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I swear I've seen a similar project like a decade ago, somewhere. I have an easier solution - weigh the cat on a pressure pad just before the flap - allow for

by ck2 11y ago

I swear I've seen a similar project like a decade ago, somewhere. I have an easier solution - weigh the cat on a pressure pad just before the flap - allow for variances of a few ounces but not much more. But the cat door is also a safety thing for my cats when they are feeling unsafe or being chased - I wouldn't want them to have to wait to get inside. ps. cats bring you dead things as food because they think you are too feable to hunt and triggering a nursing instinct

sorenjan 11y ago
> I have an easier solution - weigh the cat on a pressure pad just before the flap - allow for variances of a few ounces but not much more. A mouse weighs around 20 grams, or 0.7 ounces. That's about 0.5% of the weight of a cat.
ryan-c 11y ago
> I swear I've seen a similar project like a decade ago, somewhere. Probably "Flo Control"[0]. There was a system to get a silhouette of the cat's head to identify whether it was carrying anything. 0. https://web.archive.org/web/20081014091109/http://www.quantumpicture.com/Flo_Control/flo_control.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20081014091109/http://www.quantu...
- allencoin 11y ago
  The author of the original article references Flo Control and uses it in his implementation.
  - joakimsoderberg 11y ago
    To be specific. I only took the general idea from that project. That is, to match the cat head against a lit background to make it easy to get a good profile image. None of the implementation has anything to do with that project however.
joakimsoderberg 11y ago
There is no wait, it only locks if it finds some prey. Of course there are occasional false positives. But those are very rare (haven't compiled the exact statistics for that though). The chase thing has happened, but since the door to get in is very small other cats don't tend to follow. Since it's really cold here in the winter I also chose to design it so that the default mode is for the door to be open. So if there's a power outage it will always be open. Regarding the weight thing. I don't think it's feasible unless your cat always brings in rabbits or something, the weight difference is so tiny. Too many variables come into play as well, temperature differences being one, a wet cat compared to a dry one and so on. Might work, might not :)

by ck2 11y ago

sorenjan 11y ago

> I have an easier solution - weigh the cat on a pressure pad just before the flap - allow for variances of a few ounces but not much more. A mouse weighs around 20 grams, or 0.7 ounces. That's about 0.5% of the weight of a cat.

ryan-c 11y ago

> I swear I've seen a similar project like a decade ago, somewhere. Probably "Flo Control"[0]. There was a system to get a silhouette of the cat's head to identify whether it was carrying anything. 0. https://web.archive.org/web/20081014091109/http://www.quantumpicture.com/Flo_Control/flo_control.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20081014091109/http://www.quantu...

allencoin 11y ago
The author of the original article references Flo Control and uses it in his implementation.
- joakimsoderberg 11y ago
  To be specific. I only took the general idea from that project. That is, to match the cat head against a lit background to make it easy to get a good profile image. None of the implementation has anything to do with that project however.

joakimsoderberg 11y ago

There is no wait, it only locks if it finds some prey. Of course there are occasional false positives. But those are very rare (haven't compiled the exact statistics for that though). The chase thing has happened, but since the door to get in is very small other cats don't tend to follow. Since it's really cold here in the winter I also chose to design it so that the default mode is for the door to be open. So if there's a power outage it will always be open. Regarding the weight thing. I don't think it's feasible unless your cat always brings in rabbits or something, the weight difference is so tiny. Too many variables come into play as well, temperature differences being one, a wet cat compared to a dry one and so on. Might work, might not :)