A Japanese application for detecting pain in cats could become a valuable tool for cat owners and veterinarians, according to its developers, especially in Japan where the cat market is worth billions of euros.
Named CPD for “Cat Pain Detector,” this free application uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess cats’ pain levels based on their facial expressions.
Launched in May, it is now used by around 43,000 people, mostly in Japan but also “in Europe and South America,” said AFP Go Sakioka, director of Tokyo-based Carelogy.
The tool, similar to other existing applications around the world, was developed by the company in collaboration with the Faculty of Biological Resource Sciences at Nihon University.
The developers first collected about 6,000 photos of cats to examine the position of the ears, muzzle, whiskers and eyelids and to determine the different characteristics of these cats.
This analysis is based on a cat grimace scale developed by the University of Montreal and consists of facial expressions from suffering and healthy cats.
The second phase was to create a model from this data using artificial intelligence.
“Today, CPD has an accuracy of more than 90%,” said Mr. Sakioka, adding that thanks to the approximately “600,000 photos” taken by users of the application, his company aims to help owners better understand the behavior , would like to go further changes her cat.
According to the Japan Pet Food Association, 60% of cat owners go to the vet at most once a year. “We want to make it easier for them to assess at home whether they need counseling or not,” he continues.
If CPD has already been used experimentally by veterinarians, “we still need to refine the precision of the AI so that its use becomes widespread given the growing enthusiasm for cats,” he admits.
According to Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, the Japanese market for cats was worth the equivalent of 14 billion euros in 2020.
This amount corresponds to the sum of food and vet costs across the country, sales of items and accessories, and profits made from tourism, especially on many “cat islands” or in the very popular “neko cafes”, cat bars.