SnappCat Sends Memed Cat Pics to Your Phone

What do you get when you combine our generation’s obsession with ephemeral messaging apps, memes, low-cost hardware, and furry pets?

The answer is William Glover’s latest project, SnappCat — an AI-powered camera that takes a photo of your cat, adds a meme, and then sends it to your phone. In theory, something like this would also work with dogs, but that wouldn’t produce such a catchy name.

SnappCat — which is equipped with what appears to be a Raspberry Pi Zero (or Zero W) inside a nicely 3D-printed case — is placed in an area of your house where your feline friend often visits, like near a food bowl or up on a shelf.

When it spots your cat via image recognition, the gadget captures a photo of it “in action,” adds a meme, and then sends it to your smartphone. Just imagine yourself having a rough day at work, when suddenly you receive a notification with a memed pic to brighten your spirits.

Though the project is mostly for fun, it does claim to have a few actual benefits, such as potentially alerting you of any bad or dangerous kitty behavior. You can see more of Glover’s invention as well as his progress over on Hackaday.io.