Man invents something to stop cats from bringing home dead prey

By Helen Le Caplain via SWNS

A cat owner sick of being woken by his pet bringing small animals into his home has invented an AI cat flap that automatically locks when the feline has something in its mouth.

Martin Rosinski was tearing his hair out at murderous moggy Jinx who regularly woke him and his partner, Michelle Bowyer, up to four times a night while proudly dropping off prey and meowing loudly.

Tired of losing sleep, trying to rescue Jinx's poor victims and having to clean up afterward, the 37-year-old tech worker decided to put his knowledge to good use and come up with a practical solution.

The app technical director modified his microchip cat flap by installing a camera and artificial intelligence software that detects the presence of prey.

If prey is detected, the cat flap temporarily locks and a notification is sent to his and Michelle's phones along with a photo of the attempted entry.

Martin says since installing the OnlyCat prototype at his home in June last year it has prevented the 12-year-old domestic short hair from bringing 42 victims inside.

After enjoying personal success with the project, Martin has now turned to the engineering company Transmission Dynamics to commercialize the product and help other pet owners enjoy the benefits of a victim-free home.

A hilarious promo advert shows 'owners' bemoaning the gifting situation, with one anonymous man telling the camera: "We really struggled to come to terms with the fact that our beloved cat was a ruthless serial killer."

Martin, from Northumberland, UK, said: "It's something that I originally built as a prototype for my own use because we were bombarded with two or three mouse deliveries every night.

"Jinx decided to move in with us two years ago in December 2020. After a couple of months, she started expressing her gratitude for having a new home by bringing us gifts.

"The first time I was working at home, I heard Michelle making a commotion because Jinx had come in with a mouse and dumped it on the carpet in front of her.

"That's their way of expressing love. You can't tell her off, so we thanked her a lot for it and took it away from her.

"Then this started happening more and more often to the point where we would be woken up at 2 am as Jinx would miaow loudly and announce 'hey I have a gift.'

"If we didn't get to her fast enough she would decide to eat it herself, which would involve piles of mouse parts being smeared into the carpet.

"Then it got to a point where this was happening at 2 am, then again at 4 am on many nights and we'd not get any sleep having to deal with this.

"Her record was four in one night - that night was a frenzy of three mice and one bird. It was something that was a real cause of stress."

Martin said that he was desperate to solve the problem so, putting his love of software and electronics into action, he masterminded the cat flap.

Martin said: "Being both by hobby and by profession really into software and electronics and making stuff I figured I had the skillset and the tools needed to have a go at fixing this problem.

"I modified my cat flap by installing a camera and software that would analyze the image from the camera and make a decision whether it's an empty mouth or a mouth that contains a gift."

"In the event that it's a mouth that contains a gift two things would happen, one is that it would temporarily lock the cat flap.

"The other thing that would happen is it would send a notification to our phones and we would get a little picture instantly saying there's been another delivery attempt.

"It's worked incredibly well and over the last year, it's just been a different story.

"Michelle and I will be out and about and we'll get a notification saying 'hey another mouse was attempted and blocked.'

"On top of that, we had a feeling of connection to our cat where we get a little video clip of her face as she leaves or enters the house when we're at home or not."

Tom, director and chief operations officer at Transmission Dynamics, said: "We want to be the first ones to take on that challenge and have all the expertise and skill to be able to hopefully create a really wonderful product that could change other people's lives.

"We're looking at launching on August 16th, it's a very exciting time for us."

You can find out more about the OnlyCat crowdfunding page here.