Motion detecting cat toy

posted Mar 9th 2009 5:59am by Caleb Kraft
filed under: home hacks

We love our pets, but sometimes we just can’t keep up with them all the time. Sometimes, we need some automated playmates for our furry pals. [Kateham] has built a motion detecting cat toy to keep their cat content and active. Their price list was roughly $5 for the whole project, but they did obtain things like microcontrollers from family members. Some places they did manage to cut costs were to harvest various parts from a VHS deck. Its great to see kids not only hacking, but recycling as well. Great job [Kateham]. This project is like a simpler version of the laser pup.

Comments [15]

tagged: cat toy

15 Responses to Motion detecting cat toy

medix says:

March 9, 2009 at 8:00 am

I wonder what motion sensor was used?

This would be fun to do with the ‘motion’ package for linux. (similar to the ‘blender defender’ but no x10)

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rasz says:

March 9, 2009 at 9:40 am

I wonder if there was ANY motion sensing used, all i can see on the clip is cat and endlessly spinning motor driving fake mouse

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Tom says:

March 9, 2009 at 9:44 am

Yeah, it doesn’t appear that there is really any motion sensing required. It is just a spinning mouse.

Presumably it starts and stops based on the presence of the cat, but they don’t show it.

Plus, the cat doesn’t seem to be terribly interested in it in the first place, which seems a larger design flaw than the motion sensing…

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na says:

March 9, 2009 at 9:56 am

I love how the cat starts licking his nether regions and the camera jerks away and does a close up of the tripod.

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Dave says:

March 9, 2009 at 11:20 am

That’s rubbish!

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kyndal says:

March 9, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Lame “hack a day”
don’t see any motion detection..
just a mouse spinning way to fast

doesn’t seem like the cat care much for
the idea regardless

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beaker says:

March 9, 2009 at 1:36 pm

click the link folks – there is clearly motion detection in use. i agree it is pretty lame though.

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falcon says:

March 9, 2009 at 4:44 pm

That tripod doesn’t look very stable…..

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NatureTM says:

March 9, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Wow, this site has gone downhill.

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dnny says:

March 10, 2009 at 1:45 am

Developing idea:
add a sandbag to the tripod so it doesn´t fall.

thumbs up for the kids who made this.

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michael says:

March 10, 2009 at 7:01 am

This was for my little brother’s science project. I programmed the microcontroller. I used an Atmel Attiny25 for the MCU and we used a motion sensor I had lying around my house that I got from Radio Shack. Surprised this got on Hackaday.com, it was pretty simple to make.

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Andrew says:

March 12, 2009 at 3:01 pm

Not everything needs to be rocket science to be worthy of a blog entry.

A problem was observed and a solution rendered. It could probably do with a revision that incorporates a sandbag and a system slightly more dynamic. Although I think what Caleb was highlighting, was something that some kids were doing and encouraging other young kids who read this blog to have a go and to make a start somewhere even if its small.

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patrick says:

March 15, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Perhaps a better video would use motion detection, a slower spin, a weight so the cat doesn’t destroy all the work on it, and optical zoom instead of crude digital…but seriously at least you attempted something and that is more than most.

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patrick says:

March 15, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Actually he does have a newer video that looks better and looks like it takes into account some things. I’m thinking that the maker is quite young also so compared to what other kids his age make, I suppose it is quite the fine achievement.