Meowtalk: The New Application To Understand Your Cat

What does my cat mean when he meows? Former Amazon engineer tries to understand the cat meowing with a new mobile application Meowtalk.

Sometimes cats meow happily, sometimes angry, and sometimes demanding. Former Amazon engineer Javier Sanchez now wants to try understanding our furry friends with a new application, for Akvelon. The application is able to correctly interpret the meowing of cats.

People don’t understand the orders that cats give with a meow. There are many instructions, tricks, and tips circulating on the internet on how to understand what your cat wants when he sits in front of you with big eyes full of wonder. Various signals sent from the tail or the position of the ears may help, but we often don’t understand the commands he gives when meowing.

Javier Sanchez worked in Amazon with Alexa AI technology and is therefore very familiar with voice commands. Why not try to apply it to cats, though the software company Akvelon and so developed the application “MeowTalk”.

“The idea that cats have vocabulary is based on valid data and serious scientific research,” Javier Sanchez told. “And I knew from my experience with Alexa that the technology to translate unique cat sounds into human words was here.”

The user still has to provide translation assistance. Using artificial intelligence, “MeowTalk” translates the individual meowing sound of each cat. The description of the application clarifies that each “one” can be distinguished from the others. The sound of “food” or “let me go out”, will now be clearly recognized. However, the application needs some human help. The user must confirm if the translation offered is really the correct one, or not, in order to fix any bugs or mistakes and create updates that will work better.

Photo Shoot: Walter Randlehoff