It's called CatchCat and it also has an archive, very similar to a Pokedex, where cats are classified with statistics and experience points.
It’s called CatchCat and allows anyone who downloads it to take a live photo of any street cat (or domestic cat, but if you’re a true cat lover, your phone is probably already full of pictures of your cat). The first step in the game is to frame the cat you want to “capture.” Next, an AI integrated into the app verifies that the cat is indeed a cat (screenshots, robot cats, humans dressed as cats, or dogs posing as cats are not allowed). The next step is to frame the cat and then try to capture it by throwing it a can of food. If the capture is successful, the feline will be added to those already scanned previously, in an archive very similar to the Pokedex of Pokemon Go (Gattodex? Catdex?). After the capture, the application creates a 3D avatar with details about the breed, rarity, statistics (it’s important to know which cat is stronger, which is faster, which is smarter) and experience points.
But it’s not as simple as it seems. The cans of food needed for the capture cost money, and in the basic economy of CatchCat, these items automatically recharge at the rate of two per day. In the pro version, which is the paid one, you can consume up to 12 per day. Thanks to the integrated AI, it’s also possible to create new cat breeds by crossing those already captured during explorations. On the website, the developers want to make it clear that the game is constantly expanding and soon there will also be battles between cats in the style of Pokémon video games.
As with everything related to cameras and AI in this historical period, user privacy protection is the first thing to be concerned about. Not in the case of CatchCat: the developer wants to make it clear that cat recognition and breed classification all happen “locally” on the phone being used to play, no image is uploaded to any server, no data is saved or sent to anyone, anywhere. So you can rest assured: your privacy is not at risk, nor is that of the cats you will photograph.
