In Japan, where cats are revered as symbols of good fortune, pet owners are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to look after their beloved felines.
As the country’s population ages and birth rate declines, pets have become an integral part of many households, and owners are increasingly investing heavily in their pets’ health.
Japanese pet owners are keen on such technology because of the important role their pets play in their lives: The Japan Pet Food Association estimates there were nearly 16 million pet dogs and cats in the country last year, more than the number of children under 15.
Among the latest pet care solutions is CatsMe!, an AI-driven app designed to monitor your cat’s health by detecting pain from their facial expressions.
The technology behind CatsMe!, the AI-powered cat health app
CatsMe! was developed by technology startup Carelogy in collaboration with researchers from Nihon University.
According to Reuters, the app’s AI was trained on 6,000 photos of cats that experts classified according to their pain expressions, allowing the app to detect pain with over 95% accuracy, a figure that is expected to improve as more data is collected.
The app is easy to use: owners upload a photo of their cat and the AI analyzes its facial expressions and classifies the cat’s potential pain into three levels: none, mild, or severe.
This information can help owners decide whether a vet visit is necessary: ”Statistics show that more than 70% of older cats suffer from arthritis or pain, but only 2% actually go to the vet,” says Kazuya Edamura, a professor at Nihon University in Tokyo.
Pet owners like Mayumi Kitakata use CatsMe! to read their pets’ facial expressions, track their behavior and monitor their health daily. In an interview with Reuters, she reminisced about her past pets, including her 8-year-old son Solan, who died of cancer.
“If I had known, I could have helped him by treating his cancer or whatever sooner, but even the vet didn’t know,” she recalls. The app gives her and other pet owners peace of mind, and helps them detect problems they might not have noticed otherwise.
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App Features and Recent Updates
Since its launch, CatsMe! has grown rapidly, with over 230,000 users in over 50 countries. The app will undergo a major update in January 2024, transitioning to a paid service and making all features that were previously available only to premium members available to all users.
These features include the ability to record multiple cats, AI evaluation of multiple photos simultaneously, and personalized advice based on data from the past two weeks.
Despite the switch to a paid model, the app is offering a two-week free trial to ensure as many cat owners as possible can experience its benefits. Comprehensive features and user-friendly design make CatsMe! an essential tool for pet owners who want to effectively monitor their cat’s health.
Stay tuned to Tech Times for the latest updates.
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