Is your cat happy? How AI can help you find out with a picture
LAKE MARY, Fla. - Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more a part of our lives, and now it's helping improve your pets' health.
New technology by Sylvester.ai uses artificial intelligence to let you know your cat's mood. The program will tell you if your cat is happy or sad.
"We often don't know that they actually need to go to the veterinarian. A lot of cats are quietly suffering because they hide their pain," said Susan Groeneveld, who is the founder of Sylvester.ai.
The new app called "Tably" is trained on veterinarian-approved pain scales to see how your cat is feeling based on subtle facial cues.
So far, veterinarians are using the new tech in their clinics to help cats after procedures to make health-related decisions and pet owners can use it to keep an eye on their fur babies afterward.
"What we've done is we've actually applied AI or machine learning, from labeled data sets, from veterinary specialists, feline specialists, to see if the computer can be more accurate in predicting pain in the face than a veterinarian," said Groeneveld.
"They're looking for actual points on the face of the cat. So it includes the ears, the eyes, the muzzle, the whiskers, and even the head posture of the cat. And what we found and what veterinarians have found is that it's quite accurate to pain," she continued.
"Tably" is only available for vet clinics right now, but they expect it to be available for the public to download on their phones in the next four months.
This isn't the only new technology using artificial intelligence to help your pets. At VMX, Veterinary Meeting & Expo, inside the Orange County Convention Center, Zoetis Diagnostics featured its new tech called the "Imagyst." It uses AI to get pet owners results quicker when they bring their dogs and cats to the vet.
The Tavares Crossroads Veterinary Clinic has been using the new technology and said it's been helping their clients. The device is similar to a microscope but uses AI to run blood, stool, or urine samples. Instead of sending samples to the lab and getting results in days, you'll get them in minutes. Owner Haley Goodwill said it not only helps bring peace of mind to pet owners but also helps their workflow.
"Sometimes it would be 24 hours, sometimes it could be 48. You know labs, labs get backed up, but we're no longer dependent on, a third-party lab. Or even microscopes, technicians that sometimes you just don't see everything, or you miss a piece. This doesn't miss," said Haley Goodwill, the owner of Tavares Crossroads Vet Clinic.
"It’s great because instead of wondering, hey, why is Fluffy hurting? Why does my baby have diarrhea? We have those answers right away and can start treatment right away and ease discomfort," added Aisha Solano, the Operations Manager.
Goodwill initially got the new tech for her clinic to help with staffing because they could put the samples on the "Imagyst" and walk away to help other animals.
"We will be able to do more things at one time. Better patient care, better better client care," said Goodwill. "Overall, it's come down to the accuracy, the ability to be in communication with a pathologist and look at the same slide in a matter of minutes."