Cat@Log: sensing device attachable to pet cats for supporting human-pet interaction

ABSTRACT In spite of the development of technologies that support human-computer or human-human interaction, few studies have been conducted for improving interactions between humans and pets, pets and computers, or between two pets. We propose a new area of research on entertainment using computers, called "human-pet interaction." As an initial step in this research, we have developed a series of sensing devices that can be attached to pet cats, called Cat@Log (cat-a-log). These devices comprise various sensing units such as a camera, a GPS, an accelerometer, and a Bluetooth module. Here, we attempted to determine an optimum design of the devices such that they can be attached to a pet without causing discomfort to it; for determining this design, we considered parameters such as the device's form factor and way of attachment. These developed devices can recognize the experiences and activities of cats; information sensed by the devices is transmitted in real time by using the Bluetooth wireless module. We used this platform and developed a software system that automatically recognizes a pet's high-level behavior and posts it to Twitter