What do you think your cat would say if it could talk?

We’ve all wondered what our cats were trying to tell us -and in some cases, it would be really helpful to know!

Of course, knowing cats, learning precisely what’s on their minds might not exactly soothe our self-esteem.

Feline feelings

If Javier Sanchez has his way the next translator phone app will decode a cat’s meows.

The technical program manager at the tech solutions company Akvelon, based in Bellevue, Washington, has built a cat translation app called “MeowTalk” – and you can download it on your app store right now!

Sanchez hopes that the app will change how people interact with their feline friends – for the better.

But if you knew what your cat was trying to say, would it lead to a better relationship?

Pet tech

MeowTalk uses a machine-learning algorithm that listens for the sounds your cat makes through your phone microphone and makes suggestions about what they might be trying to convey based on information gathered during testing.

With every new cat sound it records, and every entry from a human acknowledging whether it seems correct or not, the algorithm (theoretically) gets better at guessing. (And, yes, there are privacy issues to consider!)

The app provides pet owners with a human language translation, ranging from “feed me” to “I love you” (though we’re guessing the first option is more common).

Could this break down the language barrier between us and our pets? And, if not, could it at least let us know when a meow means something important, like “I’m in pain”?

You can even tailor the app to get your know your cat, specifically.

Alexa, why is my cat so angry?

Sanchez is excited about the possibilities, having worked on Amazon’s Alexa app in the past.

“I worked in the machine learning platform team at Alexa for a while,” he told GeekWire. “And I got to see how the sausage was made, how they train their models and work with all the data science platforms. So I was fresh off the heels of that and I was thinking, ‘Well, we could do something similar with cats and it could be an app.’”

That’s quite a jump. But he’s been working on his “pet project” at Akvelon for months now.

Sanchez feels feline-human communication has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic as many cat owners are spending more time at home with their felines.

“A tool like this can help certain people bond even more with their cats, especially if they can’t be in contact with other people on a regular basis,” he said. “So this could be a real game-changer for a key demographic that have cats.”

Kit-chat

Cats don’t have a language, per se, but they do use vocalizations to communicate with humans.

Don’t expect your cat to be dictating a book to you any time soon. There are a limited number of things a meow can mean, at least as far as we know.

Sanchez says that his research points to about 9 intents that all cats have. These are basic emotions and messages that the app suggests based on the tone of the meow – expressions of pain, hunger, anger, affection, warning, etc.

Of course, you can always add more if you feel like your cat has a more advanced understanding of the world.

“…each cat also has its own unique vocalization and vocabulary of meows that goes beyond these nine general intents,” the app’s description reads.”You can train the MeowTalk app to learn your cat’s unique vocabulary of meows (cat talk) by telling the app what each meow means when your cat makes it.”

So if you think your cat is capable of requesting a rom-com and a nice glass of Bordeaux, you can program that right in.

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Source: GeekWire, King 5 News, PEOPLE, YouTube – KING5