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1 Introduction

As information technologies advance, our daily lives and comfort needs rapidly change, as do those of our pets. Throughout history, people have lived with pets. The significance of pets changed over the centuries as livestock evolved into companion animals. People refer to animals as companions and often regard them as family members or partners. However, most living environments only reflect people-oriented designs, with little support or consideration for the pets. Thus, pets are largely left behind with the changes of human’s living environments.

Take, for instance, the phenomenon where a cat walks on a keyboard when its owner is trying to work. This is called “cat typing”, and it results when the cat wants to be near the owner, and is attracted to the typing motions and sounds. Unfortunately, the owner is often forced to keep the cat at a distance to comfortably use the computer for work. By this fashion, people give priority to their own comforts. We believe that it is important for both people and pets to reinforce their symbiotic needs and comfortably live with one another.

The purpose of this research is to promote a comfortable life for both people and their pets. In this paper, we present an initial method towards solving the problem by addressing the cat-typing issue. First, we review our prototype system, CATch!, to appraise our initial success and mistakes. Then, we propose CATouch!, its successor.

2 Related Work

Namatame et al. [3] developed the Zoograph system for extrapolating pet activity using sensors. Yonezawa et al. [5] developed a wearable computer with sensors, GPS, and camera modules for cats to log their daily life. These studies aimed to increase the understanding of cats and to support the communication between people and their pets. “Cat Cat Revolution” developed by Noz et al. [1] and “FelineFunPark” developed by Young et al. [6] are remote cat toys. People can play with their cats by remotely operating these interesting toys. The purpose of these works were to support play with cats using computer-based technologies. Michelle et al. [4] developed a tablet game, called Felino, a digital toy that facilitated the emergence of “play” between humans and domesticated cats. Their research proposed a theoretical framework that outlined how a mutual understanding between humans and animals can be facilitated via activities leveraging digitally mediated methods of interspecies “play”. Our similar, challenge is to design and build a comfortable environment for both people and their pets, when the people need to get work done.

3 Challenges of Cat-Typing

3.1 Existing Products

First, we explored existing products designed to keep the cats away from a computer and found several off-the-shelf products. For instance, “UBOARD” is a clear covering for a keyboard. This product helps prevent cats from sitting directly on the keyboard. However, the user cannot see his or her hands when a cat gets on the keyboard. “CATGUARD” is a product designed to keep cats away from dangerous spots in the house and to keep stray cats away by emitting sound and light frequencies that cats dislike.

However, this approach is undesirable, because it causes stress to the cats, causing them discomfort and pain. The existence of these products shows that the most living environments and comfort technologies maintain a human-oriented design.

3.2 Our Approach

Pets are a members of the family. Thus, they should participate in the family model. Our idea is that the behavioral constraints of both people and pets should be minimized. Additionally, the comfort of both people and pets should be maximized. This is the ideal function of a family.

Thus, our approach is diametrically opposed to most existing products. We aim to solve “cat typing” and similar problems by attracting cats to a computer, not repelling them. Therefore, we decided to dedicate a separate computer for the cat, near the owner’s PC. The cat’s computer outputs computer graphics (CG) animation that attracts the cat’s attention, such as a mouse-shaped cursor. Cats are normally interested in this presentation because of the sights and sounds emitted. Furthermore, the sights and sounds are directly associated with the owner’s PC work activities.

3.3 Biological Features of Cats

We surveyed the biological features of cats to devise a system that attracts their attention. Cats have many notable attributes. For example, cats recognize colors, particularly blues and greens [2]. They easily notice and react to motion, but they prefer unpredictable, fast movements. Cats lurk in the shadows and prefer smaller prey, reacting to twitchy cues. They like to chase bugs, or anything exhibiting a zigzag movement.

4 CATch!: A Cat Toy with CG Animations, Based on PC Operations

4.1 System Overview

To attract cats’ attention, we conceived a computer-based cat toy. Doing so, we developed a prototype system, called “CATch!”. This system presented CG animations on a computer screen for a cat’s enjoyment. The animations were automatically created, correlating to the owner’s PC operations. CATch! worked in conjunction with both the owner’s PC and the cat’s screen. The owner used his or her computer as normal. The cat’s computer did not show special content, leveraged software that logged the owner’s keystrokes and mouse actions. Thus, depending on the owner’s operations, the cat’s interface displayed CG animations corresponding to the owner’s actions.

This system enabled the owner to perform his or her work without any direct interruption from the cat. Additionally, the system enabled the cat to play near the owner. This enhanced comfort for both the owner and the cat. Therefore, CATch! made both the owner and the cat comfortable and happy.

4.2 System Configuration

CATch! consisted of two devices: the owner’s computer and a small companion computer with an LCD screen for the cat. The owner’s computer included logging software that we developed using Objective-C. The cat’s LCD system included software that was developed using openFrameworks, to create CG animations corresponding to the owner’s computer operations. These computers were connected to the internet and communicated with one another via the open sound control protocol. This configuration enabled both computers to work together anywhere, if they were connected to internet.

Fig. 1.
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The black cat icon and three items were displayed on the task bar of the owner’s PC when the owner clicked the icon.

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4.3 Operation and Function

A black cat silhouette was displayed on the task bar of the owner’s PC screen. When the owner clicked the black cat icon, three items were then displayed: “Logging”, “LogViewer”, and “Quit” (Fig. 1). If the owner selected “Logging”, eyes were displayed on the cat’s silhouette icon. This launched the state in which the owner’s mouse and keyboard operations were logged (Fig. 2). If the owner selected “Logging” once again, the cat’s eye disappeared, returning to the original state with no logging (Fig. 2). When “LogViewer” was selected, the X and Y coordinates of the owner’s mouse cursor and its click actions were displayed on-screen, along with the keyboard keystroke (Fig. 3). If the owner selects “Quit”, the program for acquiring information on the owner’s operation of mouse and keyboard was stopped.

Initially, the owner clicked the icon of the black cat silhouette on the task bar. Then the owner selected “Logging” and operated his or her PC as normal. In that state, when the owner moved the computer mouse, the mouse cursor’s trajectory was duplicated with blue color on the cat’s LCD. When the owner clicked the mouse button, CG animations of a blue (animal) mouse followed the trajectory on the cat’s LCD (Fig. 4). The speed of the mouse animation was proportional to the owner’s mouse operation speed. Thus, if the owner quickly moved the mouse cursor, the blue mouse also moved rapidly on the cat’s LCD.

When the owner typed at the computer keyboard, a green snake’s animations was shown on the cat’s LCD (Fig. 4). The owner’s keyboard keys were divided into four groups by key position: upper, lower, left, and right. The position of the green snake on the screen changed direction according to direction indicate by the key group. For instance, if the owner typed a left-group key, such as ‘S’, the snake appeared on the left side of the cat’s LCD, etc. The snake’s corresponding animations were created using Perlin Noise.

Fig. 2.
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This launched the state in which the owner’s operations were logged and the original state with no logging.

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Fig. 3.
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When “LogViewer” was selected, the X and Y coordinates of the owner’s mouse cursor was displayed on-screen, along with the keyboard keystrokes.

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Fig. 4.
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When the owner clicked the mouse button, CG animations of a blue (animal) mouse followed the trajectory and typed at the computer keyboard, a green snake animations was shown on the cat’s LCD. (Color figure online)

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4.4 Study Overview and Result

We conducted a pilot study to observe a cat’s reactions. We obtained the cooperation of a 2-years-old female cat whose owner is one of the authors. The study was conducted in the author’s house. The distance between both computers was under 1 m. We observed the reaction of the cat and the duration of the cat’s playing time while using CATch!.

The cat remained interested in both the mouse and snake animations. She followed the on-screen motions with her eyes and tried to catch the CG objects with her paws (Fig. 5). The cat was not attracted to the owner’s computer and was completely engaged with its own screen.

Fig. 5.
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The cat followed the on-screen motions with her eyes and tried to catch the CG objects with her paws.

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4.5 Discussion

Positively interpreted, our results show that CATch! produced our expected effects, because the cat did not approach the owner’s computer and remained excited and captivated by its own LCD. However, the cat grew bored after 10 min. Therefore, CATch! did not realize the full comfort span for people and pets, having lasted only 10 min. We assume the owner needed to work for longer than 10 min. We also observed that the cat was frequently grabbed at the CG mouse and snake to try and catch them. Thus, these cat actions indicate a direction for system improvement. Our idea for improvement, therefore, focused on a more interactive system with a touch-screen.

5 CATouch!: An Interactive Cat Toy

5.1 System Overview

For our second step and the purpose of this paper, we developed a system named “CATouch!,” an interactive cat toy system based on CATch!. As the follow-on to CATch!, an interactive function was added and CG animations were designed react to the screen, based on a cat’s touch. When a cat touches the on-screen CG animations, the mouse or snake will change actions and a sound will be produced.

5.2 Operation and Function

When the owner uses a computer mouse and a keyboard, the corresponding CG mouse or snake is shown in the same fashion as the original CATch! (Fig. 6). However, the appearance of the CG snake is now different. Green snakes appear out of CG vases displayed on the screen, while the owner types at the keyboard. When the cat touches a CG animation disappears with a “cry” sound. When touching a snake, the CG animation disappears with piping sounds. The sounds differ per the variety of snake.

Fig. 6.
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The CG animations shown on the cat’s LCD

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5.3 System Configuration

CATouch! consists of two devices: the owner’s computer a tablet for the cat. We used a tablet with a capacitive touch panel, because the cat’s paws react to it. The other mechanisms are the same as those of CATch!.

5.4 Study Overview

We conducted a trial use of CATouch! using five cats to verify its effectiveness. The profile of each cat is shown in the Table 1. Two of three cat owners have two cats and the other has one. The purpose of this experiment was to verify the essential function of CATouch! (i.e., touch function). When two cats were in proximity, the owner kept them separated while conducting the experiment. A video recorded the reactions of the cats during the experiment.

Table 1. The profile of five cats in the experiment 
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5.5 Study Task

The experiment was conducted for three straight days. Each day’s task took 15 min per cat. The owner used his or her PC and the cat used the experimental tablet placed near the owner. For each task, the owner copied a prepared document using PowerPoint. This enabled us to standardize the CG animations created during each test. To represent the experiment, we placed many text characters and shapes in the reference document. Thus, we encouraged the owner to perform many mouse and keyboard operations.

Prior to each day’s task, the owner showed the original animal-mouse cursor to the cat to observe its reaction. This pre-task was designed to compare the difference of reaction between the CG animations of the CATouch! and the original mouse cursor. After the third day, we administered a questionnaire (to the humans). In the questionnaire, we surveyed fun, usability, and the cat’s emotional state during the experiment.

Table 2. Result of experiment 
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5.6 Result

Feline Results. Results are given in Table 2, only Cat5 was interested in the CG animation of CATouch! and played with the tablet. Cat1 and Cat2 were interested in the CG animations, but never touched the tablet (Fig. 7). Cat3 and Cat4 were not interested in the CG animations at all (Fig. 8). Regarding the states of the cats, the owner of Cat1 and Cat2 stated “they had a scare because they are not familiar with the tablet.” The owner of Cat3 and Cat4 answered, “they do not recognize the tablet as a cat toy.”

Cat5 not only touched the tablet but also tried to insert a paw between the floor and the tablet to explore underneath. Additionally, Cat5 remained very excited. She jumped on the tablet and tried to capture the CG animations. She also responded sensitively to the sounds produced when touching the animations, displaying similar actions throughout all three days of experiments. However, she only touched the tablet while lying down on the floor during the third day. Even after the experiment, Cat5 approached the tablet and sometimes played alone. Regarding the state of the cat, the owner of Cat5 answered, “she had more reactions for CG animation of mouse. The motion and the speed of the mouse may attract her.”

Fig. 7.
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Cat1 and Cat2 were interested in the CG animations, but never touched the tablet.

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Fig. 8.
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Cat3 and Cat4 were not interested in the CG animations.

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Human Results. Regarding the ease of use, one of the three owners said, “I got very far with work because the cats were playing by themselves.” The other two owners said, “I did my regular work because I can do the same PC operation as usual.” Regarding the fun of working, one owner answered, “enjoyable,” and another answered, “neither.” Additionally, two of the owners said, “I would like to continue to use CATouch!.”

5.7 Discussion

We analyzed the differences among the age, sex, and growth (i.e., stray-grown or house-grown) of the cats. As a result, the following phenomena are revealed.

There Is No Difference Between Cat Age and Cat Sex. Only Cat5, a 2-year-old female, was interested in CATouch! and played with the tablet. Other cats (i.e., mature/kitten, male/female) never played, regardless of age and sex.

House-Grown Cats Are Excited by the Tablet. According to Cat5’s owner, there are many electronic devices, including a PC and TV, in the house. He said that the living space of Cat5 is surrounded by digital equipment, and that Cat5 prefers the machine sounds of PC and DVD players. We assume that Cat5 was interested in and played with the CG animation of CATouch! because she had gotten used to having digital equipment at close-hand.

Stray-Grown Cats Show Interest, but Never Play. Analyzing the video of the stray-grown cats, we found that they often smell the tablet, but keep it at a distance, as if on alert. We assume that, compared to the house-grown cats, the stray-grown cats will take more time to gain confidence with the device.

Limitation. In this experiment, we did not statistically analyze the results, because the parameter of cat population was too small. Therefore, the three phenomena clarified in this experiment are not facts but hypotheses. We should conduct the same experiment with more cats to verify these hypotheses in the future.

6 Conclusions

In this research, we aimed to lend support to both people and pets to help them comfortably live with each other. Our approach is not to keep the cats away for the convenience of people, but to attract them and keep them busy nearby. CATouch! is an interactive cat toy system that consists of an owner’s PC and an accompanying tablet for a cat. The CG animations, based on the owner’s PC operations, are displayed on the tablet. When the cat touches in the CG animations displayed on the LCD screen, the animations are generatively changed and a sounds are produced. We conducted the experiment using five cats. The experiment reported in this paper is preemptory, because the parameter of cat population was too small. Therefore, the following three phenomena are identified as hypotheses, postulated to assess the effectiveness of this system.

  1. (a)

    There is no difference between cat age and cat sex.

  2. (b)

    House-grown cats are excited by the tablet.

  3. (c)

    Stray-grown cats show interest, but never play.

We plan to conduct the same experiment with more cats in the future to validate these hypotheses. We believe that our future work can provide insights to researchers of animal-computer interaction technologies.