Cat owners, a Swiss start-up has set itself the mission of saving your daily life thanks to artificial intelligence.
If you are lucky enough to share your daily life with a cat, you must surely face this harsh reality: you are not quite at home, but rather at theirs. These little furry animals have gotten used to making themselves comfortable in the homes we offer them, with all the inconveniences that this can cause.
Among them are the little unwanted gifts they bring us from the outside world. Indeed, small birds and rodents can regularly serve as prey and end up on the floor of the house, which constitutes a daily nuisance that technology now promises to eradicate.
A diligent security guard at the entrance to the house
Imagine that your cat flap has a camera, and that it is able to monitor your cat’s comings and goings and lock itself if necessary. This is what Flappie, a Swiss start-up which took advantage of CES 2024 to present its first AI-boosted model, will soon offer.
Equipped with several motion sensors and a night vision camera, it analyzes your cat when it decides (finally?) to come inside, and automatically blocks itself if it tries to bring in prey coming from outside. Flappie claims its system has a 90% success rate, thanks to compiling a data set “ unique and exclusive ”, obtained by filming numerous cats and other prey in varied lighting conditions.
The cat flap also includes an electronic chip detection system, so that only your cat can pass through. It can also be connected via Wi-Fi to the Internet, to be controlled using a dedicated application. At the same time, it allows you to obtain alerts, statistics and record video clips, just like any surveillance camera.
Finally, the startup has integrated manual controls inside the device, allowing it to be locked and unlocked at any time, as well as enabling and disabling its prey detection system. Above all, this means that users do not need to connect it to the Internet if they wish, while maintaining its main functionalities.
Useless gadget or last resort solution?
Is this cat flap a gadget? If it works as well as advertised, it could bring a little peace of mind to some homes. Especially since, according to its creators, the device automatically educates cats, who end up no longer trying to bring prey inside. At least, in the best of all possible worlds.
Indeed, Minou could very well find techniques to circumvent the vigilance of the AI. By dropping its prey just in front of the cat flap to activate the unlocking of its door, for example, and then stealthily recover it before locking. The methods are surely numerous, and we are not dealing here with the stupidest animals in the animal kingdom, especially when it comes to doing stupid things.
If you are interested in purchasing Flappie’s services, the cat flap is currently available for pre-order for customers residing in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, priced at 370 Swiss francs. Or a little more than 396 euros after conversion, at the time of writing this article. However, we still do not know when it will be available outside these territories, and at what price.
Source : Engadget
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