Moggy marvels
Cats and tech are already firm friends, as anybody who's tried and failed to budge their cat from a warm laptop can attest. But cat tech isn't just about your feline friend claiming whatever tech happens to be warm. Some devices are made specifically for four-legged friends.
Come with us as we discover the crazy world of cat technology, with absolutely no jokes about CAT scanners.
Apart from that one.
Cat Scratching Deck
Never mind Run DMC: this is Run DOG. The Cat Scratching Deck is perfect for KWA - Kittens With Attitude - and takes the traditional scratching post to a whole new level.
The scratching post here is a rotating turntable, and with a moving tone arm it's just a matter of time before your tabby is out-scratching Terminator X.
Yours for £19.99, for as long as you can persuade your cat to keep the headphones on.
Kittyo
One of the downsides of travelling is that you can't annoy your pets when you get bored. Or at least, you couldn't until Kittyo came along.
It's a smartphone-controlled activity centre for cats that enables your cat to ignore you from the other side of the world, until the built-in laser light gives it something to try and catch.
The Kittyo also doubles as a treat dispenser. After a successful Kickstarter the Kittyo is now available for pre-order for the princely sum of $249.
Pawtrack
Ever wondered where Mr Tiddles goes on his nocturnal adventures? With Pawtrack, you can find out. It's a GPS-enabled cat-dedicated collar that enables you to track your pussy wherever in the world it goes, and it's available in 171 different countries.
In addition to the purchase price (£75 in the UK, AUS$11.99 in Australia or $99.99 in the US) it's 33p / 41c per day per collar to subscribe to the tracking service. A 12 month minimum contract applies.
Eyenimal
The £60 - £77 Eyenimal will either provide a fascinating insight into your cat's life or a terrifying vision of razor-clawed destruction, depending on the cat.
It's a wearable camera, and it has the added benefit of night vision so that the resulting footage isn't just darkness, sarcasm and screaming mice.
The built-in motion detector shuts off the camera when your cat sleeps in order to save battery life, and while it's hardly going to produce 4K masterpieces to show admiring friends it's a fun thing to mess around with.
One Fast Cat
God bless Kickstarter. Where else can a man's dream of a hamster wheel for cats attract over $345,000 in funding?
The One Fast Cat treadmill uses a safe hubless design to keep keep your cat in top condition, and for $249 it promises to beat feline obesity, boredom and even depression.
Because there aren't any spokes there's no danger of a paw getting trapped, and testimonials from delighted purchasers suggest that many cats like the One Fast Cat a great deal.
Also, it's funny - although we're betting this you'd buy it and the cat would ignore it forever.
Catstacam
Given that the internet exists primarily to share photos of cats, why not cut out the middle man and let cats upload their own photos?
That's the thinking behind Catstacam, which is a genuine product that you can't currently buy. The device was dreamt up by the marketing people at Whiskas and given to celebrity cat owners and famous cats, whoever they might be.
Whiskas Australia has a gallery of cat's photos on its Facebook page. Seriously.
Mousr
Mousr is another Kickstarter success, raising $116,965 from cat owners who fancied seeing the cat chase a robot mouse.
The USP here is that the Mousr reacts to the cat's movements "just like real prey", although delivering that has proved to be a bit more challenging than the makers expected.
They're estimating a four month wait before the Mousr goes into manufacturing. Kickstarter backers will get Mousr for $100, although the regular price hasn't been announced yet.
Sureflap
Cat flaps are a great idea, unless someone else's cat takes a fancy to your home. Enter Sureflap, a cat flap that works with all common microchips and RFID collars to ensure that only authorised animals get into your home.
That authorisation only works in one direction (or both if you go for the Dual Scan), so an animal that's in your house can get out again without having to show its papers.
It runs for up to a year on AA batteries, can handle a guest list of up to 32 cats and can also be locked manually if your cat's been grounded for bad behaviour or your partner is irrationally scared of them being eaten by foxes at night and begs you to go and lock it when you've just gone to bed.
CatFi
Here's an interesting one: CatFi promises a world of information about your cat using nothing more than a smartphone app, a spare Android phone and a cardboard box.
The system is currently registering beta testers and uses facial recognition to recognise individual animals; put food in the bon and automatically monitor your cat's health and diet.
If that sounds familiar, it might be because you saw it in its previous incarnation on Indiegogo as Bistro. That's now called the CatFi Pro, which is a more stylish alternative to the lo-fi Box.
Meowlingual
Now, far be it for us to suggest that any device promising to translate your cat's meows might not be entirely scientific, but we suspect that if you drop $93 on the Meowlingual you won't end up developing a greater understanding of your moggy.
Nevertheless, the manufacturers claim that it can analyse your cat's face to identify six different moods, interpret 21 different emotions from your cat's movements and translate 200 words in "cat chat".
Oh, and there's one little problem too: you'll need to learn Japanese to find out what your cat's saying.
from www.techradar.com
