CNET News - Using GPS to track exactly where cats creep
CNET News - Using GPS to track exactly where cats creep
2013-04-16
Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton are
self-described crazy cat ladies
although Wendy only became feline
friendly after a long ordeal it began
four years ago when Paul's cat tibi
vanished
he thought he was dead right after five
long weeks tibi healthy and well-fed
returned his homecoming was cause for
celebration
but then Paul wanted to know where he'd
been I did what betrayed wives do yeah
everywhere when they want to find out
what their man is doing I decided that I
was gonna stalk him Paul and McNaughton
Chronicle how they track tibi in their
book lost cat they found a GPS device
online called
the cat track well we put a very small
GPS logger on his neck which meant that
we would shoo him out the door for the
day because we knew he was still going
to wherever he had been once he returned
because he wasn't eating here
this map shows Tibby's tracks over a 10
hour period well I expected to see like
a straight line that went from my house
to the perps and instead when I
downloaded it I got this crazy Jackson
Pollock like drawing on a map unable to
make sense of Tibby's frenzied tracks
Paul turned to the experts and contacted
the GPS lab at Stanford they told me to
to look for the timestamps like where he
was for the longest time but
unfortunately that that superseded that
over I did my technological abilities
the couple upgraded to the cat cam a
still camera in a waterproof case though
the resulting whisker shots didn't
reveal much we also did get photos
though of him outdoors and sometimes his
own reflection in the window he seemed
to like to look at himself they switched
to a video camera but the footage made
them seasick so they went back to the
Jackson Pollock like maps and we created
layers of each of the maps and stacked
them on top of each other in a single
document and reduced transparency which
then allowed us to see all
the maps at once by using Photoshop
Wendy and Caroline were able to figure
out that Tibby was spending a lot of
time not too far from home about ten
houses down the street since Tibby's cat
capers the gadgets have advanced pot
rack alerts you when your kitty goes
beyond a certain area the tagged pet
tracker displays your cats coordinates
on your phone but Tibby may go down in
history as a pioneer in tabby tracking
technology
he stopped wandering amuse already
thirteen years old and so and then years
passed and he actually passed away at
the healthy age of seventeen Paul's
current cats tend not to wander but she
has a plan if they do
she bought a drone in San Francisco I'm
Sumi das cnet.com for CBS News
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