Intelligent cat door utilizes Twitter, RFID masterfully

What goes well with a communication-enabled water dish? Why, a Twitter / RFID-enabled kitty door, of course! The so-called Tweeting Cat Door is undoubtedly the most hilarious, insightful and useful DIY contraption we've ever seen to wed RFID, social networking and computer programming. Essentially, this homegrown cat door was crafted to only open when Gus or Penny walks up with their super special RFID tags; once they approach, a mounted camera snaps a picture and uploads it (along with a quip) to Twitter. Don't deny it -- your feline is steaming with envy from the corner of your desk right now.

[Via Switched]

[Luke @ Apr 9th 2009 12:25AM]

Nice, Rube Goldberg at it again.

[Grant @ Apr 9th 2009 12:33AM]

Funny, my cat is actually sitting on the corner of my desk at the moment.

[nostromo_be @ Apr 9th 2009 2:18AM]

finally a real use for twitter

[pbase @ Apr 9th 2009 12:39AM]

Where's the toilet seat version?

[Kraken @ Apr 9th 2009 12:40AM]

That is so awesome. I wish I had a cat. :(

[dirtysocks85 @ Apr 9th 2009 12:40AM]

Good, now I can see when my cat goes in and out while I'm at work.

[Joshua Walters @ Apr 9th 2009 12:47AM]

I must say, my cat is envious. Mostly because he doesnt have a cat door at all, and when he does get out, the dog normally chases him and drags him back to the house by the scruff of his neck.

Oh, and the image quality is terrible on that camera.

[wrabbit @ Apr 9th 2009 7:04AM]

Yeah this is very cool. Especially the twittering. But I agree, that camera needs a serious upgrade.

[sacapuntas @ Apr 9th 2009 12:56AM]

Great, now cats are actually going to be able to make and post his/her own original "lolcats" pics.... the world is over.

[insky @ Apr 9th 2009 12:57AM]

Iz in your hous tweetin' on your 'puter

[Kimleng @ Apr 9th 2009 11:56AM]

You misspelled your. Should be "ur".

Iz in ur hous tweetin' on ur 'puter

[Dave @ Apr 9th 2009 12:53PM]

@kimleng

lolcatsnob

[ethanpooley @ Apr 9th 2009 12:59AM]

My kitties already have an RFID-based cat door, the PetPorte from the UK. http://www.petporte.com/

They needed it to keep a raccoon out of the house. I admit the twittering is cool though!

[wywywywy @ Apr 9th 2009 11:27AM]

This product looks really good!

[Dana @ Apr 9th 2009 1:04AM]

This door also works on a freezer.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Apr 9th 2009 1:01AM]

no video? somewhere a lolcat is sad.

[Covarr @ Apr 9th 2009 1:03AM]

An RFID cat door, huh? I wish I'd had this four-to-seven years ago, when I had a cat.

[my_ebiz @ Apr 9th 2009 9:14AM]

I don't know which is more useless - cats or twitter... or fans of either.

[Falcom @ Apr 9th 2009 12:59PM]

I'm sorry that your mother apparently doesn't love you.

[Timm @ Apr 9th 2009 2:48AM]

You know Twitter is pointless when...

[Samboini @ Apr 9th 2009 5:45AM]

No, it's always been in a big useless bag of wank.

[gsmd @ Apr 9th 2009 2:45AM]

Finally I get what Twitter been invented for!

[ShadowMaker @ Apr 9th 2009 3:41AM]

CATDOOR @owner I thought I taw a puddy cat. I did! I did! I did taw a puddy cat! 11 minutes ago from frontdoor

[FuzzyCat @ Apr 9th 2009 3:51AM]

I can haz opin sezme?

[Whig @ Apr 9th 2009 5:18AM]

Why do it so hard way... My cat connect herself to Internet via ADSL so that she can use twitter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whig/3372248997/ :-)

[Nermal @ Apr 9th 2009 5:18AM]

Oooh - this is like my CATaLOG project over at http://www.nermal.org/projects/catalog

You can see the cat status over at http://catalog.nermal.net

[FuzzyCat @ Apr 9th 2009 6:27AM]

Are your cats chipped or just wearing a collar with an RFID tag in them ?

[Nermal @ Apr 9th 2009 6:47AM]

They are both - I was going to read the chip inside them but the readers to work on the right frequency are a lot less common and more expensive, so I decided to use a more standard reader / tags.

If I find a reasonably priced one that works on the right frequency I might switch it over :)

[cuberob @ Apr 9th 2009 5:58AM]

why do i still have to worry about my keys and the cat doesnt!? the cat recession probably hasnt kicked in just yet....

[Mark Thomas @ Apr 9th 2009 7:15AM]

This is not nearly as cool as the Flo Control DIY cat door from several years ago. It uses image recognition to only let the cat in when it doesn't have something in its mouth.

http://www.quantumpicture.com/Flo_Control/flo_control.htm

[SewerShark @ Apr 9th 2009 7:56AM]

Holy Mother of Crap. This is beyond useless...its nerdly useless.

[Jason @ Apr 9th 2009 8:35AM]

My wife is disputing the name of your cat Gus.... a cat cannot be named Gus unless the cat is ginormous... like my Great Dane named Gus.. 150 pound puppy and still a growing :)

btw, Petsmart sells a rfid based automatic doggy door, would not bee too much of a stretch to add twitter and such to it I imagine....

[James @ Apr 9th 2009 10:46AM]

If the US government had a dime for every gratuitous use or mention of Twitter we would have no deficit.

[osu-no.1 @ Apr 9th 2009 11:20AM]

@Schrodinger: I'm not dead yet!

[Cale @ Apr 9th 2009 2:14PM]

Here's a similar one using camera motion detection to Tweet when the cats are in the litter box.

http://bigfatmollycat.com/

[Taylor @ Apr 9th 2009 2:44PM]

This is similar to something I have set up for my dog. I gave him the username @scruffthedog. If you reply to him with the message "What are you doing?" it takes a picture of him and posts it to twitpic. You can see it at http://www.twitter.com/scruffthedog.

[Kristine @ Apr 9th 2009 6:24PM]

Wow. That's a really crappy way to live life as a dog. In a cage all the time?? Damn.

[SoCooLBob @ Apr 9th 2009 3:34PM]

VIDEO ... VIDEO .. VIDEO ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZyMCcbwBpM