Do-It-Yourself Cat Door Recognizes Your Feline

Forster's cat, Timothy, is pretty cute, but Forster is tired of him bringing in dead or dying birds and mice and dropping them on the carpet. Eight years ago, an image-recognition software company solved the same problem with its company cat, Flo. Quantum Picture developed a cat door that let Flo in, but locked her out if it saw she was carrying something in her mouth. At the time, the door connected to a desktop computer that ran the program that snapped pictures of Flo and analyzed them as she approached the door. Now, Forster is determined to build Flo's door for Timothy on weekends, in between his usual consulting work in Simi Valley, Calif.