This article was substandard for HN. No real mention or explanation was made of the reflective layer behind the retina, this is the special feature that gives cats what amounts to night vision, however it is at a cost of resolution. But hey, VGA night vision is better than a 4K pitch black image.
I have noticed that the cats I know are selectively short sighted. A rival cat from a neighbouring area or a fox can be spotted at considerable distance, however, a 'loved human' has to be relatively close to be acknowledged. This could have been rendered in the images, having it so that 'humans see humans' and 'cats see cats' in otherwise identical scenes.
Cat view - as in a few inches from the ground would not have been that hard to do - how difficult is it to take a photo these days rather than just download something random from the internets?
Furthermore, a cat's eyesight is augmented by an array of whiskers. These can be moved forward and back and are there to work out what something in close quarters is doing or shaped like. The cat has this area covered by the whiskers and has no need to be able to focus there even though we expect them to when we wave something in front of their noses.