This was reported by Lviv Polytechnic University, Ukrinform reports.

“I have four cats in my house in the village, and all my life I have watched what is happening to them and sometimes I have not been sure whether the cats are okay or not, because it is impossible to know for sure because of my skills in understanding animals,” says startup author Andriy Mykhailiv, a master’s student at Lviv Polytechnic University.

The idea of ​​​​creating a collar with which it would be possible to communicate with cats appeared to Mykhailo in 2020, when he was writing his bachelor’s thesis on “A collar with a microphone to determine the state of a cat by sound signal.” ” Then there was a master’s degree in the program “Artificial Intelligence Systems”, where the diploma subject was already “Determining the state of a cat by sound signal”. Now Andriy, in addition to studying and studying “Information technology to determine the physiological state of an animal using sound signals based on deep learning methods He is working on a thesis called “.

The startup quickly realized that the idea of ​​AI collars for cats looked profitable and began analyzing research, competitors, and user interest in such a product, called Cotia. This is a simple communication tool from the cat to its owner that will translate the animal’s sounds into a form that humans can understand.

It looks like a comfortable collar that collects audio data from a pet. Then, the system analyzes the sound with the help of artificial intelligence and gives the result. The process is similar to the operation of a fitness bracelet. In addition to improving interaction with the cat, such a device can also analyze long-term data, allowing startups to make recommendations when better care for the animal is necessary.

“In fact, we develop the design of the accessory and test it on our cats so that the animal is comfortable,” says Mykhailiv.

In total, the startup team consists of five people, and they also hired a few freelance students to help with individual tasks. The Cotia team is young; The co-founders include three third-year undergraduate students in Artificial Intelligence Systems at Lviv Polytechnic National University and first-year students in Computer Science at the Polish-Japanese Academy (PJATK).

According to Ukrinform, researchers from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, have developed an artificial intelligence-based technology that can imitate human handwriting.

Photo: Andrii Mykhailiva