Baidu innovates a smart cat shelter for the winter

Here comes a smart cat shelter with all the perks of AI. If you’re wondering why would you need AI for a cat shelter; it’s because the technology verifies if it’s a cat or not to open the door. Developed by Baidu, the cat shelter has cameras and AI installed that’ll help differentiate between cats and dogs.

Based in Beijing, the cold winter temperatures drop to almost -9 degrees Celsius. In such weather, the stray cats have a hard time and only 40% of them survive, says Baidu. With AI capabilities, Wan Xi, a software developer at Baidu came up with a cat shelter idea along with other volunteer groups.

The shelter doors open only to allow cats inside. The AI scans the cat’s face at the door with a camera and keeps dogs at bay. The cameras installed near the door of the shelter can also check the cat for diseases, Baidu said. The AI camera can even spot if the cat has been neutered by identifying the ear tag. If a sick or non-neutered cat is discovered, the nearby pet volunteer group gets a notification, who can check it out.

As China’s leading search engine company, Baidu excels in AI and is venturing out into autonomous vehicles as well. Developing a cat shelter seems out of the ordinary for the tech company, but Baidu might have just created a unique way of imbibing AI into humanitarian aids.