Hello everyone! I am looking for cat owners keen to help out with a research project, I am studying cats to see whether we can estimate their age just by their voices. 🗣️🐈 For this, I need data. Lots of it.

It’s quick and simple - please help me by recording your furry friend’s meows according to the specific instructions in the image below.* 📝🎤 Any contribution is invaluable and will help gain insight into the development of age-related vocalisation patterns in cats! 🧠🐾

The more meows the better, so please feel free to send me multiple recordings! 🎧📈

*n.b. By sending this data, you are consenting to its use for research purposes as part of a deep learning tool for age estimation of the domestic cat. This study aims to develop a non-invasive method to determine a cat’s age through vocalisations. This approach promises significant benefits in veterinary care, can aid rescue centres in creating accurate adoption profiles, and has potential implications for understanding the age demographics of feral cats.

  • morrowind@lemmy.ml
    0·
    6 months ago

    I already have an app that can record lossless audio, is that fine, or is there something special on the Dolby app?

  • stoneparchment@possumpat.io
    0·
    6 months ago

    What organization are you researching with? Why is the submission via Gmail?

    How are you handling participant data (mostly email addresses, it seems)? Can participants opt out and revoke access to the data after submission?

    Do you have a conflict of interest? Do you or any of your colleagues have an affiliation with Dolby or other companies involved in the research?

    Did this proposal pass IRB? I’m guessing it’s exempt, so probably yes, but do you have the approval number?

    What do you plan on doing with the model? Are these data for training the model or for testing it?

    I know those questions sound a lil aggro, and to be clear, I don’t think there are necessarily right answers. Maybe you’re an undergraduate or hobbiest, like… I don’t think IRB is super important for a cute cat study. But I do think this kind of info should be included in recruitment calls as a standard!

    Cheers, seems cute and fun

  • Altima NEO@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Mine doesn’t even meow, she only makes the cat activation sound, but all the time. Especially when running and jumping.

  • alehc@slrpnk.net
    0·
    6 months ago

    Sounds like a cool project! I have some questions just out of curiosity.

    • What type of model are you considering? Would it potentially fit in mobile devices? Would love to open an app or smth after meeting a random cat in the street to estimate its age lol.
    • How many recordings are you planning to work with? I don’t have experience with audio but with NLP and many other domains NNs require huge amounts of data to work correctly. What are you thinking to mitigate this issue?
    • Do you plan to open-source the model or notify us again when its ready somehow?

    Good luck with the project! My cats very rarely meow but if I get to record them I’ll send it to ya.