The Catterbox is the latest creation out of the Temptations Lab. What is the Temptations Lab, you ask? A very serious laboratory that’s a “research workstream dedicated to the future of fun times with your cat.”
Temptations and London ad agency adam&eveDDB teamed up to create the collar, which contains a microphone, speaker, Bluetooth technology and wifi. It records the cat’s various meows and then translates them into english, but there’s no guarantee that those are the words the cat is actually trying to say.
In one video when playing with a toy, the owner says to the cat, “This is exciting, isn’t it?” The cat’s collar translates its meow as, “Are you having a f***ing laugh?”
The collar comes in four stylish colours and is 3D printed.
The prototype of the collar has been launched in the US and New Zealand markets.
Temptations global brand director Peter Simmons told Adweek the company is (unsurprisingly) fascinated by cats, so it set out on a mission to get to know felines better.
“Through research, we learned that an adult cat’s meow is their way to communicate with humans and, by investing in this prototype device, we can start to improve understanding between them both—giving cats a voice for the very first time. At the Temptations brand, we are passionate about bringing cats and owners together. We have always done this through our treats, but we wanted to go one step further,” Simmons said.
This story originally appeared on our sister publication The Register.