Mayumi Kitakata frets about the health and well-being of Chi, her stoic housemate who enjoys treats, indulges a bit too much in the catnip and at about 14 is getting on in years for a feline.
Kitakata, 57, has had pet cats come and go over the years and to help give Chi as many seasons as possible, she has turned to artificial intelligence (AI).
In March, Kitakata became an early adopter of CatsMe!, an AI-driven smartphone application that purports to tell when a cat is feeling pain. That cuts down on the guesswork of when it is necessary to embark on a stressful trip to the veterinarian.
Photo: Reuters
“He is at an age where more and more diseases are going to appear,” Kitakata said. “So being able to consult the vet, but still reduce the number of visits to the hospital is very important for him and for me.”
The Japan Pet Food Association estimated there were almost 16 million pet cats and dogs in Japan last year, more than the number of children under 15.
Tech start-up Carelogy and researchers at Nihon University developed CatsMe! by training it on 6,000 pictures of cats. The app has been used by more than 230,000 people since its launch last year.
The developers say that it is more than 95 percent accurate and expect that degree to improve as the AI trains on more feline faces.
Nihon University professor Kazuya Edamura said that vets like him can tell to a certain degree whether an animal is in pain or not, but it is a harder task for owners.
“Our statistics show that more than 70 percent of elderly cats have arthritis or pain, but only 2 percent of them actually go to a hospital,” Edamura said. “So rather than a final diagnosis, we use [the app] as a tool to make owners aware of whether the situation is normal or not.”
Kitakata and Chi live in a central Tokyo apartment with the perfect feline napping spot near a balcony window that overlooks cherry trees five floors below. She monitors Chi’s toilet activity and uses the app to read its face each day.
Kitakata had cats since her mid-20s, including Soran, a brown-striped tom who died about six years ago from cancer at just eight years old.
“If I had noticed it, maybe we could have done cancer treatment earlier or something and it would have helped, but even the vet didn’t know,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “I might have been able to save him.”
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