CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#61

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 11:42 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #42

phowat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case here it means either : feed me , pet me or play with this toy with me . I have to try these options to know what it really means.

I have a cat, but am a dog person. The difference in intelligence is stinking. The cat can't communicate anything past meowing generically, whereas the dog can understand what I'm saying and bark on the one it wants. When my cat wants something, she'll meow uselessly until we chance on what it is. When my dog wants something, she'll come to me and touch me with her paw, and I'll say "Food. Water. Walk." and she'll ba…

Cat IQ depends on the cat. We had an incredibly stupid cat who liked nice but was dumb as a rock, and would mostly sit in the kitchen staring at the far wall and looking a bit dreamy. She didn't really meow at all. Or do much of anything else.

We had a couple of high IQ cats who not only knew how to communicate they were also super-social, and made it very clear to us and to visitors what they did/didn't want.

Now we have a mid-IQ cat who is quite vocal and quite good at communicating, but we have to make more of an effort than with the previous two.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#62

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 11:47 AM UTC

ismaildonmez wrote: post #56

sovande wrote: post #53

Cats & dogs mostly communicate with body language so this is of limited use. A translator model would need video for training. I can’t wait for the day when I can point my iPhone camera at a dog and learn what it tries to communicate. In the meantime we can learn the fascinating language of dogs, http://en.turid-rugaas.no/calming-signals---the-art-of-survi...

No idea why you are being downvoted but cats do not talk to each other either. It’s known that their meow evolved from the baby cries, to sound needy and annoying enough that you pay attention.

Cats don't meow, but they do hiss and yowl at each other. They also nose/face bump. And make specific noises in heat.

When our current cat was in heat before being spayed I recorded the sound on my phone and played it back to her. She looked very confused. Maybe I should try it on other cats to see what happens.

She's also fascinated by one particular jingly wind chime ring tone and will follow it around until she gets bored.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#63

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 11:50 AM UTC

dirtyid wrote: post #36

Does a typical speaker capture all the wavelengths that would cause recognition? For some reason my cat only responds to cat vocalizations avidly from the fancy AV equipment.

Cats can hear up to 64k. Recording at 8k is like bad phone quality for a human.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#64

Post by supercheetah » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 12:06 PM UTC

TwoBit wrote: post #30

derefr wrote: post #27

Reminds me of this cat, who has been trained to express themselves via button-presses: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGMTesZlKa0Lokb7ZNqOJXQ

I'm not convinced.

Unconvinced of what? Her human doesn't make any claims of any kind except that it's just something fun for them to do. Are you unconvinced that they're having fun with it?

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#65

Post by detaro » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

supercheetah wrote: post #64

TwoBit wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced.

Unconvinced of what? Her human doesn't make any claims of any kind except that it's just something fun for them to do. Are you unconvinced that they're having fun with it?

Presumably of the claim made in the comment they replied to?

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#66

Post by supercheetah » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 12:14 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #43

derefr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video where the cat begs (through the buttons) to go outside in the rain, takes one step outside, comes back in, and immediately complains (through the buttons) about the rain, is pretty convincing to me. Also interesting is its use of the "angry" button in response to not getting its way, or having something irritating it, or when it's clearly frustrated by not having its needs understood.

Maybe there's more in videos I didn't watch, but I watched 5-6 videos and the cat seems to be pressing buttons randomly. It doesn't seem to correspond to anything it does.

I don't think it's completely random, not some of the time, anyway. That's not to say that it's deliberate, though, either. There's a number of videos in which she'll barely touch or just hover her paw over a button, pause for a while, take it away, and then proceed to push a different button.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#67

Post by azalemeth » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 12:59 PM UTC

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #49

gregsadetsky wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not kidding, they're 8 kHz i.e. ""phone resolution""... Interesting, this seems to be related to the Bluetooth microphone that they used: "Thus, we adopted a very small and lightweight microphone placed under the cat’s throat through a collar" The microphone is described in their paper [0]: "The signal is transmitted via Bluetooth [...] at a sampling frequency of 8 kHz." Also: "As a consequence, the actual ran…

Sounds like they were over-complicating things. Simply pointing a shotgun mic at the cat from a distance would have done the trick. I don’t blame them, though, we do it all the time in software development.

Most outdoor shotgun mics I've seen have a nice furry wind screen affectionately known (in en-gb at least) as a "dead rat". Most indoor shotgun mics I've seen also have a double life as outdoor shotgun mics, and therefore come inside a 'dead rat'.

My cat will investigate anything pointed at him, and I'm pretty sure would love to see how dead the dead rat really is...

Rather than taking aim at the sampling rate, if anything I'd be more interested in being sure that they'd sampled up to the end of the frequency spectrum that cats can actually hear -- for birds at least the >30kHz part is important.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#68

Post by tdy721 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 1:14 PM UTC

ismaildonmez wrote: post #56

sovande wrote: post #53

Cats & dogs mostly communicate with body language so this is of limited use. A translator model would need video for training. I can’t wait for the day when I can point my iPhone camera at a dog and learn what it tries to communicate. In the meantime we can learn the fascinating language of dogs, http://en.turid-rugaas.no/calming-signals---the-art-of-survi...

No idea why you are being downvoted but cats do not talk to each other either. It’s known that their meow evolved from the baby cries, to sound needy and annoying enough that you pay attention.

Hissing cat? They will hiss at one another...

Animals do not talk. My family tried to sit me down as a kid and explain this to me. “The dog does not hear english”

It’s wrong; they talk. Body language speaks.

Cat language? Nah, that’s a bit silly.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#69

Post by techrat » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #42

phowat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case here it means either : feed me , pet me or play with this toy with me . I have to try these options to know what it really means.

I have a cat, but am a dog person. The difference in intelligence is stinking. The cat can't communicate anything past meowing generically, whereas the dog can understand what I'm saying and bark on the one it wants. When my cat wants something, she'll meow uselessly until we chance on what it is. When my dog wants something, she'll come to me and touch me with her paw, and I'll say "Food. Water. Walk." and she'll ba…

While cats mostly do just meow (as much as you can say a dog mostly just barks)... my cats definitely do have variances to their meow depending on their needs or wants.

When we stayed in an RV while the house was being built, I had to put my fat boy Percy into the shower stall with the doors closed while the dogs ate otherwise he would annoy them (with headbutts) into not wanting to eat. He developed a habit of going into the stall on his own and meowing when he wanted to be fed because we always put him into the shower when food would appear for the dogs.

Even in the new house, he jumps into the tub and meows the same way when he wants to be fed.

He meows a different way when he sits at the gate or at the top of the stairs, as if for permission to interact. If you don't acknowledge him, he won't hop the babygate or come down the stairs. If you do respond, he trills a happy chirp and trots along.

He developed a whine meow where he basically is saying "I need attention now." Most recently he did it because a towel fell into his water bowl and he couldn't drink out of it.

That counts as 'food, water, walk' to me.

Oskar also has various different behaviors associated with meow types for things that get him the response that he wants. But both cats are Sphynxes and they are unusually talky... I doubt I would have gotten as much from other breeds. But they do clearly communicate what they want from you once they find a way to get that to come across.

Re: CatMeows: A Publicly-Available Dataset of Cat Vocalizations (2020)

#70

Post by intricatedetail » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 3:10 PM UTC

inopinatus wrote: post #35

WalterBright wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a cat, I have worked out a sophisticated translation lookup table: cat[] = meow meow meow meow meow translation[] = feedme feedme feedme feedme feedme So far, it is 100% accurate.

There is also meow, meaning "leave me alone I am trying to sleep", and meow, meaning "behold human, I have deigned to bless you with a gift of this deceased rodent".

"My human, you look miserable, I have never seen you hunt, here cook yourself this delicious Mus musculus molossinus I got from the rear of fine Japanese restaurant"