Pet Owner Creates App To Officially Measure How 'Annoying' His Cat Is

A man has sparked joy online after releasing an app that records a cat's "meows per minute" or "MPM".

Lucas Fischer, who lives in Indonesia, shared the app on Reddit's r/Catswhoyell forum on November 10, where it has received more than 2,000 upvotes.

In a video, Fischer shared how the app uses AI to "scientifically measure how annoying our cat Karlsson is."

The app uses Apple's Sound Analysis framework to recognize the noises made by a cat. Sound Analysis can identify over 300 specific sounds including laughter, applause, and, of course, meows.

"I was getting into app development for macOS," Fischer told Newsweek. "I just played around with all sorts of things and programming tools Apple provides for their developers. In the same week, Karlsson seemed to hit puberty. He started marking his territory in our garden and would not stop meowing aggressively."

Linking his newfound skills in app development and his cat's recent vocal behavior, Fischer created "Meow - The Cat Sound Tracker."

"Thanks to the app, we know that on some days he meowed over 4,000 times a day. Probably to attract one of the cats in the neighborhood," said Fischer.

Built both for macOS and as an iOS app, it can now be downloaded on the Apple App Store -- with many Redditors already testing it on their own feline friends.

"The app uses the built-in microphone of whichever device it is running on. It does not record any sound clips, only occurrences of meows, purrs, and undefined cat noises in a text format," explained Fischer.

The app currently has 30 downloads from other cat lovers who wanted to test out its meow-recognition capability.

"I got a couple of requests from dog owners to build an app like this for dogs as well," said Fischer. "They want to measure BPM (barks per minute) and other dog noises. Maybe I will do it, or incorporate it into the existing app. I don't know yet."

"You gonna make a lot of money on this," said one commenter on the Reddit post, while another wrote: "I need this, my cat is LOUD."

"The amazing things people can do with AI these days," a third person wrote.

"I wasn't planning to post this on Reddit at all," said Fischer. "I shared it in a group chat I'm in and my friend Alex pushed me to post it on Reddit. 'They love cats there,' he said."

Already working on an update of the app, Fischer is pleased that people have found it interesting.

"I had tons of fun and learned a lot while building it," he said. "A lot of people said they want to use it, which came a bit unexpected because I only built it for myself as a joke.

"The next version supports tracking and recording in the background, so you can let it run overnight or on a second device if you want to know what's going on at home," he added.