Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: amused

Hunt-activated Cat Feeder

Check out this video of a cat feeder.  The cat hunts around the house to find several balls.  Placing each ball into the hopper releases a small amount of cat food.
Tags: networking, science, video
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  • 4 comments
fayanora

fayanora

August 7 2015, 22:55:38 UTC 5 years ago

An obvious improvement on that would be to make it little mechanical rodents that zip around like real mice, which have to be caught instead of balls.
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

August 8 2015, 12:00:40 UTC 5 years ago Edited:  August 8 2015, 12:01:17 UTC

Hmm... mouse moves via electric motor, powered by a capacitor bank charged by induction coil. Cat drops mouse in box, receives reward. Computer control senses if all the mice are there [calibrated pressure plate to measure the weight of the mice] and turns on the charging. Power flowing from induction coil turns off the motor so they don't move until charging is complete.

Couple of hours after last mouse is deposited and cat has had time to digest last reward, the mice are activated. [cue sound effect of mouse-type squeaking] and run out of box...

Yup, do-able.

but how sad is it we build robotic systems to play with our pets instead of doing it ourselves?
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

August 9 2015, 04:14:15 UTC 5 years ago

Few people can stay at home all day to play with their pets. At least this is an improvement in animal enrichment.

Also it would be great for zoos.
siliconshaman

Re: Well...

siliconshaman

August 9 2015, 11:12:09 UTC 5 years ago

Agreed, better something than nothing after all.