Doorway Sensor for Cats

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everyone,

I'm having baby kittens and I want to track in which room each Kitten currently is.
So I want to install a sensor on the bottem of all of my doorframes and then track if the Kitten walked into/out of the room.

The Problem is, I don't quite know what to use.

I looked into rfid but it doesn't have nearly enough range.
It wouldn't detect the kitten if it passed by on the opposite side of the sensor.

And nothing else is really 'personalizable' so I can't detect which kitten is where, only that one passed by.

Ideas and help would be very appreciated!

Cheers
Atsu

2

Dye them different colours. :grinning: Use a Raspberry Pi and webcams.

3

Paul__B:
Dye them different colours. :grinning: Use a Raspberry Pi and webcams.

Haha.. Or deposit different smell to each kitten and use a smell sensor...

4

Dye them different colours. :grinning:

OOH . . .

5

This is a difficult project .
I have a cat flap with a sensor to detect if the cat has come in or gone out with a switch either side of the flap.
Spent ages trying to get it to work, convinced there was a code error, only to find the problem was the cat would look through the flap, then pull back , and not always go out .
You are likely to have similar problems with door ways .

There is always a scenario where they can fool such a device.

6

Are they too young for microchips? My cat flap reads the ID before it allows entry.

How about coloured or barcoded collars if the kittens are old enough?

7

@hammy
I just laugh... Don't ever think You have foreseen all possibilities.. Cat smelling the weather deciding to stay indoors...

I can think of the next level. Use a rat detecting sensor opening one of two doors, either the door without a trofé in the mouth or the door with a trofé brought home.....

8

What's a trofé?

9

A recently caught rat or mouse...

10

Doesn't the mother cat do a pretty good job of tracking her kittens?

11

PerryBebbington:
Doesn't the mother cat do a pretty good job of tracking her kittens?

Put a sensor on the back of mother cat? I'm joking!

12

Tie a helium balloon to each one. It works for turtles. This is how I keep track of Myrtle the turtle while I clean her tank... - Imgur

13

my thought is 3 light bars separated by the length of a cat so each cat would beam break 3 times. get count and direction.

Regardless of which one enters, you would know if there are any in the room or not.
then use a RPi by the feeding bowl to count them.

When you count, reset the rooms counts to eliminate all the many times that two enter as one, side by side, then leave a room separately.

this might be one of the all time great 'problems' that are unsolvable.

14

Two light beams, one at mid-kitten height and the other above kitten height, with logic to make detection specific to passage of kittens and not humans.

The harder part is making it specific to an individual. I like Paul__B's idea of different colors, but no need to fuss with messy dyes. Spray paint is quicker and easier.

S.

15

srturner:
I like Paul__B's idea of different colors, but no need to fuss with messy dyes. Spray paint is quicker and easier.

That was my first thought, but it wodul not be good for the fur. :astonished:

Because the mother licks them, you have to consider using non-toxic dye.

16

Dress the kittens with an Rfid tag and teach them how to approach the door and the reader in order to get inside...

17

I was thinking tripwires at first too, but one evil Look from my Girlfriend shut down that idea real Fast.
She doesn’t want lasers.

My most promising idea is a distance Sensor at the top of each doorframe to determine wether a cat or a person went through the door. Additionally a motion sensor inside the room to make sure the cat really entered that room.

As of right now, I think this is the most feasible and cheapest option.

18

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