Cat GPS Tracking
Posted by Simon Perry on 8 October 2008 at 2:31 pm | Tagged as: UK, GPS, Mobile
We love daft uses of technology - that’s one of the reasons we’ve been enthusiastic supporters of DorkBot for so long.
The latest that’s sprung onto our radar is people using small GPS devices to track the movement of their cats.
There’re two views of the cat - they’re either lovely, devoted friends to wo/mankind, or selfish parasites who chomp your food and disappear.
Where they disappear to has long been a mystery - and frankly, who could be bothered with following them anyway?
Now by strapping said GPS device to the little kitty back using a feline-friendly harness, all can be revealed.
Tech-tastic Alex Lee has done this and posted his cat’s overnight meanderings, which even if you’re not a cat-fan, makes interesting viewing.
Rather than just hanging in the back garden, his puss was all over the ‘hood, going as far as, by rough estimates, up to 2000 feet away from home.
The furry one also took it’s life in it’s hands paws (well it has got nine to play with, hasn’t it) and crossed the Cassland Road otherwise know as the A106, to what looks like a very specific destination.
Reading Alex’s Twitter feed, we can also see that there was large pauses in transmission, where it’s assumed the cat was lazing around in other people’s houses, where satellites could not be tracked.
Image: Alex Lee
On this day, years gone by ...
- McDonalds Offers Free Wi-Fi And Fries - 2007
- Vodafone Scoops Up Spanish And Italian Broadband Firm - 2007
- Wi-Fi Detector Shirt - 2007
- Tapwave Zodiac Joins European Market - 2004
- Sun and Kodak Settle Patent Dispute Out of Court - Software Industry Trembles - 2004
- Nintendo DS's Launch Line Up - 2004
- Google Via Text Message - 2004
- Pioneer First to Support WMA9Pro in High-end AV Amplifier - 2003
- Sanity returns to audio webcasting - 2002
- UK will miss 2005 broadband goal - 2001
That cat is quite adventurous. That’s a whole lot of road crossing. Me, I would be afraid of getting hit all the time.
As a cat owner I have to say I’d be kinda curious and tempted to get one of these.
I wouldn’t expect my cat to be as daring as Alex’s but then, how would I know?
Wow! I used to do feral cat rescue, where we’d catch feral cats (domestic cats that had gone back to the wild) and give them shots and neuter/spays.
We had a problem that sometimes we’d catch a feral mother cat who had kittens, but we’d have no idea where her kittens were so we’d have to let her go. This device would be great for that situation. We could get the mother into the harness (and hopefully not lose too many fingers) and then track her back to her den.
I hope someone sells this device soon.
I found this kitty’s route very interesting indeed! I don’t let my cats out anymore since I moved out to the “boonies” and have lost cats to the likes of wild creatures… but I wish I would have had something like this so I’d really known what happened to my boys… I think that one trip across the highway must have been to someone’s house that leaves him special treats!
What an erratic path! I’m so curious as to how the cat is choosing its course. Ultimately, it does come home… be it for the comfort or the food. :P
What a cool little tracking device. We have them for cars but guess never thought about mounting one to a cat. I sure could of used this when my dog ran away after a violent thunder storm. If the cats in my neighborhood had those on your map would show them all in my flowerbed.