What the cat can’t drag in: High-tech door keeps dead prey out (Now if he can just invent a better mousetrap…)

It’s midnight in a hotel room in Zurich. Boris
Tsikanovsky logs onto the Web. He sees a familiar
face. It’s his beloved pet, a cat named Squirrel. But
something is very wrong.

By Kristi Heim
Mercury News Seattle Bureau

Five thousand miles away at his home near Seattle,
Squirrel’s up to her old tricks, trying to drag a
half-dead bird into the house. This time, though,
Squirrel has met her high-tech match.

As the software engineer watches with delight,
Squirrel is denied entry. Thanks to a cutting-edge
image-recognition application, Tsikanovsky’s
software sees the cat, sees the bird, and locks the cat door.

“Finally, I can go to sleep and know these horrible things will not come into the house,” he said.

With dramatic advances in image-recognition technology slowly creeping into our everyday lives, Tsikanovsky’s cat
screener shows just how far its applications may reach. This is where cybertechnology meets Ace Ventura: Pet
Detective. A digital camera takes a picture of Squirrel in front of the cat door. Then an image-recognition program
detects whether the cat is holding something in its mouth. If not, it sends a signal to open the cat door. But if Squirrel
tries to carry one of her hapless victims with her, she won’t be allowed inside. The photos are automatically uploaded
to a Web site. Tsikanovsky can just sit back and watch.

Epiphanies come even to a self-employed programmer with too much time on his hands and a trio of mischievous
cats to torment him. Tsikanovsky was tossing a technical idea around in his head at the same time he had a real-life
dilemma.

His cat was turning the living room into a miniature Roman Coliseum.

“These animal parts started to appear in the house, and she wanted to play with them,” he said. “Theoretically, I was
working on images. Suddenly, I realized this would be a perfect test. I was so excited.”

Little does she know it, but Squirrel is testing a new approach to analyzing images that Tsikanovsky hopes one day
will lead to an image-based Web search engine.

For now, his invention looks decidedly low-tech. It consists of a metal mailbox, a small plastic mirror, a hollowed-out
flashlight, a florescent light and a wooden planter box, plus a $35 electronic cat door, a Web camera and a basic
personal computer.

“I spent a lot of time in Ace Hardware wandering around and scratching my head,” he said.

Tsikanovsky, who has been designing software since 1986, came up with a program that converts a picture into a
series of white dots against a black background. The program then compares the standard pattern of dots with those
from a photo taken every time the cat approaches the door. The light casts a shadow of the cat’s profile, which the
camera captures.

If the program detects changes in the normal pattern, the door won’t open. Tsikanovsky rewired the electronic cat door
to respond to the computer rather than to a magnet worn around the cat’s neck. The device also keeps unauthorized
visitors such as birds, strange animals and unknown cats from sauntering in.

Tsikanovsky said he has no plans to sell his invention or pitch it to the makers of pet-control products. Still, it’s easy to
imagine what might come next. A movie entrance that keeps out people talking on mobile phones? A house that only
opens for kids carrying homework?

The eyes of computers already keep tabs on all sorts of things. Automated checkout stands at the grocery store
recognize eggplant, computers watch and catalog video recordings, and robots inside factories inspect freshly
minted parts.

“Things are changing as this technology improves,” said Steve Tanimoto, a computer-science professor at the
University of Washington. “It’s just a matter of clever people coming up with applications that are useful and
economical. In the meantime, it’s great fun technically to play around with it.”

For Tsikanovksy, it all started when he ran out of money between projects and moved to a friend’s farm near Modesto.
There he met a pack of freewheeling farm cats who hunted small prey with all the mercy of a jungle tiger.

“It was endless carnage,” he said.

At the same time, he was working on an image-distortion graphics tool called Flo, which was eventually purchased by
Adobe. With the proceeds, Tsikanovsky chose his favorite wild kitten, a tabby he named Flo, packed up his car and
headed to Seattle.

But Flo resumed her gory habits as soon as she settled in the wooded hills of Whidbey Island. First Tsikanovsky
found a mouse inside his stereo speaker. The last straw came when he found a rabbit stuck between the kitchen
cupboards hiding from Flo.

“I realized to my horror you cannot get it out, short of demolishing the wood,” he said.

Once he got the idea for an automatic door, it took only a few months to write the software and build the contraption.

Flo died two years ago, but the project named after her has lived on to scrutinize two more cats. Anyone interested in
observing Squirrel’s real-time escapades can go to Tsikanovsky’s Web site at http://www.quantumpicture.com.

Extending the system beyond the pet world may be challenging, Tsikanovsky admits. His software recognizes
smooth and rigid peaks but not corners. It’s designed for creatures willing to enter dark doorways head first. Still, it
has served its purpose.

“It just feels so wonderful to walk into any Internet cafe in the world and see where your cat is.”

Contact Kristi Heim at [email protected] or (206) 632-8160.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3155559.htm