some treats on hand. But the 'stress' itself is not simply frustration of more obvious needs eg. you not having time to play (so the little shit comes at you out of nowhere), bowl being empty or vacuum cleaner stressing it out. The more physiological stress indicators are actually way harder to figure out with cats as opposed to dogs - pain, overheating, feeding habit disruptions etc are notoriously more difficult to sort out compared to dogs. I'm a cat owner by way of my partner having adopted the little ball of chaos and thought should be somewhat smooth sailing since we've had the dog in the family for 10+ years. Nope. Way different patterns, especially when it comes to signalling internal pain or gastric issues - can be hard even for experienced owners. Tl;dr medical stress != common speech stress, this article seems to regard more of the former.
My cat indicates stress by nipping at my ankles.
Usually, it means the food dish is empty.
In fact, it always means the food dish is empty.
But, seriously, if you need an app to detect stress in your cat, for all concerned, you're probably better off with tamagotchi
This seems to be - to an extent - a decent implementation, at least in theory. First-time pet owners with limited insight into certain signals pet sends them or people with limited ability to follow up on cues (eg. those with disabilities or some folks on the spectrum) could actually use this as assistance. Issue is that convenience is human's nature and this could easily turn to an excuse not to learn about the pets' behaviour patterns in the long run or use this as an everyday crutch instead of a step to reach a tad higher - not to mention AI being bork fiesta in general. As long as it's used mainly as assistance with figuring out problematic behaviours pointing to a deeper problem should be somewhat useful.
Not perfectly clear even if you pay attention imo. Pain position in cats is something I struggle with a lot, my partner has her doubts regarding it as well. A monitoring appliance like that could actually help with figuring out the 'oh shit' moment - though definitely agree on the aspect of subbing attention to pet for attention to app. For all the usefulness the app could have, some will definitely fall back to it and treat the pet less as a being and more as a toy/appliance etc.
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