Runaway Cat Alert - What gear would you use?

Hardware
1

Hi all,

I have a cat who is an escape artist. I got him a Tractive collar (GPS and kinda slow bluetooth beacon), but I’m looking to add an automation that will provide an immediate high-priority alert if he runs out the door. I’m getting the impression that this is one of those “Good, Fast, Cheap: PICK TWO” situations, but I’m willing to go nuts on this as it’s extremely high on the WAF scale. I’d like to implement something where we’d get a warning if he’s in the entry hall when we’re interacting with the front door, but more importantly, a notification that gets fired immediately if the dopey animal bolts out the door. Timing and accuracy is very important here.

What would you use to track a cat or an object attached to a cat traveling through a doorway onto a covered porch, with minimal latency?

I’m considering:

  • Bluetooth (Espresense), though I’m concerned about polling speed and false positives
  • Frigate, though I’m concerned it won’t accurately identify a fast-moving cat even at 2k@30fps.
  • UHF RFID, though I’m concerned about speed and I don’t see a whole lot of community experience on this
  • mmWave, though I’m concerned it wouldn’t be able to tell a cat apart from children/adults
  • replace the cat
  • Ultra Wideband, though it doesn’t seem well-supported and might take a lot of difficult configuration and calibration

My current capabilities are:

  • High-end Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-wave, Matter, Thread
  • Outdoor cameras with RTSP streams
  • existing door contact sensors
  • Custom IoT including ESP32/ESP8266/Raspberry Pi
  • 3D printing
  • Decent memory/processing power on HA server
  • can mount hardware indoor or outdoor, mains power is not an issue

I’m in the US if that matters

Thanks for any and all ideas!

2

I don’t think you need to be concerned about speed. Libraries and retail stores have used RFID tags for years to alert them to items approaching the exit without having been checked-out or paid-for.

The typical set-up is one antenna each side of the passageway leading to the exit.

Hundreds of different tag designs exist, some of which would be suitable for putting on a cat’s collar or at least adhering to the cat’s name tag.

But yes, potentially high cost and low community experience. I’ve worked on sites that used the tech, but too long ago to remember makes/models or to be up to date with recent options.

3

I’m leaning towards something like UHF RFID. Retail EAS systems, as you mentioned, are one of the things that come to mind when I ponder the issue. I’d also like to explore ultrawideband, but this doesn’t seem to be well-community-supported either.

4

Looks like systems start around $500. (That link is just an example. Hopefully there’s a specialist store in your region that might have similar pricing but with proper local support.)

For aesthetics you could maybe build covers for the pillars, or move the electronics from the pillars into your drywall.

Or build your own circuits and antennas, if you can find suitable instructions somewhere and if you’re good with sourcing components and making PCBs.

If you need HA to be alerted, hook a relay to the alarm contacts and trigger a leak sensor or ESPHome device.

Let us know how you get on!

5

This thread my be helpful: Anyone use UWB (ultra wide bandwidth) for room level presence detection?